Saturday, February 20, 2010

I think we found our new home!!

Ok, well not really.. But living in a castle would
be super cool.

That's right, I said castle. We have seen a bunch
since we have been here. 4 to be exact.

**Warning - this is a bit of a long post. I can't
skimp out on any of the 4 different castles so you will
just have to stick it out. :)

Holloko (Raven Stone)

This castle totally made me think of
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.

It was closed for the winter so we could only look at
it from a far - major bummer. The outside was beautiful
though and I was amazed at how much of it there still was to see.

Since we could not explore the castle we decided to check out
the town because it was kind of an older one.

Love the cobblestone streets!! So cute!

Eger

This castle was huge! This is Logan and me walking up
to the wall around the castle.

Not too much of the castle was still around.. just lots of
pieces.

There were lots of memorials for people who fought
for Hungary and lots of graves around. This one was my
favorite. It was so pretty with all the fog, my poor little camera
does not do it justice.


There also were lots of cannons left around to show that
the people of Hungary actually did fight back - not that
it helped too much in the end.. it's the thought that counts.

Looking down the cannon out to the city.

And of course the flag standing tall waving in the wind.


Sirok

This castle was my favorite. The hike up to it was
a bit rough with all the ice but it was so worth it.

Most of the top of the castle was gone but the underneath
rooms were still carved into the rock and so fun to explore.

We were the only people who braved the cold to get up there
so we could be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted.

The well was huge to match the rest of the castle.
Logan and I had fun spitting down it to see how far down
it was.


The things we were able to see where definitely worth
the dangerous perils we had to face to get to them...

First we had all the icy stairs.

Then we had to get past the guards on duty.
Logan trying to be tough like the guy carved into the wall.

Then just when we though we were safe, we
had to keep on the look out for giants!
Seriously, who makes stairs that big?

In the end we got to the flag so all was well.

The view of the town from the top.


Budapest

So, just kidding about Eger castle being huge.
In its hayday this place was gigantic!!

Not very many "castle pieces" are still around though
so it was kind of hard for me to wrap my head around
the size of it. The parts that were still standing were under
going restoration so we didn't get to see too much castle.

Just to give you a slight idea of the size of this thing -
the building Logan is standing in front of is the Palace
(where the President lives.) Past the Palace are 3 or 4
more buildings at least the same size. They all probably
fill up about 1/3 of the castle area.

Huge I tell ya!!

We did not get any pictures of the castle walls
because everything was closed down and not looking
so good... But we did get this cool video of all the fog.

You can't see anything but we are up pretty high over looking Buda and the Danube.

As cool as all the castles were though, I think we still
like our house most.. Guess we will just have to pack up
and head back home tomorrow!!

See ya soon!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tour. If you DID live in a castle, then all of Logan's family could come stay at YOUR house. Can't wait for you to be home though -- miss you guys. And, oh yeah, Toby says hi. :)

Tanya said...

Wow, I love it! That's neat that you had the place to yourselves! Sooo different from Germany.