My Budapest Explorer tour met at the flower shop near the tram stop at the Margaret Bridge, Pest side.

The tram stop. I have found the meeting place.

Advertisement here. If you will be in Budapest in June, you can go to the Hollywood Music Festival. Hugh Laurie with the Copper Bottom Band will be playing.

So will Steven Seagal's Blues Band.

We got on the tram that runs along the Danube River at a stop near the Parlimanet Building. We walked so fast from there I couldn't even snap a few photos. (I planned to go back to the area later, but each of the two times I had scheduled it, it was heavily raining, so I didn't go back. We are on the Pest side. The photo shows the Matthias Church and the Royal Palace.

Closer-up.

We also walked very fast along the Danube, past the statues in Szechenyi Istvan Square (it used to be called Roosevelt Square, named in honor of our Franklin D., for our help in fighting the Nazis).

An interesting statue that I did have time to take a photo of.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is on this square.

With statues outside its top floor.

Close-up of one of the statues.

At the end of this street is St. Istvan's Basilica (Roman Catholic) built in honor of Hungary's Millennial Celebration of 1896.

Two bunnies we met on our walk who were handing out flyers about the Easter celebration to be on Castle Hill.

Complete with cotton tails.

The Chain Bridge guarded by lions, which connects Buda with Pest. It was built around 1842, then destroyed by the Nazis at the end of World War II and then rebuilt.

Also on Szechenyi Istvan Square is the art deco Gresham Palace, a restored insurance company building damaged during World War II, now an expensive hotel. Photo: inside the Gresham Palace.

Inside the Gresham Palace.

Inside the Gresham Palace

The Royal Palace across the Danube on the Buda side.

We are now at Vorosmarty Square, one of the main squares in Budapest, and at the Las Vegas Casino, part of the Sofitel Hotel.

Old building on this square.

The top of the building.

A row of vendors.

The Gerbeaud Cafe, 1870, still one of the greatest coffee houses in Europe.

On one of its windows.

Inside the cafe.

Another old building nearby.

We are now at Erzsebet Square and at the Michael Jackson Memorial Tree. It was a surprise seeing it here.

Close-up.

One of pictures on the tree.

Another one.

Flowers in the park.

A fountain in the park.

On the square is an Olympic-size pool of water but underneath about a foot of water is both an underground parking garage and a cafe/nightclub. You can make out people sitting at a table in the photo.

We are now on Andrassy Avenue, what was originally built in 1872 to be another Champs-Elysees.

A colorful scene.

This panel truck even has a mouse as its driver.

A corner on Andrassy Avenue.

Entrance to the Millennium Underground of 1866.

Today, Andrassy Avenue is being developed as both a street with designer stores and designer workshops. Entrance to one of the workshops--very elegant..

An elevator probably dating back to the late 1880s.

Outside the designer workshop.

An old door on the avenue.

The Hungarian State Opera House, one of Europe's finest opera houses, built in the late 1880s on Andrassy Avenue. Tickets to the operas, ballets, and concerts here are low in price as it is state-supported.

One of the sphnixes on the sides of the opera house in honor of the first opera performed here--Aida, which takes place in Egypt. You can take tours of the Opera House.

Theatrical statues on the front of the building.

Posters of past (?) or future (?) performances.

On Andrassy Avenue. The House of Terror is also on this avenue which was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross, the Gestapo-like enforcer of the Nazis, and then later of the secret police under Soviet occupation. I don't think this is the building but it is close to here.

We went inside the elegant Callas Cafe, another Budapest cafe in which you can have your coffee in splendor.

The Callas Cafe.

More of Andrassy Avenue.

And another cafe but this one offering a retro hamburger with the works on it. A really good deal: 690 Hungarian Forint (FT) equals U.S.$3.11.

Our next stop was at the every day but Sunday farmer's market. I think it was located right behind the Great Market (a very large market selling a selection of fresh food and other items).

A vendor.

A buyer.

Fruit and vegetable spreads.

Easter cookies.

A tour mate, from Australia, on the left; my tour guide on the right. Another tour mate, also from Australia (a slow walker as I am), and I trailing along.

The house where Franz Liszt composed his music in the 19th century. It was also his Academy of Music, now a museuem.

Franz Liszt.

Enough walking. It's time to go on the Millennium Underground of 1866. The bottom of this stairway is as far as you have to go down to get on the subway.

It was the first underground on the Continent (Europe's first was in London). It was built to take people from the city center to the city park for the Millennium celebrations in 1895. It runs under Andrassy Avenue.

The stations along the route are all like this as they looked like in 1895.

An old ticket booth.

People waiting for the train on the other track.

The train. The cars are not the original ones but the new ones have a quite old look.

Inside the subway car. One of my tour mates in blue.

We got off the subway close to the Szechenyi Baths.

There are numerous underground hot springs in Budapest and spas where you can enjoy these waters. One of the biggest ones is the Szechenyi Baths.

We went inside the baths to take a couple of photos.

A wider photo of the main bath pool and the swimming pool in the background.

Closer-up. (I went to these baths several days later to try the waters.)

Near the baths, Vajdahunyard Castle, a replica of a Transylvannia castle built for the Millennial Celebrations. An Easter market was in front of the castle.

Vajdahunyard Castle.

Crossing over a lake.

Heroe's Square, built in 1896 to celebrate the Millennial.

Closer up. The statues are of Hungarian leaders.

The archangel Gabriel on top of the column.

Statues of the Magyar chieftains who led the Hungarians to the Carpathian basin. In the middle is Arpad, considered to be the founder of the Hungarian nation.

Bordering Hero's Square is the Hungarian National Museum.

Also bordering the square is the Museum of Fine Arts.

Embassies also border the square. The tour ended at here and I went back with my tour guide on the Millennium Underground and we got off at Deak's Square. She showed how to find Vaci Utca, described by her and others as the "really tacky tourist street." But I had a reason to go there. First, a ham and cheese sandwich at the Gerbeaud Cafe that we went into earlier.

Back at Vorosmarty Square and a statue honoring the Romanic poet Mihaly Vorosmarty, who the square is named after.

There were many vendor booths in the square. Easter cookies.

Some kind of pancake.

Cheeses.

Horns--now you know where you can buy them.

Also on the square, the New Yorker store.

A street performer. You put money in the kitty and she would make the dog move. But people wanted to look under her umbrella.

On the "tacky tourist" Vaci Utca, which actually I enjoy.

I could have had Hungarian goulash for lunch.

A couple of questions: Who sat down first on this bench? Did the three boys, totally engrossed in their electronic device, even know who (what) was sitting next to them?

The Icebar Budapest.

The Casablanca.

It's Rick's Restaurant.

A greeter at the Hungarian Shopping Market.

This is where I was headed.

To buy these hand-embroidered pillow cases. My daughter had bought two when she was in Budapest. I bought her two more when I was first in Budapest. Now I bought myself two of them. I was going to walk up to the Great Market but it was farther than I thought it was and I was tired. I walked back to the Intercontinetal Hotel and asked the doorman to call me a taxi to take me back to my hotel.