First Bike Ride in Pest

After the tour of the synagogue, including a visit to the cemetery and the Tree of Life, András, our guide, and companion, met us to walk us to the Dynamo Bike Shop, where we were fitted for bikes for our first ride. Today's ride was centered on Pest.

We began our day of urban biking with a tour down Andrássy ú. We passed the Opera House, which is under renovation, and the House of Terror.

At the end of the Andrássy ú, we stopped at Heroes Square. At the center of the square is the Millennium Monument, built to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of Hungary becoming a state. At the top of the column is a statue of Archangel Gabriel. In his right hand, he holds the Holy Crown of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary. In his left hand, the angel holds the apostolic double cross, a symbol given to St. Stephen by the Pope in recognition of his efforts to convert Hungary to Christianity. 

At the base of the column are the statues of the seven Hungarian chieftains, who led the Hungarian people into the Carpathian basin. In the front, is Árpád, considered the founder of the Hungarian nation. Below them is the Memorial Stones of Heroes, often wrongly referred to as the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier. 

Then we rode around the back of the Millennium Monument to the semi-circle colonnade. It is lined with significant figures from the first millennium of Hungary's history, including St. Stephen (who received the crown from an emissary of the Pope), King Coloman (who, in the 12th century forbade the burning of witches) and King Béla IV (who was considered the second founding father of Hungary, after rebuilding the country after the Mongol invasion. 

From Heroes Square, we rode into City Park, which is a park in the center of Budapest. It was built in 1896 as part of the Millenial Exhibition. Vajdahunyad Castle is a castle in City Park. It features several landmark buildings from different parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. It displays different architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque.

The statue of the scribe Anonymous (but Miklós Ligeti) is also in the castle court. Anonymous lived in the 12th century and wrote for Béla III of Hungary. It is rumored that those who touch the pen of this statue will improve as writers. Needless to say, everyone in the group touched the pen.

On the way out of  City Park, we stopped an looked into the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, which is the largest medicinal bath in Europe.

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