Day 23 – Sunday 31 May

When booking our holiday Budapest was pretty much booked out and accommodation through my Accor membership was about $5-600 per night because of the Champion Leagues Football cup. We ended up in a 3 star hotel for about $185 a night. I was a little bit concerned about what it would be like as it is not one I would have normally booked, however it did have good reviews saying good value for money and price range.

On top of the welcome drinkies, the room whilst compact and no frills and is not as bad as I feared. The bed is hard, and the pillows high and too bouncy, but it is clean. The shower is not so great, with poor pressure and whilst very compact, the bathroom is functional. The air conditioning works well and is adjustable, and we have a good amount of natural light and opening windows. The staff are very friendly and helpful.

On the way to the metro from our hotel we noticed a beautiful building with painting on it. As I stopped to take a quick picture a man who was passed came up to us and said to go around the corner of the square that it was on as the paintings were better. He went on to mention it was used a lot for movie sets. Surrounding the building was a little ‘square’ (although it is circular) on both sides of the street with other grand buildings.

I researched the one that attracted me and it was originally built in the Tuscan renaissance palace style in 1880-1882, designed by Gusztav Petschacher, for high ranking railway officials. The entire building (except for the back façade) is covered with sgraffito, (layers of different coloured plaster, then scratched out for effect) designed by Lajos Rauscher, and the figural elements are the work of Bertalan Székely. In front of the tenement house, the wrought-iron fence lattice closing the front garden and the double-leaf gate, made by Gyula Jungfer. It is currently being restored.

Today we had scheduled to go up to the famous Fisherman’s Bastian. It is part of the overall Castle complex which covers a large area including a couple of beautiful roof tiled churches. Vern had worked out the metro to get there and included a walk up the Granit Stairway, which avoided the cost of the funicular.

Mmmm, a workout for my knee for sure, but I am pleased to say I managed it with a few micro stops. It is about 100 meters but very steep. I was very relieved to be able to do it, which gives hope for more travels before requiring an operation. I have noticed an improvement in my muscle strength recently and have managed a few shallow steps into and out of metro’s normally, without doing the ‘crab.’

Up the top we were surprised at how big and attractive the ‘castle’ area is and the beautiful statues, churches and other buildings, wide clean streets (again) and attractive flower plantings and lawned areas.

It was pretty busy up there, so there are no instagram photos of me on the bastion with my hair trailing behind me and my long dress held out whilst I posed (joking here). Regardless we had a lovely hour or so enjoying the atmosphere, including an iced coffee at Starbucks, and our first langos over here. We have tried them at Vegan vibes back home and of course find them delicious. The price was not too bad, around 2-3000 HUF or $15 for the sour cream, sheep’s cheese, red onion, bacon, and we added tomato as an extra. It was delicious, and we had not realised how much we had missed pork products after 3 weeks in a Muslim country.

There were musicians up there playing folk music and getting the crowd going with circle dancing. In all a happy and enjoyable time, that was free other than snacks! Highly recommended. It is not only famous for glamorous instagram style photos, but the views across the Danube to the Pest side, where there are several iconic buildings such as Parliament House.

We were pretty hot and tired, but wanted to walk across the ‘Chain bridge’ to the other side, and then book a night cruise. Using our handy metro cards we caught a 16a bus to take us down the hill to the bridge. Half way down there was a big bang. Vern informed me it was a blowout of the air bag suspension. The bus slowed down and stopped, had us hop off bus, made a phone call, hop back on bus, then no sooner has we sat down we were indicated to hop off bus.

What a giggle, it was not long – only a couple of minutes until the next one and we were soon at the Chain bridge. We love to walk bridges as my readers will know, and this one was very pleasant with the added bonus of cooling breezes off the Danube. These breezes decided to pick my hat off my head and take it to the driving lanes.

Vern regrettably advised me that he was sorry, but could not climb through the structure and retrieve it off the road. One it was difficult, secondly it was dangerous. As soon as we resigned ourselves to this, a man stopped his bike, hopped off in a split second clear spot, grabbed my hat and handed it through. Vern signalled a thank you and I blew him a kiss – he absolutely beamed back and quickly mounted his bike and joined the traffic.

Another toilet and drink stop at a Starbucks on the other side, then we sat by the river to research a night river cruise on the iPad. It was a festive atmosphere along there with some pretty merry people. A couple of DJ’s were playing load music and a few in the crowd were grooving to their own tunes.

We settled on a treat that included dinner and music and two hours including sunset and dark. A lot of the cheaper cruises only go for an hour, and we felt one could miss out on the best show if you did not go on a later cruise at this time of year due to sunset being 8:30pm. We had considered going for dinner and then doing a later cruise, however it was only an hour until departure at 7pm, so we went the whole package which included 4 courses and a welcome drink.

After buying the tickets on line – $153 each, we took a one stop tram to the pier a little early and were allowed to sit in a terrace part next to boat in shade. We got ushered upstairs, which was nice, but the music was downstairs so we missed that. Our ticket was a bit cheaper than the dinner and show, so I think that was the difference ($50). In all it did not matter as we had better views, space, and sliding opening windows

Our welcome drink was bubbles, and sparkling water. The meal service commenced before we left the dock, and we had a good 2 hours slow, relaxing cruising until docking at 9:40pm. I am pleased to report that this experience was as fabulous as everyone says, the views are simply magical, and in all a wonderful way to enjoy this beautiful grand city. We even managed a quick WhatsApp video call to our daughter and family to show them the stunning golden Parliament House. Absolutely give this a 3 out of 3 must do for Budapest.

There was a couple from Greenland sitting in the table next to us who we enjoyed conversing with. The female had a bung knee like myself, although she is much younger in her late 40’s and was run over, and basically many operations later it was a mess and she required a replacement knee. It made me feel a bit humble thinking of the trauma she had and continued to experience. They celebrate their anniversary each year with a holiday somewhere and look forward to visiting New Zealand. We gave them our email and invited them to contact us.

Once again Vern had our metro trip home well mapped out, including a little way inland in the city of two blocks. The first metro was in a lovely square with a fabulous statue. Not sure where it was or what it was about, suffice to say, the square was a beautiful spacious and clean (yes again) place.

A lovely day exploring this city, which to be frank I had low expectations of. It is exceeding my expectations on many levels. Clocked at least 10,000 steps today as well which is good work, albeit a little tiring.