Adventures in Europe: Budapest, Hungary

Originally, Diana and I planned to meet in Budapest, but the COVID-19 entry-by-air rules for Hungary are stricter than for Austria, so Diana flew into Vienna instead. We still wanted to see Budapest, but decided to just make it a day trip and come in this morning by train. I have really been impressed with the Austrian trains, but Diana got to experience them for the first time.

We reached Budapest before 10:30. The Budapest Keleti train station has a stunning facade.

We read a helpful little itinerary on what we might want to see in Budapest (https://www.ourescapeclause.com/one-day-in-budapest-in-a-day/), and Fisherman's Bastion was our first goal. We crossed the river by metro and were immediately impressed by the Hungarian Parliament.

We climbed the hill to Fisherman's Bastion, which is a lookout point named in honour of the fisherman who centuries ago apparently took responsibility for defending the city wall at this point.

The views of the Danube, the Parliament, and really the whole city are quite something from up here. We stopped at a cafe in the wall to enjoy the view.

Mathias Church is behind the bastion. The church dates from the 14th century, but the bastion was only constructed in the 19th century.

After a stroll through the old town, we descended back to the metro and next went to the Nagy Vásárcsarnok, or central market. 

As evident in the picture, it is a very large market, but we were less interested in shopping than in eating here. With only something like nine hours in Budapest, goulash was the obvious choice.

After lunch we wanted to do what we were most excited about in Budapest--bathe! But, we were determined to not have to rent towels at the baths, convinced they could be purchased for cheaper. We walked down Váci Street trying to find towels for sale at a price the seemed reasonable. Finally I found some at "Half Price" at Vörösmarty Square which did the trick. 

This ended up being a perfect spot to end up, because we were able to take the line 1 metro--continental Europe's first metro!--to the baths. This metro line is actually a UNESCO world heritage site!

We got off at the Széchenyi Thermal Bath stop.

Once inside, we were shown to our "cabin" change rooms.

After changing, we went outside. The baths are beautiful!

Many of the pools are actually indoor, but of course the biggest ones are these outdoors. It is a pretty cool experience, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

After the baths, we walked across the city park and onto Heroes' Square. Much of this impressive infrastructure (the park, the square, the metro line 1, etc.) was built for the "millennium" in the late 19th century celebrating one thousand years of the Hungarian state.

 

We still had some time before our train back to Vienna, so we took the metro back down to the river to see the Shoes on the Danube Bank, which commemorates victims (mostly Jews) of a massacre during World War 2 who were told to remove their shoes, shot, and pushed into the Danube. It is a powerful memorial. Apparently 20,000 may have died in this way between December 1944 and January 1945.

We were, of course, by the river here, and had a nice view across back towards Fisherman's Bastion and the Buda Castle.

We were also now up close to the Parliament. This was another millennium project, designed to be something like one metre longer than the British parliament building! 

We decided to sit here with a glass of wine and enjoy the view before catching the metro to the train station to catch the train back to Vienna.

Adventures in Europe: Vienna, Austria

After my Saturday morning in Bratislava, I caught the bus just after noon to Vienna, less than an hour and a half and 8 euros away. I was able to check in to the hotel before taking the train out to the airport to meet Diana, who was flying in from Edmonton via Paris. Once we had her somewhat settled at the hotel, we took the u-bahn to Stephansplatz to find some dinner and keep her awake. After a drink, we ate Chinese, believe it or not; you cannot deny jet lag cravings...

We began Sunday with a free walking tour, which met up at the Monument Against War and Fascism. I believe this monument is supposed to remind Austrians of their participation with Germany in fascism and the Holocaust, and the guide provided some well thought through comments; I felt this plaque, on the other hand, left something to be desired in terms of failing to take responsibility. 

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The monument itself would be difficult to capture in a photograph as it is made up of various pillars spread out over a square, but it was thought-provoking (and an interesting choice of a spot to begin a walking tour!).

Stephansdom, the cathedral for which Stephansplatz is named, was another stop on our tour, and we were seeing it in the daytime for the first time (it had been nicely lit up in the dark when we saw it on Saturday evening).

We went inside later, but never ended up climbing the 340+ stairs in the tower.

The tour also took us to the Hofburg, the Habsburg palace complex, which is sprawling. This is a very small portion of it, albeit the grandest of the entrances.

Part of the palace also includes the stables of the famous Lipizzaner horses, which you can look into as you walk by.

After our walking tour and lunch, Diana and I went into another part of the palace, what is now the National Library. A few pictures give a sense of the opulence!

After the library and a stroll through some of the palace courtyards, we went to a café the walking tour guide had recommended as a particularly good (i.e., classic but quiet) example of Viennese café culture. We saw that some of the more popular ones have lines down the block, but this one was quiet!

Diana's jet lag was hitting her badly as we sat there, so as the afternoon wore on we took a long walk out of the first district (the historic part of Vienna), and along the canal. It was a warm day, and the canal was a popular place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

After a drink canal-side, we went back to our hotel to do laundry and rest a little. For dinner, we headed all the way to the last stop on the U1 line to go to a traditional Viennese Heuriger, or wine tavern. The one we chose happened to be closing for the season after this weekend, so we got lucky! 

We ate some dinner and had some lovely Gemischter Satz. Evidently this made Diana very happy.

Today was rather dreary in the morning, but Diana still wanted to head to the Danube and see Vienna's forty kilometre long island park. 

We went for a long walk there, but unfortunately all the cafes and such were closed and it was raining off and on. Still, it was nice after the crowds and heat of yesterday.

Since we were committed to having a schnitzel in Vienna, we decided to do that for lunch. We enjoyed our "Schnitzel Fan" experience (yes, that was the name of the restaurant!), but really this is not an especially healthy meal.

By late afternoon the rain had stopped and we took the metro to the other side of the city to Nussdorf, which I would describe as Vienna's vineyard mountain. 

Because it was Monday and late September, many of the wineries were closed, but we were able to get a glass of wine at one and enjoy a really nice walk amongst the vineyards with a lovely sunset view of Vienna.

Oh, and besides vineyards, Nussdorf is also a tony suburb, where Beethoven once lived in this house!

Adventures in Europe: Bratislava, Slovakia

Yesterday I began the day in Piran, and caught the bus (approx. 2 hours) to Ljubljana. There, an hour later, I caught a Flixbus all the way to Bratislava (approx. 6.5 hours). I arrived at 20:15. At first I was a little disappointed to be arriving after dark, but I actually I think evening (at least a weekend evening) might be exactly when Bratislava's old town should be experienced! There were hundreds if not thousands of people out, walking around, attending a concert, dining and drinking, and taking in art installations and lit up buildings.

Although this guy is just as easily enjoyed in daylight, he was my favourite!

This one was in the courtyard of the old town hall, which is now a museum.

This is the Slovak National Theatre.

And down by the Danube there was a display of photographs . . .

. . . and Bratislava's famous "UFO" bridge, nicely lit up.

And, finally, there was this piece of artwork, which I took to be a dumpster fire?

I had a beer on a patio and then a donair while I continued to walk around, but when I turned in around 23:30 the crowds showed no signs of dissipating.

This morning, however, it was quite different at 8:00! The streets were deserted! 

I did a bit of a daylight tour with the streets more or less to myself.

This was a display about how most of the Jewish quarter had been demolished while constructing the "UFO" bridge (it is actually called Most SNP or Most Slovenského národného povstania, which means "Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising"). 

I also left the old town to see the famous blue church.

I walked back to the old town along the Danube. Several river cruise boats were docking and offloading tourists from upriver.

Back in the old town I was now able to have breakfast (most of the cafes were not evening opening until 9 or later!). 

At one point I had expected to have all day in Bratislava and leave in the evening to meet Diana in Budapest. But she had to change her plans because Hungary's COVID rules are such that she would not be able to fly in there. Instead she is flying into Vienna earlier in the day, so I left Bratislava just after noon. 

So, after breakfast, I decided the last place I would go would up to the castle, which is on a cliff above the old town.

The castle itself, while nice looking, did not particularly interest me per se.

I was much more excited about the view from up here!

As I descended and came back into the old town, I was able to pass through the city wall, which is well maintained at this section.

I packed up, checked out, and headed to the bus station to catch my bus to Vienna. This station is actually right under Most SNP. I was quite taken with this traditional Slovak cheese vending machine!

I ended up trying some hand made garlic cheese knots. I think the cheese is called korbáčik, which is stringy but then can be tied up with flavouring. In this case, garlic, and they are not going cheap on the garlic!