Okay if I had to live somewhere in the Netherlands I’d probably opt for Utrecht. What a great city with wonderful food and lovely people.
Just one night in Utrecht seemed like nowhere near enough but Friday morning rolled around and we were off to Budapest.
We had a minor hiccup on arrival. Unfortunately I had double booked a driver. I’d booked one ages ago then another through the hotel. Silly goose. We paid both of course but I felt bad for the guy who’d waited at the airport for an hour. I hope he picked up another fare at the airport.
Our hotel has a rooftop pool and bar. After the cooler days in the Netherlands, Budapest is hot, hot, hot. It feels like home.
We settled in, had a dip and a beverage to cool off before walking down to the Danube at around 10pm. Like other capitals in Europe at this time of year, Budapest is heaving with people even though many families head north to the lake/countryside for the summer.
We started Saturday with a swim and set off with Ben from Budapest Tuk Tuk for a unique sightseeing experience.
Ben asked what our particular interests were and we said history, art and architecture. We toured all over Buda and Pest, visiting the castle district and sites of significance from the Soviet occupation. We stopped at the site of the 1986 exposition. The event was held to celebrate the best of Hungary.
Hero’s Square with its enormous columns and statues is vast and spectacular. It was used in the last Die Hard movie. (Arguably the worst of the franchise but that wasn’t Budapest’s fault.) It is flanked on either side by museums: the Museum of Fine Arts & Kunsthalle ( Hall of Art). The Millennium Monument in the middle of the square was erected to commerate the 1000 yr old history of the Magyars conquest.
Like most expos of its kind, most of the structures were temporary but one section remains. The architecture for the remaining exposition buildings was borrowed from the four major styles in the country at the time: Romanesque, Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque.
The city park also features a statue of Anonymus by Miklòs Ligeti (1903) which represents an anonymous chronicler of the court of King Bela III, (c.1148 – 23 April 1196) who wrote the history of the first Magyars. The unknown monk didn’t hold back in his criticism of the king, keeping him accountable for his decisions which is cool.
The faceless, hooded figure holds a pen said to bring luck and inspiration to whoever touches it. Our guide Ben, said it was particularly lucky for writers, the tip of the bronze pen shiny from the grasping hands including mine.
The tour included a cruise on the Danube and we chose to go on the sunset cruise.
We still felt as though we were floating as we wandered the streets in search of dinner. We try to avoid tourist menus and I’m a vegetarian so it’s always a challenge to find a nice meal.
Sunday morning started late and we set off for the St Gellert spa on the Buda side of the river. On the way we saw a magnificent Hungarian Orthodox Church. We were invited in to have a quick and quiet peek and gave a donation. No photos of course. It was incredible.
The spa was a bit confusing at first but we found our way through and were soaking in the lovely volcanic pools in no time.
We had some wonderful food in Budapest including excellent Mexican food at Papitos and Japanese at Sushi Lotus. We had a nice Thai meal that was very memorable due to being seated beside a Very Famous Writer. I would know that voice anywhere, from his Masterclass and the many books narrated and speeches given.
Perhaps touching the bronze pen of Anonymus was already working in my favour.
I didn’t interrupt his meal. Perhaps one day we will laugh about it over tea and cake.
Our last day in this beautiful city was spent laying by the pool, reading and writing followed by a walk to a few English book shops. If anyone wants to base a character on a grumpy bookshop owner Budapest has a few to study. My cheery hello and I’m-always-thrilled-to-be-in-a-bookshop personality were not terribly appreciated in Budapest.
I bought a copy of the one book I haven’t read by the Very Famous Writer just to spite the clerk at the last shop. I showed him.
We did a last lap of the streets around the Parliament building, had a last moonlit rooftop swim and headed off to bed.
Tuesday morning dawned hot and steamy so we decided against public transport to the station. We were so glad when we got there because wow, the station looked like a zombie movie set. We had a mix up with our scheduled train and ended up on a very crowded service to Vienna. We found a step to sit on and got into a very competitive game of eye spy.
Our hotel in Vienna has a little kitchenette so while we already missed the pool we were looking forward to making a basic meal, believe it or not. We set out to explore the local area and ended up climbing the 370+ steps of the southern tower of the St Stephen’s Cathedral.
We survived and went in search of cake. We sampled the famous Sacher Torte at the Sacher hotel. I also had a Rose Spritz, my new favourite beverage.
We walked it off doing a loop of the opera house and booked a performance, finishing the night with a schnitzel (him) and a vego pasta (me).
Wednesday was a sightseeing day. We took the hop on hop off bus around the city but jumped off in favour of an Uber to luxuriate in the air-conditioned atmosphere of the Belvedere museum.
We saw Klimt’s The Kiss and so many other lovely paintings. We had tea in the restaurant. Then we made our way back to our apartment, stopping for a massage along the way, as you do. We then picked up some nibbles and had a picnic in our lovely air conditioned apartment.
After a rest, we dressed up a bit – as well as we could from our travel clothes – and headed to a performance at the Musikverein.
We’d planned to have a couple of cooling beverages but you couldn’t talk drinks into the venue. I don’t want to sound like I have a problem but a glass of wine is nice on a hot evening. Alas it was not to be but we enjoyed the concert immensely.
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