Still on Our Honeymoon... Budapest, Day 9 (Matthias Church, Buda Castle, Shoes on the Danube)

My yin and I began our second day in by crossing the Danube and going to the Fisherman's Bastion, which affords fantastic views of landmarks on the Pest side of the river like Parliament:

 St Stephen's Basilica:

And the Liberty Statue atop Gellért Hill, which was erected in 1947 and commemorates the city's liberation by the Soviets in 1945.

Yes, I know this is on the Buda side, but 3 is a nice number...

Also, my favorite sight of all:

Speaking of my yin, she took this lovely photo of Parliament framed by the Fisherman's Bastion:

Eventually we finished gawking across the river and headed to Mátyás Templom:

Mátyás provided another interested example of the different between Prague and Budapest. Whereas all of the sites in Prague were rehabilitated and scrubbed and cleaned, many of the major attractions in Budapest (such as this one) are still in the process of being renovated from decades of neglect:

 Nonetheless, it was beautiful from altar:

To ceiling:

With the early morning light coming through the stained glass windows:

And casting beautiful shadows on the exterior of the building:

Next we went to the Buda Castle complex:

View from the Chain Bridge

Which still houses the Hungarian president:

We walked by during the changing of the guard.

And celebrates heroes of the past:

In typical European courtyard style:

We didn't actually tour this building because, after Vienna, we were suffering somewhat with tourist fatigue, that unmistakable feeling you get when you've walked past so many Gothic spires, Baroque arches, and Neoclassical columns that it all starts blending together. Plus, we were getting hungry (worst pun ever), and I was practically ready to scream:

Not really.

Luckily, there was some delicious Indian food just on the other side of the Chain Bridge (aka Széchenyi Lánchid):

Well-fed, we headed out to see the "Shoes on the Danube" memorial, erected in 2005 and designed by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay:

On Christmas Day 1944, less than a month before the Soviet liberation, members of the fascist Arrow Cross militia forced dozens of Jews who had been under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg (remember him from yesterday?) to take off their shoes and jump into the freezing Danube. This understated memorial was eerily beautiful, and one of the highlights of the whole trip for me: