On the third day, we went to Memento Park, where the Hungarians placed all the Soviet and Communist icons (in case they take over again, according to one of our guides).

Workers hands holding a sphere, which once also held a red star.

Hungarian woman and Soviet woman letting the Doves of Peace go. Propaganda?

Dedication to the Party.

Guy who forgot his towel at the Hot Spring? Actually, it depicts a worker charging forward with the Soviet flag.

Workers and aristocrats (Habsburg empire) both become soldiers (leader Bela Kun is leader in middle). Lamppost symbolizes the gallows, reminding us that Kun was executed.

Here are replicas of the boots from a statue of Stalin; he was “cut off at the knees” during the 1956 uprising. This building, styled after a gulag barracks, also had a theater showing training films for the secret police (how to spy on your comrades).

Above is a Russian limousine used by one of the hotels. After lunch, we wandered around the hills of Buda for a bit, until we left for the airport. Below is part of the 13th century wall that was left as part of the Hilton hotel where we stayed, preserving part of the old Dominican abbey.

Although I enjoyed the pampering, extravagant food, and ease of travel (no worry about train schedules and luggage) on the river cruise, I was glad to be off and on our own this morning. As mentioned, we stayed in the Hilton, built during the Cold War (our guide said that every room was bugged! – perhaps not today?). We chose this place not for the interesting history (which we did not know before) but because it is centrally located.

A gentle rain greeted us that first morning off the ship. Fortunately, we were prepared with umbrellas. It was great to walk, just two people and no one talking in our ears, along old streets toward our first goal: subway station. It was downhill all the way.

I was not kidding!!! This was the steepest, fastest, longest escalator I have ever ridden! The Metro (subway) served dual duty as bomb shelters in the Cold War Era, and this one was deep enough to go under the Danube River.

We popped out across the river (on the Pest side) to begin a walking tour (from a book) that brought us to interesting monuments.

I put in two photos of this statue because the first was nice, but the second gives scale and a reminder of the rain. He was Nagy, a respected politician, who stood on the bridge between communism and old Hungary. He was too liberal for the Soviets and was tried, convicted, and executed in the 1950s.

This is the Monument to the Hungarian Victims of the Nazis. The eagle represents Germany, grabbing Hungary, represented by the angel holding part of the Hungarian Crown Jewels. The armband on the eagle shows the date of Nazi invasion (1944). Of course, the monument makes light of the fact that many Hungarians collaborated with the Nazis.

The fountain in front stops flowing when you walk toward it, so you can take a picture of yourself inside without getting wet. In front of the monument part on a string like fence, are paper memorials (photographs and stories) of victims of Hungarian violence prior to and after the invasion.

You will notice that we did not take many pictures when we were walking in the rain, but we found a wine bar (above) and an entire square with temporary looking stands selling beverages and foods that looked inviting for later in the day.

We went past the US Embassy, which looked like a fortress, with barriers all around, guards and tons of “no photo” signs everywhere. So, we did not take photos. At St. István’s Basilica, even though a wedding was happening, we were allowed to take pictures.

Then we went to the House of Terror which addressed the Soviet persecution and incarceration of people who were believed to support revolution. No photos. Weird and difficult to see, much is in Hungarian and not much in English.

The last of this day was a tour of the Parliament Building, that huge, ornate building featuring so proudly in the “Illumination” tour last night. We were allowed to take pictures in all but one of the rooms, the one containing the Hungarian Crown, in a glass case guarded by two Hungarian soldiers holding swords.

We walked up the gold staircase; some parts of the building resembled a church (see below).

The grand staircase is only used for visiting dignitaries.

Parlement chamber, Coats of Arms of past kingdoms that joined to form Hungary.

The strange golden contraption at the base of the windows is a cigar holder which represents one of many, for space for 199 cigars. When Parliament was in session, everybody smoked in the hallways, then left their lit cigars on these (numbered!) places when they went back into the chamber. If a speech took a long time (or was particularly good), and everyone’s cigars burned to ash, it was called a “Havana.”

Clare found another knight! Turns out, this guy’s friends are guarding the top of the building!

During Soviet occupation, this red star graced the top of the building.

Here is another view of the Parliament building, as we walked back along the Danube.

We walked across the Chain Bridge, built in 1849 and Budepest’s first bridge across the Danube. All Budapest bridges were destroyed by the Nazis as they left Hungary.

We rode the funicular up the hill to get back into Buda! A much easier walk to the hotel this way!

View from the funicular onto the Chain Bridge over the Danube. The Parliament building is out of the picture to the left (upstream).

This city is huge! As we approached on the ship, the cruise director described some of the buildings. On the city tour, we heard much of the history of the place. Hungary is the only country that has been on the losing side of every battle or war or revolution for the past 600 years! They have no unemployment insurance, so if you can’t find a job, you work for the government (often doing maintenance or clean up).

Our first stop on the tour (with another exceptional, local guide) was a huge indoor marketplace. His family visits this one often. There are six of these beautiful market buildings in the city, designed by the same architect. The prices are in Hungarian currency, the forints (several hundred forints to the dollar). Everybody in Hungary is a millionaire (in forints).

The guide told us that the furry pigs in the picture have the best meat of any mammal. Low cholesterol, and the “good kind of fat (like avocados), meaning that Hungarian sausages are the best in the world. This guide is proud of his country!

One side of the Danube River is Buda (hilly) and the other side is Pest (flat). Many bridges connect the two parts of the city. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, most recently in 1945 when the Nazis blasted away all the previous bridges before the communists took over. Hungary was under communist rule for 45 years, until 1990.

This is one of the few communist monuments still on display in Budapest. After the communists left, the citizens took down all the monuments and put them in storage (in case they get taken over again). The ruins of the fort behind the statue (which he called the Statue of Liberty) was built to destroy the city.

The bus took us to the Fishermen’s Bastion on the Buda side, and the guide told us that Walt Disney used this castle as the model for the castle in Disneyland. But, we have heard that “mad” King Ludwig’s castle in southern Germany is also the model, so who knows?

A friend from our tour took our photograph with the city behind us.

The same hill has Matthias Church, with many wonderful statues.

Also interesting is the porcelain tile rooftop. This type of roof (which we saw earlier on the market place) is more expensive to make but will (hopefully) last longer. Pretty!

This beautiful church is next to the first “western” hotel in Budapest, a Hilton built in the 1970s during the Cold War. It turned out that was the hotel we chose to stay in the next night! (So more later.)

The inside of the basilica was unique, according to our guide, because of the ancient Asian influence in (especially) the painting of the tiles. And, I found a confessional.

Another beautiful church.

The stained glass windows on both sides matched.

In the afternoon, we walked back to the market (as was the wish of our guide!), then, because this was our last evening with the river ship (not a boat), we watched Hungarian dancers. (Pictures are not very good – low light, bad angle and the dancers were FAST).

After the “traditional” dancing, these four got into some jazz and other forms of modern dance. We just watched (them and the 3 musicians) after taking pictures for memories. I had the feeling the women especially wanted to kick the traditional dance that the tourists wanted and do their own thing! It was great!

After dinner, the culmination of the day (week?) was the “Illumination Cruise” in which the ship went back upstream (north) on the Danube to show the buildings of Budapest lit up with floodlights.

We have a book called Atlas Obscura which Brian loves to read to find fun places to seek out when we travel. We were successful in finding the Globe Museum!

Yes, just like it sounded – globes of every shape and era. Globes of different planets and moons.

Models of how the Earth Moon Sun system works.

How to build globes.

One of the interactive exhibits showed how different early maps were from the continents and oceans we know today. You could zoom in anywhere on Earth!

Another exhibit was at the same site was the Esperanto Museum; not as interesting to us:

Then we went to find Mozart’s house; this is a museum but he did reside here for a few years in the 1780s: