Budapest - Castle Hill 6th January 2014 PT1

It is our final day full day in  Budapest. Jan wants to go to the Great market hall , the oldest one in Hungary.   she says its not to far away , literally about 5 minutes walk .   so off we go, coming to the road where it is Supposed to be , a small non descript door way leads to A Tiny local food hall!!!!!!!    Haha      note to self ,  NEVER leave directions to Jan again!     lol
the great market place is actually miles away  Oooops .

Now we are going to Castle Hill  our main destination for the day and we have glorious blue sky.
After a 10 minutes walk down to the Danube we are now crossing the Széchenyi chain bridge.  its a beautiful morning and i love the shadow of the suspension bridge reflected in the water :)

       Stunning buildings along the river, the sun brings out the colours that looked flat yesterday.

                                            Looking down to Margaret island in the distance.

We have reached Buda side of the river,  the lion sculptures that were so difficult to photograph in the dark look superb against the blue sky :)

Crossing over Clark Ádám Square to the the Castle Hill Funicular railway , which goes up to Buda Castle , one of the major tourist attractions in Budapest.  it it quite expensive for a very short journey, about £7 ish return for a 1.5 minute ride !!! , but we are on holiday and have to go on it :)
considering its January we still have to Que up for a ticket, must be impossible in the height of tourist season.

it was originally built in 1869 and went into service a year later before being bombed in the war and eventually re built and opened in 1986.   the carriages look superb all in varnished wood and go up the 312 ft track to Castle Hill .

                                                                             up we go :)

arriving at the top , a large courtyard with guards standing motionless in front!   must be bored  lol

                     a superb view down to the Paliament building and the bridges further up river

                                 first Panorama of the day , view HERE LARGE

Walking in front of the Royal Palace/Buda Castle we are looking down on the bridge we walked across and to the right in background St. Stephen's Basilica where we first arrived a few days ago

                                                 another panorama , view large HERE

We are now around the back of the castle,  an amazing building and its  fascinating history  HERE

                                     a huge waterfall fountain , kept dry in the winter months

 

making our way around the rear of the castle and all the outlying buildings , some not having been re built and left like this.

                                                               very odd sculpture!

   the road into the village with cobbled streets and bright painted buildings , statues are everywhere

Our first view of the Matthias Church ,looking stunning against the blue sky , the Fishermans Bastion is behind it overlooking the Danube

                                            a Hooded Crow :)  never seen one before

                                                             continues part 2

Magical Budapest at night 5th jan 2014

The weather has cleared and its looking like a clear evening without all the misty rain from last night, so i have got to go back down the the Danube to take the images i wanted to get last night. It is my birthday after all :)   Jan has decided to stay in the room reading while i go out.

After a 10 minute walk i arrive at the Chain Bridge , i always wanted to get the image with the royal palace and the bridge lit up at night .  after setting up the tripod i am experimenting with different exposure times in manual mode.  the cameras meter exposes for the dark not the lights so in manual i can adjust to get the lights correctly exposed.    i am finding a 1-3 second time gives the best sharpest images, and i am taking a 10 second frame to blur the water so i can merge two frames together afterwards.

                              This is a stunning sight ,THE image i wanted to shoot :)

 there are quite a few other people taking photos tonight, along with plenty of joggers on the promenade.  The Royal Palace looks superb high up on Castle Hill.

                                    A long lens shot of the palace, we will be going up there tomorrow.

                                                             the "Fishermans Bastion"

A Stunning building ,the old contrasting with the new museum behind.

 

I am now crossing the Chain Bridge,it is closed to traffic in summer,but open this time of year. from the bridge i am looking down river towards Margaret bridge with the Parliament building on the right bank of Danube , i will get a much better view from the other side :)

Just off the bridge and i have found a nice angle to try long exposures above the road  , keeping between the bright lights that line the promenade as they are causing flare on the lens.   after a dozen images i have managed to get a good light trail from passing cars :)

 

Having hurried along to get near the Parliament building, as i don't want to stay out too long, Jan might get worried as i mentioned i would only be a couple of hours.  i have no service on my mobile here so cant txt to say i will be longer.

I have just used the 300mm lens to take this image, really like the 3/4 view , think its more interesting than the full straight on image i will shoot next.

I am directly opposite now, as there is a road between me and the river edge and as i am about 20 ft above said road i have to crop off the distracting bits at the bottom of frame, its a shame as more reflection in the water would have been nicer.
 i have taken a 10 second image for the blurred river and a single 1 second frame for the building to keep it as sharp as possible.

Time to get back now , i have been almost 2 hours already and Jan will be wondering where i am , rushing back i stop to shoot from the bridge looking towards the next bridge with the Citidel high up on the right side in the distance.

Trying to shoot the stone lions that are at each end of the bridge , it is proving really difficult with bright headlights and the lights on the bridge affecting exposure.  this is the best i have managed.

I am rushing back now, negotiating the 4 lane busy junction and remembering that when the green light shows for pedestrians, the traffic coming from the other direction and turning has to Stop for You!   Scary!

i get back after nearly 3 hours , think Jan has fallen asleep lol

Tomorrow our final full day we will be going up to explore Castle Hill District :)   the weather is looking very good   Yay.

Budapest 5th january 2014

Today, its my birthday :)  and we are going to take a walk around Margaret island this morning, after breakfast we make our way towards Margaret Bridge  ,the way onto the island which is in the middle of the Danube, passing this beautiful building on the way.

       Arriving at the bridge and admiring its stunning architecture with the statues between the arches .

 Its quite dull this morning, but good reflections in the Danube , pity there isn't any sun as it would have made a big difference to the views. But the weather is looking very good for tomorrow :)

The island is accessible via the centre of the bridge , its Sunday morning and very busy here, there are loads of joggers on a purpose built running lane around the island along with plenty of cyclists and tourists.

 We have walked on to Margaret island , the first thing we see is this monument in a clearing amongst the trees.  in summer and autumn it must look really beautiful here .

Walking around the left hand side of the island  with a misty murky view towards the hills in the distance. moving towards the centre of the island we head to the Water tower monument.

Here is the Octagonal Water tower , built in 1911. with what looks like an open air cafe/restaurant around it,(out of view) all closed down for the winter i guess.  must be very busy in the hot summers they have here.

we have walked past a small children's  petting zoo which was quite busy and have found a stall selling Huge pretzels :)  yummy
walking down the river with views looking down towards the Parliament building in the distance.

love the lamps :)

a last view of Margaret bridge as we walk down towards Parliament building which is fenced off while a new tram station is being built.

This is as close we could get to the Hungarian Parliament buildings, loads of building work and people are waiting to go inside in a large make shift area across the square where the new station is being constructed.

                                                                 Truly" Magnificent "

                                              Heading back to the apartment now

                                                      Time for a drink and cake stop :)

                                                            Look at all those cakes :D

the end of a good walk and it looks like the weather has cleared up and going to be a clear night, so i will be able to shoot the floodlit buildings tonight :)  Yay