Budapest - Easter 09

This year, I spent Easter in Budapest with my friend Pete. We flew out there on Good Friday and arrived back into London late on Easter Monday.

Budapest is in the middle of the north of Hungary and was actually two cities - Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube river. Budapest has a long history and has been ruled by the Romans, Hungarians, Turks, Habsburgs and was also part of the Soviet Bloc.

The soviet influence is quite apparent even today - as is the Turkish - as they began the creation of all the thermal spas throughout the city. Nearly all the hotels have thermal pools, so we spent a bit of our time relaxing!

The Pest side of the river, taken from Margaret Island, which is the middle of the Danube

The Buda side, with the Margaret Bridge

The chain bridge - looking towards the Pest side

A church on the Buda side

St Gellert's monument. St Gellert is the patron saint of Budapest. He was invited to Budapest by King Stephen of Hungary. He was killed when thrown off this cliff in a barrel by the pagans, who did not want the new faith. He was later canonised by the church.

Looking out over Buda (left hand side) and Pest (right hand side), with the Danube in the middle. This is taken from the top of St Gellert's Hill - which we climbed from river level!

Sunset over the Buda side

All the magnolias were in bloom on Margaret Island

Pete on one of the bikes we hired for one of the days

Statue in the middle of the Japanese gardens on Margaret Island. Notice the turtles all sunning themselves around the base

Tommy Turtle - taken just before one of the little brats - er, I mean children - kicked it back into the pond!!

Close up magnolia