Budapest Arrival

 We flew direct from RDU to FRA mid afternoon then took a city hopper flight to Budapest arriving 10:30 AM. A motor coach took us to the dock and we found that our room was ready, with our checked luggage already there. We dropped off our carry on luggage and explored Pest on our own.

and hit the ground ... walking on our first tour of Pest's streets, finishing at the central market hall. Pest resides on the Eastern side of the Danube, a river that formed a natural barrier between many civilizations.

Brief history of Budapest:

Pre 1 AD - Celtic settlement

106 AD - Absorbed into Roman Empire as Aquincum, capitol of Lower Pannonia

455 - Following death of Attila, becomes part of Ostrogothic Kingdom

900 - Magyar displace Bulgarian settlers

1361 - Becomes capital of Hungary and wall is built to protect it

1500 - Buda reestablished as a center of Renaissance culture

1526 - Ottomans take arriver and take over by 1541

1686 - Hapsburg Holy League reconquests town from the Turks

1850 - Freed from Hapsburg rule and Chain bridge, first permanent bridge over Danube, is built

1867 - Becomes part of Austria-Hungarian empire

1873 - Buda, Pest and Obuda merge to form Budapest

1918 - Following WWI loss, becomes part of the self declared Republic of Hungary

1944 - Partially destroyed by Allied air raids in WW II

1945 - All bridges destroyed by German retreat from Russian & Romanian forces

1949 - Declared a communist People's Republic and the communists gut the palace

1956 - Hugarian revolution leads to brief cessation of communist rule only to see Russia invade and restore

1991 - Soviet rule ends

Buda is on the western side of the Danube, is a steep climb from the river and accessibale via the Chain, White, and Liberty (Green) bridges.

After exploring Buda we returned to cosmopolitan Pest for a bowl of Goulash (a soup, not a stew) at the Rustic restaurant.

We ended our day walking to the parliament building and stumbled across steel shoes on the concrete shore that serve as a monument to the Jewish people killed during Soviet rule and a view of the well lit palace.