Family Reunion in Budapest

"You will get tired as everyone else does. You can have all the choices to stop, but remember taking a good rest is a lot different than giving up" - Unknown Author

We arrived in Budapest on a beautiful sunny afternoon planning to rest for the what was left of the day as we had a six night stay and could take our time. Unluckily this was to be our only rain free day in Budapest. As we made our way by taxi to our apartment I was brimming over with enthusiasm as Budapest is a very beautiful city.

Unfortunately the good weather did not last and this definitely stopped us seeing as much as we would have liked and I have to say dulled my enthusiasm over the course of our stay. Unfortunately at this point in our travels we had been too long on the road and were suffering from travel fatigue.

I was feeling at this point like we had perhaps done too many miles, like this old girl that gave us a good laugh. Having said that, I would love to come back as a list of the things I wanted to see but haven't is quite lengthy.

We stayed in Pest in a terrific loft apartment close to the river, between Chain Bridge and Budapest's parliament building, which looks surprisingly similar to its counterpart in London. It makes an interesting contrast with the buildings we could see on the other side of the river in Buda which reminded me that we had arrived in Eastern Europe.

The next day we walked around Pest enjoying spotting all sorts of gargoyles and sculpted heads on the grand buildings, which made Rob and I think of Gotham City.

We found a terrific park just down the street, Szabadsag ter (Liberty Square), where the children enjoyed playing and we enjoyed sitting watching them. Adjacent to the park stands a new and highly controversial memorial to the suffering of the Hungarian people in WWII, assembled in the dead of the night a couple of months ago under police guard.

We all enjoyed the Liberty Square fountain, which is a serious of jets spraying water in spouts up into the air creating a rectangular wall of water. The row of tiles at the perimeter of the fountain is touch sensitive, turning off a couple of jets when you walk on the tile allowing you a short time to enter the fountain. As I'm sure you can imagine it didn't take long for us to have three very wet children, in need of a change of clothes, luckily we didn't have far to go.

We bought seven day travel passes and it was very easy to get around, whether on our favourite No. 2 Tram which runs down the Danube Promenade on the Pest side of the city, the very easy to use metro system or one of the many buses.

Finding our way to Vörösmarty Square, in what felt like the touristy heart of the shopping and dining part of Pest, we agreed to visit the Hard Rock Café which the kids had loved in Rome. It didn't really live up to their expectations but we did enjoy some amazing mocktails which certainly made up for the lack of atmosphere.

Too Big!!

Outside in the square we explored the market stalls a little and found a fantastic stall packed with felted hats and all sorts of terrific stuff. Julian decided he wanted to spend his spending money, a gift from our lovely family in Porec, on a terrific felt hat..deciding which one was loads of fun.

Too Funny!!

Just Right!!

We devoted one morning to visiting the Varhegy (Castle Hill) on Buda side of town. While we enjoyed walking through the largely reconstructed old town the weather wasn't wonderful.

Our mission was to see the view from the Fisherman's Bastion, take a look at the wonderful Matthias Church with its stunning tiled roof and ride the funicular back down to Chain Bridge.

We achieved all of this plus the added bonus of a visit to the oldest pastry shop in Budapest. At 173 years of age the Ruszwarm is still going strong despite tiny premises which are packed to the rafters due to its fame and staff who do not need to be friendly as they sell amazing pastries at a very reasonable price.

One day it seemed like the heavens had opened with no intention of closing again and so we stayed home most of the day. Late in the afternoon we suddenly heard mother nature turn off the tap and lo and behold the sun came out. Despite it being four o'clock we ran for the door and jumped on a tram taking us in the direction of Margitziget, Margaret Island.

I had a sudden inspiration that we would shake off our wet weather doldrums by hiring a pedal car and riding around the island. We told the man we would take the pedal car for an hour, but he told us not to worry he would charge us for how long we used when we got back and to take our time. And so off we pedalled, or more accurately off Rob and I pedalled as Emma and Julian didn't get pedals this time and had a free ride, except when Emma need to get out and push that is.

The park was stunning and had we been given hours and hours on a lovely sunny day we would love to have explored it in depth, in fact it would be reason enough for us to return to Budapest. Unfortunately I cannot blame the weather for our dismal effort, after a paltry half hour we returned our old clunker of a pedal car, and the man did not even seem surprised we were back so quickly.

As we were returning the pedal car we heard the last strains of music from a amazing musical water fountain, again a major attraction we will have to come back to see. We gave up, of course planning to return, and went to eat Greek food at a very nice but pretty pricey restaurant on the Danube promenade.

In Budapest we enjoyed some fantastic food, including quite a lot of goulash soup. One night we visited a neighbouring restaurant called Draculas with live music and waiters who had me thinking of the Rocky Horror Picture show, though we were not sure whether this was intentional or not.

We had our best meal at Hungarikum Bistro which found near the top of the Trip Advisor tree and as it was only around the corner we gave it a shot, after making the first available booking, four days later. It was worth the wait as not only was the very affordable meal worth the wait, it was those little added extras that made it special. They gave us little appetisers and sheets with a basic Hungarian-English dictionary to keep us entertained until the soup arrived....Finom.

 We then enjoyed listening to the Cimbalom, which we would have thought was a open piano being played by striking the strings with a mallet  if our dictionary had not told us it was a Cimbalom. We also enjoyed a glass of sparkling Hungarian Rose which went nicely with Rob's duck and my Goulash, noodles and delicious vinegary cucumber salad with sour cream. The kids were very happy with their pancakes for dessert and I really enjoyed my apple strudel.

Cimbalom in the background

On our second to last day Rob's mum Nada arrived in Budapest, which was the reason for our unplanned visit. She actually arrived the night before and while we were eating Greek food Emma said "there's Baba on that boat" and we assured her it couldn't be. We found out the next day it probably was, as her cruise arrived the day before the time we expected her so that the group could take a guided tour of Budapest before disembarking in the morning.

It was a lovely reunion and Emma was so excited she begged to stay with her Baba in her nice hotel rather than coming home with us for the last two nights. We were glad that she had seen something of Budapest so we could relax on our day and a half together.

Emma was in heaven as it is a great disappointment to her that I do not like shopping and so she could indulge to her hearts content with Rob's mum. She took us to a the Central Market Hall which is housed in a beautiful building that indoors reminded the kids of the many stately train stations we have seen across Europe.

The next day was our last full day in Budapest and we looked at our list of must do and sadly eliminated our number 1. Szechenyi  Baths, as kids could only use the outside baths, Emma had the end of a cold and it looked like rain, 2. City Park, also outside and likely to rain and ditto on our return 3. Margaret Island.

We could however make a quick run over to the giant Ferris wheel so that one of the kids wish list could be satisfied much to their delight.

After this we indulged in a Budapest tradition, Sunday brunch, and we chose the Les Meridian. It was a lovely way to celebrate this family reunion.

After this I offered the family a choice, it looked like rain and I wanted to go and visit the Museum of Fine Arts but wasn't going to force anyone else to go along with me. To my surprise Rob and Julian both wanted to come. And so Nada and Emma went off for a girls afternoon of shopping and we three enjoyed an afternoon with a terrific collection of Egyptian Mummies, Raphael's Esterhazy Madonna, some lovely Monet's and Rodin's and even a sculpture attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.

While it was not the greatest gallery we have visited it made for a very enjoyable afternoon and it was a perfect way to spend a rainy day. Once we stepped outside we could see little of Hero's Square through the torrential rain. Catching a bus back to Nada's hotel we kept relatively dry unlike the poor girls who had ventured far on their shopping adventure and did not think they could catch a taxi because they were so wet. They arrived back absolutely sopping wet but in good spirits after their adventure.

The next morning Nada head off to the airport for her flight to Zagreb and conscious of our budget we caught the train. Though it was to be a long journey we enjoyed ourselves and the time sped by and before we knew it we were passing through immigration, or having Croatian immigration passing through our carriage. Then we were back in Croatia again and looking forward to a few weeks of staying put at home. And that's just what we did..well pretty much anyway, as you shall see.