15 April 2017 Day 15 trip - Day 13 cruise - We love Magical Budapest

Woke up just outside of Budapest. It seems one side of the river is Buda and the other is Pest. I think the high side is Buda and the side with the parliament buildings in Pest, I think.  we pulled into our slip on the river right beside a big bridge just as we finished our breakfasts. We found out later it was the chain bridge. In 1849 the Chain Bridge linking Buda with Pest was opened as the first permanent bridge across the Danube

Our tour today consisted of getting to know Budapest bus tour in the morning and a spa day in the afternoon which we were quite looking forward to. The weather was actually quite cool and overcast , a little breezy too but that was ok as we were in Budapest!
Our bus tour started with some history

Wikipedia says - "Budapest is the  capital and the most populous city of Hungary, and the tenth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits. The city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over a land area of about 525 square kilometres (203 square miles). Budapest is both a city and county, and forms the centre of the Budapest metropolitan area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3,303,786, comprising 33% of the population of Hungary.

The history of Budapest began when an early Celtic settlement transformed into the Roman town of Aquincum, the capital of  Lower Pannonia.The Romans constructed roads, amphitheaters, baths  and houses with heated floors in this fortified military camp. The Roman city of Aquincum is the best-conserved of the Roman sites in Hungary. The archaeological site was turned into a museum with inside and open-air sections. 
We were actually slated to go to an old Roman bath  in the afternoon.

The Hungarians arrived in the territory in the late 9th century. The area was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241. Buda, the settlements on the west bank of the river, became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century. The Battle of Mohacs, in 1526, was followed by nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule. After the reconquest of Buda in 1686, the region entered a new age of prosperity. Pest-Buda became a global city with the unification of Buda, Obuda, and Pest on 17 November 1873, with the name 'Budapest' given to the new capital. Budapest also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War 1.  The city was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Battle of Buapest in 1945, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. 

We were told a lot about the communist regime and how the people hated the communists and worked against them at every opportunity.  There were some lovely buildings and a very old jewish temple which had not been destroyed during the war. 
We then went to the Heros Square.

 It is a very large square with lots of statues of all the rulers  of Budapest over the ages. Turks, Ottoman. Heroes' Square is dominated by the Millenary Monument,  with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front. To the sides are the Museum of fine Arts and the Kunsthalle Budapest, and behind City Park opens out, with Vajdahunyad Castle.  
We stayed here for a while taking photos and looking at all the statues. the wind had picked up and so we were chilly.

Next we drove through a lovely park with a zoo and past the baths to Castle Hill and the Castle District.  We passed where we were going to be and it looked wonderful . 

Once we drove around the hill  and disembarked with clear instructions on what time to be back at the bus stop where they dropped us off at, we had to walk up a little hill to get to the walled city. The sun had come out but it was still a little breezy, all in all quite lovely. we walked through lots of little streets with lots of little shops, some of which we popped into to see what wares they had,


  

and there were little cars and bikes too. there were great views and then the main reason we came here, the seven-hundred-year-old Matthias Church which is one of the jewels of Budapest.

 It is in neo-Gothic style, decorated with coloured shingles and elegant pinnacles.  there was a statue St Mathias all shop full of arrows outside the church and next to it is an equestrian statue of the first king of Hungary, King Saint Stephen, and behind that was the Fisherman's Bastion, built in 1905. 
It was spectacular. 

Margie and I both loved the Fishermans Bastion. We took lots of photos here and also bought some table cloths from an old gypsy woman for 10 dollars each. 
The Fishermen's Bastions owes its name to the namesake corporation that during the Middle Ages was responsible of the defence of this part of ramparts, from where opens out a panoramic view of the whole city. Statues of the Turul, the mythical guardian bird of Hungary, can be found in both the Castle DistrictThere are three churches here, six museums, and a host of interesting buildings, streets and squares. Before we left I sprinkled Mom and Dad in a quite little park overlooking the city. 
After our tour of the city concluded we got back to our stateroom to find a spa package awaiting us. robes and towels in a lovely bag and after a quick bite to eat we were off again to the old roman natural hot springs bath. 

 There were about 6 of us from the ship going to the spa and when we got there we were escorted in to some change rooms on the second floor where we were to leave our things and let the attendant know which rooms we had used.  She would lock it up for us and down we went into the very busy pool area. The first pool we went into was not hot but not cold either, and it had a lazy river in it which neither Margie nor I had ever seen before. We loved just floating along in the warm water. There were not too many kids there which was nice and we spent a good 45 minutes in the first pool.

 We then decided to explore and try out some of the other pools.  We were surprised to find out how many there were. There were three outside  one with was very much cooler and one the was very much warmer, then we went inside where there were at least ten of different temperatures and sizes. some of the hotter hot tubs were pretty full but we tried quite a few of the different pools and ran into some of the other passengers from the ship who were doing he same thing as we were.

Our time came to and end and after finding our change rooms and the attendant and paying her for watching our things we went to the small gift shop.  Margie loaned me the money to buy a souvenir towel in a pretty turquoise with the spa picture and name in Hungarian embroidered on it.

Back on the bus and dinner for us. We were both really tired but the evening had warmed up and I wanted to go for a walk along the river and see the chain bridge  and parliament buildings at night. Margie opted to stay and relax as her hip was really bothering her so I went alone. 

I am so glad I went. it was gorgeous. There were lots of people out waking along both sides of the river. I crossed the chain bridge with its magnificent lion statues guarding the ends and saw the funicular that  was just on the other side of the river all lit up and very pretty. Maybe we would use it the next day in our wanders around town. 

I wandered down across from the parliament buildings. What a spectacular sight, like a fairy tale palace all lit up with soft yellow lights reflecting o the Danube river. I walked for about a half a hour out and the turned around as I too was getting extremely tired. 
 Margie was sad she had nt one along once she saw my photos. Well I guess we will just have to come back.

14 April 2017 Day 14 trip Day 12 cruise - Vienna Day 2 Schonbrunn Palace and red squirrels

 Tour bus through Vienna pst some of the buildings that we had seen the day before and then out  to the Schonbrun. There were a lot of people there already and we were told not to wander off and try to stick together. We would get free time after the inside tour so we could wander the grounds which were quite extensive. we had no idea how extensive. We were instructed what location to come back to,  to catch the bus back. there was a scale model of the palace as we entered the grounds.

No pictures were allowed inside so I took pictures of the postcards I bought at the end of the tour. I do not think that is cheating as I paid for the post cards. I did manage to take a few before we were told no photos. A lovely statue and a marvellous ceiling  greeted us right away.

 Schonbrunn palace is very large.  Wikipedia says" Schönbrunn Palace (German: Schloss Schönbrunn) was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, Vienna. The 1,441-room 

( yes that is right 1,144 rooms)  
Rococo palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural, and historic monuments in the country. Since the mid-1950s it has been a major tourist attraction. The history of the palace and its vast gardens spans over 300 years, reflecting the changing tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs."

 In 1569,  Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II  purchased a large floodplain of the  Wien river beneath a hill, situated between Meidling and Hitting, where a former owner, in 1548, had erected a mansion called Katterburg. The emperor ordered the area to be fenced and put game there such as pheasants, ducks deer and boar, in order for it to serve as the court's recreational hunting ground. In a small separate part of the area, "exotic" birds such as turkeys and peafowl were kept. Fishponds were also built.

The name Schönbrunn (meaning "beautiful spring") has its roots in an artesian well from which water was consumed by the court.  

There was a definite feeling of deja vu as we went through the palace. Many rooms were built and decorated with Versailles as the model and although still not really matching Versailles over the top decor, it was beautiful through out. There were servants hallways behind the walls of the main rooms so that the people in the rooms would never see the servants stoking the fire or cleaning up after them. 

During the next century, the area was used as a hunting and recreation ground. Eleonora Gonzaga,  who loved hunting, spent much time there and was bequeathed the area as her widow's residence after the death of her husband, Ferdinand II.  From 1638 to 1643, she added a palace to the Katterburg mansion, while in 1642 came the first mention of the name "Schönbrunn" on an invoice. The origins of the Schönbrunn orangery seem to go back to Eleonora Gonzaga as well. The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was built and remodelled during the 1740–50s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa (the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions  and the last of the House of Habsburg. In her lifetime she had 11 children and was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria  and Galacia, the Austrian Netherlands, and  Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress). She received the estate of Sconbrun as a wedding gift. Franz I commissioned the redecoration of the palace exterior in the neoclassical style as it appears today.

Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of the newly founded Austrian republic and was preserved as a museum.

After World War II and during the allied Occupation of Austria (1945—55), Schönbrunn Palace was requisitioned to provide offices for both the British Delegation to the Allied Commission for Austria, and for the headquarters for the small British Military Garrison present in Vienna. With the reestablishment of the Austrian republic in 1955, the palace once again became a museum. It is still sometimes used for important events such as the meeting between U.S. president John F. Kennedy and and Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev in 1961. 

Since 1992 the palace and gardens have been owned and administered by the Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur-und Betriebsges.m.b.H., a limited-liability company wholly owned by the Republic of Austria. The company conducts preservation and restoration of all palace properties without state subsidies. UNESCO catalogued Schönbrunn Palace on the world Heritage List in 1996, together with its gardens, as a remarkable Baroque ensemble and example of synthesis of the arts (Gesamtkunstwerk). 

Nowadays one can rent a room there according to our tour guide wouldn't that be something...Schonbrunn palace rooms | Full Kitchen + Washer/Dryer‎Adwww.airbnb.ca/Accommodations/Book-Now‎

The sculpted garden space between the palace and the Neptune fountain is called the Great Parterre. The French garden, a big part of the area, was planned by Jean Trehet, a disciple of Andre Le Notre, in 1695. It contains, among other things, a maze. Mom and Dad are sprinkled here in the maze, I think they would like that.

It was in the midst of all of these gardens that I saw my first ever red squirrel. It was so cute. I tried to get a good photo but only succeeded in getting these shots. my first red squirrel let alone at a palace. Lovely.

The complex however includes many more attractions: Besides the tiergarten, an orangerie erected around 1755, staple luxuries of European palaces of its type, a palm house (replacing, by 1882, around ten earlier and smaller glass houses in the western part of the park) is noteworthy. Western parts were turned into English garden style in 1828–1852.

The area called Meidlinger Vertiefung (engl.: depression of Miedling ) to the west of the castle was turned into a play area and drill ground for the children of the Habsburgs in the 19th century. At this time it was common to use parks for the military education of young princes. Whereas the miniature bastion, which was built for this purpose, does not exist anymore, the garden pavilion that was used as shelter still does. It was turned into a café in 1927 and is known as Landtmann’s Jausen Station since 2013.

At the outmost western edge, a botanical garden going back to an earlier arboretum was re-arranged in 1828, when the Old Palm House was built. A modern enclosure for Orangutans, was restored besides a restaurant and office rooms in 2009.

The Great Parterre of Schönbrunn is lined with 32 sculptures, which represent deities and virtues.

The garden axis point towards a 60-meter-high hill, which since 1775 has been crowned by the Gloriette structure. 

We did not climb up the hill but did walk down to the fountain which was stunning and on our way back stopped to enjoy the smaller fountains too.  I enjoyed the gardens almost more than the palace.

We made it back to our appointed pickup location and found our bus and back through Vienna and its lovely buildings to the ship we went with our heads full of palatial splendors.

  A lovely sit down and rest before  a scrumptious dinner and entertainment in the lounge afterward. 

Sleep came easy that night as we were quite exhausted from our wanderings during the day.