22 Nov

Walked to the Opera building - lovely exterior including another statue of Liszt.

Caught the subway line outside of the opera out to Vajdahunyad Castle. This subway line is beautiful, the trains are little square things and each platform has corinthian columns, white tiles and wooden features including little ticket booths that still house a subway employee, although I think they don't sell tickets anymore.

From wikipedia “Vajdahunyad Castle (Hungarian: Vajdahunyad vára) is a castle in the City Park of Budapest, Hungary. It is a copy of Hunyad Castle, known as Corvin Castle (Romanian: Castelul Corvinilor), in Hunedoara, Romania. It was built in 1896[1] as part of the Millennial Exhibition which celebrated the 1,000 years of Hungary since the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895. The castle was designed by Ignác Alpár to feature copies of several landmark buildings from different parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, especially the Hunyad Castle in Transylvania (now in Romania). As the castle contains parts of buildings from various time periods, it displays different architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. Originally, it was made from cardboard and wood, but it became so popular that it was rebuilt from stone and brick between 1904 and 1908.”

It was fantastic and also had a statue of the Anonymous notary of King Bela which was very cool. All surrounded by a nice moat/lake/pond. 

Right next to it was a big open area - perhaps part of the river that had been sort of diverted - where they had made an open air iceskating rink. There was music and people having fun and it had a really nice atomsphere. I enjoyed just watching for a while.

Caught the subway back towards parliament for my tour. Had a coffee across the road then found the entrance and took some snaps of the outside. It's an impressive building. The tour took us through guilded halls and staircases. I enjoyed the statues representing the major crafts of the city (including photography), and the beautiful room where they kept the crown jewels. It's a pity they didn't allow photography in that section cause it was under the massive double-domed roof and the ceiling was so decorative. There were a circle of statues of all the rulers of Hungary including three ottoman princes. Their costumes were reflective of their era and background. The building was designed by Hungarian architect Imre Steindl in neo-Gothic style and opened in 1902. He also designed a separate heating and cooling building, which piped in like central heating. 

After the tour I made my way up the castle hill again to go on the cave tour. It was about 90 minutes and we walked around underground through a network of what were originally natural caves that had been dug out, expanded and reinforced so that in medieval times people could have wells and water to their houses, storage areas etc. The caves were also used as bomb shelters during the wars and the well shafts were converted to ventilation shafts with doors against the rubble falling down from above. I can't imagine being stuck down there with bombs going off overhead. We also saw a mammoth tusk and a place where one had been lodged in the cave ceiling by the sediment-filled water during their creation.

Headed back to the hotel, grabbed my bag, went to the train station. Got a felafel. Caught the train back to Vienna, back to Chenks and Igor's. Had tea and gingerbread before bed.

19,425 steps

13.08 km