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Heroes Square   City Sights

Les had planned for us to take a short journey to Szentendre, just north of Budapest on the river. Unfortunately the weather was not very good, but I was greeted in the morning with the cryptic message that he had found another interesting place for us to see.

Full of curiosity, I went with him back across the river. This time, we went by tram over Margaret Bridge to Moszkva tér followed by a short bus ride up the hill to Dísz tér. Along from there at 9 Uri utca is the entrance to the Buda Labyrinth.

The Labyrinth is a couple of miles of tunnels just underneath the old town. It is a little spooky but very interesting and we were very surprised to discover evidence there of a very remarkable nature...

A cave painting. I have no idea when these are from. I would guess they date from sometime between last week and a very long time ago.
This one was very strange - an antelope with a human head!
Les with one of the waxwork figures that have been put there. Les is on the left!
One of the many inaccessible nooks.
Me with another waxwork figure.
In the Hall of the Mountain King. No, wait a minute, that was Colossal Cave, wasn't it?!?
The pool room. As in body of water, not billiards!
The wine fountain room.
Well what did you expect? It's wine!!!
Half of a very large head. Very surreal!
Halfway around the tunnels, we came across an exhibition of items that had been excavated from the area. They have been dated at about 40 million years old and represent evidence of a possible civilisation that existed back then. Here we see the impression of a keyboard and screen.
A fossilised cash machine. They obviously had hi-tech banking.
And hi-tech communication. Here's a mobile phone.
A large drink bottle of some kind. Possibly part of an ancient advertising campaign.
We believe this must be the fossilised remains of some kind of manager. You can make out a briefcase, laptop and mobile.
After that very spooky experience, and excellent display of Hungarian humour, we went for a walk round the northern part of the city centre. Here is the synagogue on Dohány utca near Deák Ferenc tér.
St Stephen's Square (Szent István tér) with St Stephen's Cathedral (Szent István Bazilika). You can get an idea of the scale of it from the size of the people on the front steps.
There are a lot of stairs to the top. Fortunately, when they rebuilt and renovated the building, they had the good sense to put lifts in. Arriving at the top you look out from the front across the river to the castle.
Gellért Hill and the Liberation Memorial.
Deák Ferenc tér from above.
Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion.
The castle again.
One of the towers at the front.
We used the stairs for the journey down, and then wandered north to Liberty Square (Szabadság tér) where the national television centre is and this communist memorial which survived the changes in 1989.
We then walked round the Parliament building (Országház) and along the river bank back to the city centre. Here is Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion again.
And Chains Bridge once more just as the sky starts to dim and the lights come on.


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Heroes Square   City Sights