For a week I have been pouring over more than a thousand images, analyzing each, and feeling a bit like I did when we arrived in Budapest.  The city has so much history and culture that I hardly knew where to start.  Instead, I took a breath or two and said (as another woman on the ship said) to myself,  "This requires a do-over."  I could not begin to do it photographic justice.  It was pure sensory overload, and that seemed to happen over and over again.  My sister and I knew this trip would be a little like a salad bar - a taste of this and a nibble of that - but even that is hardly a suitable analogy.  So I will begin at the beginning, day by day, blog by blog, and offer visual bytes of some of the world's great cities that we were privileged to visit.

Surprises in every day life and in travel are spices that accentuate a moment in time. While cruising the Danube, Main, and Rhine, real spices and flavors invited our senses, but even on the first day in Budapest, every turn seemed to reveal treasures.  

To me, one of the real architectural surprises was the use of brilliant roof tiles on churches and civic buildings throughout the city.  Amidst the intricacies of the neo-Gothic Matthias Church are terra cotta, turquoise, green, red, and white high-gloss tiles that completely alter the feel of the airy, monotone sandstone.

Matthias Church, Budapest, tile roof detail

Walking the streets in the afternoon, we came upon a group of young police officers (looking more like a fine-tuned Olympic team) being approached by some Irish football fans.  A match between Ireland and Hungary was scheduled for 5 o'clock that afternoon, and the fans were not about to let the photo opportunity with the officers go to waste.  

football rivals Ireland and Hungary in Budapest

 The officers retained their professional demeanor, allowing several photographs.  Ireland won the match. 

football rivals, Hungary and Ireland in Budapest

Walking back to the Danube, people kept asking us if we had seen "the shoes".  They referred to a memorial, the concept of which came from the mind of movie director Can Togay and created in iron by Gyula Pauer.  It is dedicated to the Jews who were asked to remove their shoes, and were then shot at the river's edge during World War II.  As we walked along the river, looking at each iron shoe, a group of people formed a circle and commemorated those killed, with prayer and song.

Shoe memorial on the Danube (Donau) Budapest, Hungary

Finally, a night shot of the Chain Bridge, built by engineers from Scotland, connecting the Buda and Pest sides of the Danube in 1873.  Time to let the river lull me to sleep.

Chain Bridge, Budapest Hungary

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@