Fri 6 May 2016

Today we went to Parliament House to buy tickets for the tour and sorted that for 3:45. We then walked to St Margaret Island, 2.5 km long, which was always in the domain of one religious order or another until the Turks arrived and turned it into a harem and all infidels were barred. 

It has been a beautiful public park since the mid 19 th Century.

It had a monument celebrating the joining of Buda and Pest

Lots of fountains around

And plenty of green grass and huge trees. There were several school groups playing everywhere.

The Japanese Gardens were beautiful!

Lots of turtles, fish and frogs!

Parliament House was magnificent! They had a competition for its design. 19 entered and Imre Steindl's design, the only neo classical, was selected. It took 19 years to build and sadly Imre died 6 weeks before it was commissioned.

The below holders are for cigars which were not allowed in the Assembly room. As each holder was numbered, Members had to remember their number.

The Parliament House was also home to St Stephen's crown (but we were not allowed to take pictures)  The crown was presented by Pope Sylvester ll legitimizing the new king and assuring his loyalty to Rome.

We then had an Italian meal for something different! We really outdid ourselves today, walking over 15 km. Bus say tomorrow!