Oh dear, oh dear - what have we done to deserve this?

Szechenyi bridge and Pest from Fisherman's Bastion

Not a bad view from the top of the Citadel - took this phot when we came here on holiday 4 years ago but it is still one of the best of the city that i have managed so far

Ybl Miklos - the man who has made Budapest the city it is today

Miklos Ybl is the architect responsible for some of the most important and attractive buildings in the city such as the National Opera House and the Customs Building on the river which is now part of the University complex next to the main market hall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miklos_Ybl

Memorial to Imre Nagy

Prime Minister during the 1956 Uprising, Imre Nagy was deposed and then summarily executed by the Communists - despite their assurances that he would not be harmed in anyway. His statue looks away from Szabadsag ter towards the Parliament building and the Eternal Flame. The reason he looks away from the square is that the Russians placed a massive memorial to their dead in the square and under the terms of the removal of Russian forces, it has to remain in the city. The square itself has been pedestrianised as when they were in the process of building an underground carpark they discover human remains which they think are of Russian soldiers. The irony being that the Russians demolished a Hungarian War Memorial from 1919 to make space for their memorial

Memorial to the Missing

Just south of the Parliament building, on the banks of the Danube is the most moving and poignant memorial to those who were murdered by the Fascist regimes that controlled Hungary before and during WWII. The insight from the artist, to use shoes and boots of all sorts of shapes, styles and sizes to make the point of how people were either shot or drowned in the Danube so their bodies could never be recovered, is outstanding. The majority of the victims were Jews who were marched from the Ghetto near Deak Ferenc ter, down to the river and then murdered - many of the people who were despatched in this fashion had previously been held and tortured in the cells at 60 Andrassy Ut, which is now the aptly named House of Terror museum and memorial

After several delays the Szabadsag Hid has reopened

The wonderfully named Independence Bridge (Szabadsag Hid) has finally reopened after its renovation - although there is still alot more work to be done on it before it is finished, but it is great to see the trams rattling across and this lovely cantilever bridge being back in use - and if the name is a mouthful, then it is also known as the Green Bridge - not very imaginative but effective, and is neighbour, Erszebet Hid is called the White Bridge - I think you might be able to see the pattern that is emerging!

Frozen Danube

The winter has well and truly arrived here now - still no snow since Christmas to speak of although the odd flurry from time to time but nothing settling but the incredible thing is the fact that the Danube is starting to freeze over - with sheets of ice floating down and then collecting round some of the slower points - the noise is pretty impressive too although I haven't been able to capture it well enough to do it justice. The way the ice is collecting around the pontoons and boats makes it look like piles of glass that have been thrown out of a building site and there is a lso the strange spectre of seagulls and ducks standing on the ice looking to all the world like the capatin and watch crew of some strange freighter

Heading back to Budapest after New Year

and Christmas back in the UK - only problem is, it is currently -5 and predicted to drop down to -13 tomorrow evening and a chance of snow on Monday morning - ahhhh!! Might need a hot water bottle and a very warm jacket!