Budapest, day 4: A good day to spend in a museum

The weather was still miserable on Tuesday, so I did some work and went to the gym. I brought a better book this time, so I was able to spend 45 minutes on the elliptical/cross-trainer.

After lunch, I went out despite the wind and rain and walked to the southern end of the castle district where the palace is. The palace was completely bombed out in WWII, and the interior was modernized. It would appear that most of it is offices, but there is an art museum and a historical museum.

I was soaking wet by the time I made it to the historical museum, and the wind was gusting and swirling so hard in the courtyard that I struggled to stay on my feet. I was thrilled to discover that it was "international free admission day" at the museum, but probably because of the weather, there were very few people there. As far as I was concerned, it was perfect museum weather. There were dehumidifiers in nearly every room, so I was completely dry long before I was done.

The ground floor was dedicated to the middle ages and an exhibit of gothic statues, all from here in Budapest's castle district. Archeologically, I guess this was a really exciting find, but it wasn't my thing. The basement was actually part of the castle from the medieval period, and I found that a lot more interesting. I suspect that some parts have been renovated over the years, and it wasn't so clear what was done when. The first floor showed the changes in the castle from medieval to modern times, and this was really interesting. Much of the text was only in Hungarian, but there was enough in English that I could follow their point. In fact, it was just about right because it would have taken hours to read and examine everything. The top floor was about Budapest from prehistoric through the Roman and Avar periods. This was a lot of stuff from grave excavations, but it was interesting too.

When I was done in the museum, the rain had let up, so I could do my usual thing of taking a few pictures then stuffing my camera back in my purse. The view from the castle was spectacular.


I decided that I would go to the Pest side of the city the next day regardless of the weather.