On our final day in Budapest, we visited St Stephen's Basilica and saw the Holy Right Hand of St Stephen. St Stephen was the first king of Hungary. When they dug him up to canonise him they discovered that while the rest of his body had disintegrated, his right hand had mummified of its own accord. It now has pride of place in its own section, the Chapel of the Holy Right Hand, in the Basilica. They parade the hand through the streets once a year on St Stephen's Day.

We also climbed the Basilica. We decided not to take the lift and climbed the 364 steps to the top. (No problems for me; I'm becoming a pro at this climbing spires business). It's one of the tallest buildings in downtown Pest, but the views aren't as good as those from the hills in Buda.


We stopped for morning tea at the famous Gerbeaud café. We sat outside and had to keep a watchful eye on an army of small but daring sparrows. I was using the facilities when our order was delivered. When Andrew's attention was diverted one bold sparrow seized the opportunity to peck a huge chunk from the corner of my cake.


An indulgent morning tea should be followed with some intense exercise so we wandered across Elizabeth Bridge to the foot of Gellért Hill. We then hiked up a steep incline to the top of hill where the Liberty Statue stands (one of only two communist monuments left in Budapest). She holds a palm leaf aloft, watching over Budapest. The climb was well worth it for the fantastic view. It was another beautiful view of the Danube River and Budapest.


We then hotfooted it back to Pest and headed north to the Hungarian Parliament. We were booked into a 2pm tour. It was quite a rigmarole getting tickets for the tour. As I have already mentioned, we turned up on day two at 10am to be told that the tickets for the day had sold out. Poor Andrew got up at 8am on day four to go and get tickets (while I slept in, isn't he wonderful!). In the end it was only a half hour tour through the lobby of Parliament and into the old House of Lords.

The inside is very gaudy. The décor heavily utilises pink marble and gold leaf. The façade of the building is beautiful, designed in the Gothic Revival style. From the top of hills of Buda this beautiful building nestled on the banks of the Danube adds to the already impressive outlook. Apparently the Parliament is under constant renovation due to the materials it was built from.