BUDAPEST
City Break with my Mum
18th June - 21st June | 2022
After a good breakfast, we walked along the Danube towards the Parliament. On the way there we bought a ticket for the "Hop on, Hop off" bus for today, which included even a 1-hour drive on the Danube river as a bonus. We like these buses as they give you a fantastic overview of the city with some basic information. We went off the bus at the Hösök Ter (Heroes Square) and also visited the Vajdahunyad vára castle area. The next time we hopped off the bus at the Palast of Buda area to visit almost all around there and enjoy the view over to the Pest side.
The last stop was close to the famous St. Szent István Bazilika, but before doing any more sightseeing, we went to the famous Strudel House. We both had a very delicious homemade poppy seed Strudel. With some refreshment, we visited the Basilica of St. Stephan, which costs now the entrance fee (google you should change the information as the new Pater decided this by 1st April!). The last stop for us was walking once again at the Danube river to visit the monument of the "Shoes at the Danube".
Later that afternoon we went for the river cruise which was really nice as you could see the Parliament from the sea with all its beauty. After that, it was time for something to eat and we found a nice Trattoria just down the road from our hotel. At the neighbour's table was a gentleman we got talking to (about the desert and Grapa). It turned out that he was the Capitano of one of the cruise ships of Phoenix Reisen. We had a short, but interesting chat - we hope his ship didn´t leave without him ;-)
For tomorrow morning, my mum's birthday, we have arranged a tour to Gödöllöl to visit the palace of Kaiserin Elizabeth (Sisi). The tour started already at 9am from a close-by hotel. We were only a small group and we had a German-speaking guide. It was really interesting to visit the palace as a child I loved to watch the Sisi movies with Romy Schneider :-D A lot of things reminded us of these movies, but after the tour, we read up some more information on Wikipedia about her and Kaiser Franz Josef.
Later in Budapest, we had something to eat before we went on a sunset-cocktail cruise on the Danube river. That was actually really nice and relaxing. After that, we sat down on the stairs along the river and watched the boats passing by in the sunset.
As it was another hot day, we had a very slow and quiet day. We walked around our area to the Synagogue, but we refused to pay nearly €20/pp. As it is one of the biggest in Europe, please feel free to read more on google about it. We carried on walking to the famous market hall and had a stroll around there. As we were not hungry yet, we gave the food court on the first floor a miss. Instead, we ordered a table for later at the Greek restaurant just down the road from our hotel. Later in the afternoon, we had a cafe at the famous Cafehouse Central 1887.
The dinner at the Greek restaurant was fantastic as it was the best food in a long time! Unfortunately, also far too much food if you order a shared starter and a main course each. They even offer every female guest a rose when leaving, but we "traded" ours into Uzo as we are flying the next day.
The next day, around lunchtime, after we had done our check-out, we went to Café New York. This is also an old traditional cafe house, but this one is a must-visit! We were lucky to get straight away a tiny table without booking. It is not the cheapest place though, but it is a historical revenue and you pay for the atmosphere too. There was live music, so you really got the feeling of how it was about 100 years back.
Later in the afternoon, it was time to go to the airport for our flight to Lisbon in Portugal. All went on time, so we arrived at midnight in Lisbon, where James waited for us; with my doggy :-D The drive to the Algarve was another 3 hours, so we all were very tired and were asleep when touching the pillow.
The days in the Algarve were filled with catching up with friends, sorting out bureaucratic stuff, visiting my ex-colleagues, hairdresser (!) and of course James :-D. So meet you again in Budapest when the journey will continue up North! Let´s see how far I will get as currently Lithuania doesn´t let goods into Kalinigrad ... I hope that will not affect my travel plans for the Baltikum!
Places | Cities:
Budapest, Gödöllöl.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 15885km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Budapest for being such an interesting city, where you still can get the vibe from the old days.
My mum to visit me and to spend such a good time together.