Beautiful Buda + Pest (2)

I did not know this before visiting but Budapest is actually a combination of two cities Buda and Pest.

Cy and Jayson had a great apartment in Buda very close to Andrassy Boulevard, one of the main thoroughfares through Buda. The Opera House is also on this road. Budapest has a lively arts culture with great appreciation for opera, classical music, dance etc. Here is a pic of the Opera house - coming features - Placido Domingo - nice!














Also on the Buda side is the Parliment building. Below is a pic of the huge Parliment building with the Danube (taken from the Pest side). It is in fact the largest building in Hungary with 691 rooms and is the 2nd largest parliment building in Europe. Construction on the building began in 1885 and finished in 1905 (according to Wikipedia :-).













On the Pest side are many of the wealthier neighborhoods, as well as, the Royal Palace. The first royal residence was built here after the Mongol Invasion of 1241. Over the years the residence was destroyed in various wars several times and many times rebuilt. The palace was destroyed in the War for Independence in the mid 1800s. That time reconstruction finished in 1904. However, during WWII the Palace became a headquarters for the occupying German forces near the end of the war. When the Red Army fought and eventually took over the city the Palace was once again gutted. The current palace is a mix of construction designs from the past versions of the building (according to http://www.talkingcities.co.uk/budapest_pages/sights_alpha7.htm).













Here is a pic of me taken from the Palace area looking back torward the Buda part of the city in the background in the late afternoon sun.













This is one of the best cityscape pics I took while on my trip...it really is a georgeous city. Some say one of the most beautiful in Europe, I think I would agree.