Fri 9th September

Sunrise 6:13am – Sunset 7:08pm

Weather Forecast: 30c and sunny

Steps: 17,727 12.23 km

Before I went to bed at 10:30 last night, I tried to do a disk repair on my little external hard drive and it appears to have worked, although I thought I might have corrupted it totally, as it was churning, churning, churning and didn't appear to be doing anything, so I did a forced close.

After that, I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight but I was awake at 6am this morning, which is pretty usual for me when in ‘holiday’ mode.

After breakfast I headed out at 8am, on my way to Margaret Island.

First up, while walking along Duna korzó, I took a photo of the “Little Princess”.

Actually, I took 2. I don’t know how often I have been past it but had never noticed it until today. I think my head must be buried in the sand sometimes.

There is also a statue of Shakespeare along here

just past the end of the Hilton Hotel. You can read about it here

I continued along Duna korzó

until I came to the Intercontinental Hotel, crossed over Eotvos ter, passed the Sofitel Chain Bridge Hotel and crossed over to Szechenyi Istvan ter.
After passing the Four Season Hotel (the former Gresham Palace) I then took a right turn into the pedestrian street Zrinyi utca. At the end of the street, is the Basilica.

Along the way is a statue of a Hungarian policeman from the early 1900's.

I backtracked a bit and walked north along Oktober 6 utca until I reached Szabadsag ter.

Fountain in front of the German Occupation Memorial

German Occupation Memorial

I have done some googling and you can read more about the German Occupation Memorial

I then headed west until I came to Szevhenyi rakpart and managed to cross the tram tracks until I was down on the pedestrian walkway alongside the Danube River. Just before you get to the Parliament building, you will find the “Shoes on the Danube” memorial.

I continued past the Parliament building

until I reached Margaret Bridge.

From the bridge I walked over to Margaret Island.

Part of the huge sports centre on Margaret Island.

One of the parks on Margaret Island

There was a ‘free’ (so the sign said) shuttle around the island. When the little train pulled up, I asked the young girl if it was the free shuttle. No, this one cost 1,000 forint. That’s okay BUT you need 5 people before it will depart and there weren’t any other takers and even though I had planned on walking, my feet were already protesting. So I didn’t go around the island. Maybe next time.

Instead, I walked back to the hotel, via a different route. As I was re-crossing the Margaret Bridge my fitbit buzzed for 10,000 steps. That was at 10am in the morning.