Budapest, Hungary

 

Long post today....

After well over 12 hours of much needed sleep, we were back out touring again in the late morning.   We'd planned to ride the funicular (cable railway) up the hill to the "castle district" but the line was long/not moving very fast so we decided against  waiting around for it. 

The castle district sits high on the hill overlooking the Danube.  It's astonishing how many huge intricate buildings and structures are there.

Views over the Danube were spectacular. 

Fisherman's Bastion was overrun with folks enjoying the day.

Mathias church was spectacular  as well.

The view across the river to the Parliament Building.

Selfie near Mathias Church 😄

Did I mention  that there were a lot of folks out??

A different angle of Fisherman's Bastion. 

And yet another view of the Danube.

Buda tower- thought about paying $3 each to climb  but there are no outside viewing points.  

View of part of the city on the other side of Castle Hill.

Then we happened upon a traditional Hungarian dance display. Good fun watching  them!

More views as we continued our walk.

Fountain near the National Gallery.

 

The Hungarian National Gallery that we could see all lighted across the river last night.

And another view of Chain Bridge as we made our way down the hill.

Finished with our tour of the Castle district, we caught a city bus for the 5 mile trip over to Hero Square, a beautiful huge park honoring their war heros. Lovely statues of course. 

And a castle included too.

We wandered the large park, enjoying the day. There was a tethered balloon but was not operating. 

One last cool building before we made our way back on the subway. This was a thermal bath, we knew about it but it seemed like too much trouble....

It took us a few tries on the Metro kiosk, but we secured tickets for our ride back to the station very near our apartment.   Easy peasy and cost about $1.50 USD.

After another little rest, around sunset we started walking to get a night-time view of the Parliament Building.   Normally,  this would be seen directly from the deck of the Viking river boat as we would depart at night specifically for that purpose.   Since we won't see a river boat for the first few days, we took it into our own hands to make sure we'd see that view!  Busy promenade as we crossed over Chain Bridge.

The river cruise boats can't navigate because of low water upstream,  but the local dinner cruise boats are in full operation.

Yet another view of Chain Bridge! 

The Parliament Building is quite spectacular! 

Another mor modern church was lighted as well.

One final look at the Parliament Building  before making our way back.

Across the Danube, we stopped at a hummus/kabob shop called an original  name - hummusbar.....for a light meal before getting back to the apartment for some much needed rest!

Budapest, Hungary

We did make it back out for some evening touring after a rest.

St. Stephen's Basilica is beautiful in the low evening sunlight. 

Amazing buildings at every turn.

Crowds of folks.  I guess I didn't realize how popular it is to visit Budapest! Lots of streets are closed off to automobiles. 

More wandering down various streets

Lots of parks, fountains and statues. 

As it got close to sunset, an amazing number of folks were assembling on the promenade by the Danube. 

We walked another few blocks. More pretty architecture along the way.

We found a restaurant I'd read about for traditional Hungarian food called Bonnie's

We ordered a bowl of Goulash with chicken  and a lagosh- a fried flatbread served with or without  toppings. Very yummy and way too much food!

After supper, we made it back to the extremely loud and lively Danube to see all the buildings and bridges lighted up. Beautiful! 

We'll have to leave the partying to the 20'ish crowd. Time for a long sleep to catch up!

Budapest!

 The flight over from Philadelphia was uneventful...8 hours overnight with the usual mix of watching a few movies, reading, decent hot dinner meal and a cold but nice breakfast offering.   It all seems to pass the time.   Unfortunately,  it took 2 hours to clear through customs. 

  

Leaving the hectic airport, we bought tickets on the bus to travel the 45 minutes to downtown and our Airbnb for the next few days.

The bus ride was a pleasant mix of scenery.  It's almost fall here.

Lots of churches and cool old buildings on the way.

The Airbnb apartment was just a 10 minute walk from the bus stop.  It's in a very old historic building,  like most in the downtown area! 

The entryway to the apartment. 

It was 10:30am when we got to the apartment and we had been up almost 24 hrs but we knew not to immediately go to sleep.  We set out on foot to explore the immediate area.  We're just a few blocks from the Danube river.  Several ferry type boats docked but not a single cruise river boat due to the low water level. 

With a pleasant breeze and 80 degree temperature, we walked across Chain Bridge for the view. 

Parliament building which will be beautiful at night all lighted.

We've already noted that they have lots of nice little parks throughout the city.

The other side of Chain Bridge.  

By mid afternoon we were tired and hungry.   Stopped in at a little  bistro for a quick lunch.  But we decided thatbwe would have to take a nap so that's what we did. Lots to explore  in the next few days. 

RDU airport

Good morning!  We’re up bright and early today on the way to Budapest!  

We used our Global Entry/TSA Precheck and Touchless entry for the first time.  Was really nice to just walk thru in minutes vs. The hundreds of people in the standard TSA screening line.  

At the American Airlines lounge now, first flight is to Philadelphia. We have a long layover there before boarding the 8+ hour flight to Budapest. Nice to have a quiet place to wait and yummy snacks. 

And I did want to mention that this is the anniversary of my dad's death over 30 years ago.  I know he would have enjoyed seeing my life and travels!