BUDAPEST

Rick and I have been planning a trip to Europe for about a year now.  We were originally supposed to go in late April but had to change our trip because of my dad's being in the hospital and Kathy Nelson's passing.  We postponed it for October.  We left on the 4th of October and took the red eye (9 1/2 hours) to Amsterdam.  We had a short layover and then took another flight (a little less than two hours) to begin our trip in Budapest.  

Our original flight in April was supposed to begin in Copenhagen where we were to meet Brad, Ruth, and DeeAnn.  Since we did not take that trip we had to reschedule our flight on Iberian Airlines or lose the money we spent.  I looked into other places that Iberian Airlines flies to and discovered that they fly to Nice, France and Budapest.  We had not been to either place.  First I looked into Nice/Monaco area and decided that probably wasn't for us.  Then I looked into Budapest and thought that we would have a nice time there.  Boy oh howdy, we sure made the right decision.  We LOVED Budapest!  It is a very clean city, easy to get around, a place with beautiful architecture and buildings and the people are very friendly and helpful.  We spent a beautiful three full days there.

Our City hopper from Amsterdam to Budapest

We arrived in the evening of the 5th and took a taxi from the airport, about a 35 minute drive.  Our driver was Zoltan and was very friendly and helpful.  

We checked into the Courtyard Marriott and were immediately upgraded to a suite.  Thank you Marriott!

We were hoping to get some Hungarian food close by for dinner but the place that was suggested was full and we did not want to wait.  We walked a little further and found hamburger joint.  Both Rick and I had a chicken sandwich and fries, enough to fill us up for the evening.  We were a little tired after traveling all night so after a couple of hours we took a sleeping pill and went to sleep.  We awoke refreshed and ready to go!  Our first event of the day was to get some breakfast at the FABULOUS buffet that was presented.  Luckily it came with the room and we were very thankful.  It filled us up until dinnertime!

After breakfast we headed over to the Metro station next to the hotel.  (Blaha Lujza Ter) 

We found the metro for the city very easy to use and it got us to all the places we wanted to go.  It is always fun to use the metro. 

The metro is WAAAY down underneath the city.

Our first stop dropped us off at the Parliament Building. (Kossuth Lajos) 

It is very big and beautiful, especially at night.

We didn't stay long here, just enough time for a picture because we had bigger fish to fry.

We grabbed the tram and went up two stops to the Chain Bridge or the Szechenyi Bridge.

This bridge is so beautiful!  It was completely destroyed during WWII and had to be rebuilt.

We walked across to the Buda side of the city and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Danube River.

Next we loaded onto the vernacular to get a ride up the mountain to Castle Hill.

                                            The castle area afforded some great views of Pest.

While at the castle we got to go inside to view the St. Stephen Room.

This room was built and then taken apart and sent to Paris for the world's fair.

(then returned later). It was really nice to see.

This is a replica of the crown of Hungary.

After the castle we walked over to St. Matthias church and the Fisherman's Bastion.

The church was breathtaking inside and out!

The Fisherman's bastion is a nice area that looked over the river to Pest. 

 It made for a great picture taking place!

                                        There were a few food stalls and I knew I wanted to try something

          I picked out a chocolate marzipan.  It wasn't a Sees chocolate by any means but I did like it!

Here are some pictures inside of the St. Matthias church.

Rick was able to walk up the 197 steps up to the top of the bell tower.  I couldn't go so he went alone.  He got some beautiful pictures from way up there.

Can you see him?

                The Buda side of the river is very pretty.  We loved walking around the streets.

Next we hiked back over the bridge and caught the tram back to the metro station.

From there we rode over to the yellow line to take us up to Szechenyi Baths where we spent the rest of the evening.  On the way to the baths we stopped for dinner.  I got the goulash soup and Rick had the grilled chicken with dumplings.  They both had ample amounts of the famous Hungarian paprika.

After enjoying dinner we headed over to the baths.  We got into the first pool for a few minutes and then decided to go find something a little warmer.  The resort has eighteen pools.  I think in the couple of hours we were there Rick tried all them.  I got into probably six or seven.  I just enjoyed sitting in them and people watching while Rick was testing out the pools and the sauna.  We stayed until after dark and then made the trek back to our room.  It was a wonderful and FULL first day.  My feet and legs were sore from all of the walking!

The next day we caught the blue line down to the Budapest Central Market Hall.  We had seen it featured on a Rick Steve's program and knew we wanted to find it.  It was in this ornate building.  Three floors of shopping.

There were many things to see at the market.  I found a nice fall colored scarf to take home.

We also bought food for our Sunday picnic.

This is a smoked cheese that is very popular with the hungarians.

It was SUPER smoky...almost too much but it was cool how it was rolled up like a cinnamon roll.We also purchased an apple (for me) and some grapes (for Rick), some lunch meat, and a nice big baguette.

The meat, cheese, and fruit stalls were very interesting to see.

Oh yeah,  we also bought some cookies for our picnic.  They weren't too shabby.  

They actually tasted like donut holes.

We also watched how the Hungarians make Chimney Cake.  We had seen them being made in Buda the day before and knew we wanted to try one.  This was our time to give one a try :)

One last thing.  Darla had told Rick how much she loved the red cabbage in Budapest.

Rick had to buy some to let Darla know he tried it.  It actually tastes quite delicious!

After the market we took a stroll over another walking bridge, the Szabadsag Hid (Liberty Bridge)

This bridge was painted a pretty green and was beautiful in it's own right.  It also gave us nice views over the river.

After this we took the metro back to our hotel.  It was around two o'clock and my legs and feet were hurting after the previous days walking.   Plus neither of us slept well the previous night (darn jet lag) so we went back to the room and slept for a couple of hours.  So thankful that we did because it set us up for a fun night.  Before leaving home I booked a dinner cruise through Viator.  It began at 7:30 and the cruise gave us such beautiful views of Budapest at night.  It was really magical seeing these sights.  On our cruise we also had two pianists playing such beautiful music that made it even more romantic and special.

We both had a cream sweet potato soup, chicken over mashed potatoes and served with cumber salad.  Rick had tapioca pudding for dessert while I had the brownie and ice cream.  

The next day was Sunday.  We were able to rent a car for the day and drive to church about fifteen minutes away.  It was the Pest ward where there was an English translator, so we could understand what was being said.  There is a mixture of American and Hungarian members that attend this ward.  The talks and lesson were actually given in English and translated into Hungarian.  We enjoyed the meetings and partaking of the sacrament.  It is always a pleasure mingling with other saints.  

We met these fine sisters after church.  Their names were Leyda Mercado and Margarita ?.  They were so fun to talk to.  Well, Rick talked with them because they only spoke Spanish.  They are from Venezuela and living in Budapest on a humanitarian ticket.

After church ended we hopped into the car and headed north towards the Slovakian border.  We were able to drive into Slovakia without any problem.  There were a few policeman there but they did not stop us even to see our passports.  

We drove into a town called Sahy and stopped at a little park square for a little lunch.  This is where our market finds came in handy.  We had meat, cheese and bread with our fruit for our picnic lunch. It was not warm but we faired the cold and breezy conditions to make a memory.  We enjoyed our little cookies/donuts and a candy bar and then quickly gathered up our things and started to leave.  Luckily there was a Water Closet right next to the park to do our duty before we left.  We had some left over cookies so we gave them to a young mom and her children.  They were happy to get them.

We drove over to a neighboring community (Tesmak) to see some more of the area and got a picture in front of this church.

We got back to our room for a bit and then set out for a tram ride next to the Danube.  It was quite anticlimactic since we had taken the cruise the night before but it still was nice.

We got this nice picture of Rick by the lit up Parliament Building.

The Chain Bridge

This area/monument is called The Shoes.  It is the place during WWII where many Jews were brought and forced to take off their shoes and then shot and killed, their bodies falling into the water of the Danube.  A sculptor was commissioned to sculpt these shoes on the water's edge to commemorate those who suffered during the war. 

                                                A chilly walk on the Chain Bridge.

This morning before having to catch our plane we took one last metro ride to the Deak Ferenc stop to get over to the St. Stephens Church.  My goodness!  This was such a beautiful church!  They had an elevator which meant I was able to go all the way up to the lookout tower.  What a view we had from up there!  I am just sad that our time was so short.  We only had a half an hour to get to the top and then visit inside the church.  I could have easily spent another thirty to forty minutes exploring the church.  It was so ornate  inside.  We even had to miss out on the treasury room for lack of time.  So glad that we were able to see what we did, though.