Budapest Part 2

Welcome back!  I am actually posting Budapest Part 2 just a few days after Part 1.  Are you shocked?  I am going to try and stay on top of things here and see how that works out for me.  I miss blogging but don’t have too much to say these days. 

Back to the tour of Budapest.  We went up to Castle Hill and visited the Matyas Church.  It was under renovation but we were able to tour inside.  I love the tiled roofs on churches and this reminded me of St. Stephens in Vienna.  We went up here first thing in the morning and the clouds hadn’t lifted yet, however, by the time we went inside the sun was breaking through and the stained glass windows were stunning.

Afterwards we walked over to the Royal Palace and wandered around the grounds and grabbed a quick snack in a cute café.

If you look closely in the above photo you can see my family sticking their head through the gaps in the railings.  After we left the Royal Palace we crossed back over the river.

The photo below is the view of the Royal Palace from across the river.  It really dominates the hill.

We walked over to St. Stephen’s Basilica and wandered around inside.  I think it is awesome that most churches allow you to walk around for free or a small donation.

The last 3 photos are from different places around the city. 

The grand statues above are from Hero’s Square.  This was a pretty awesome place to check out and was once where Communist demonstrations took place.

As we walked around some side streets we came upon this statue of Ronald Reagan.  This was to honor President Reagan for his part in ending communism and is located near the US Embassy.

We loved Budapest and enjoyed our time there.  I miss the old world feel of European cities and the way old and new have merged together.  To visit places that are filled with so much history is very exciting and interesting.  I am thankful for the opportunities we had to visit these gems while we lived in Germany.

Budapest Part 1

I finally sat down and began to tackle the overwhelming number of photos from our last 4 months in Germany.  We moved back to the USA 15 months ago and I just kept putting the task off. 

I remember being a little hesitant to travel to Budapest, mostly because we were going to take the train and 8 hours on a train with little girls sounded painful.  And it was.  Thankfully, you can reserve a cluster of seats with a table so we were able to eat and keep the girls fairly entertained. 

Our first morning there we visited Central Market Hall, Budapest’s largest market. It is always so much fun to visit markets as you really get a great feel of things the locals eat and drink but sometimes too much kitsch as there is usually a large selection of trinkets for travelers to purchase.    Every time I walked past these adorable smiling veggies I couldn’t help but giggle.  It was my favorite part of the market. 

We then headed to the Danube River and took a boat cruise to Margaret Island.  The company we used allowed us to get off on the island and explore a bit on our own.  We rented this a fun bicycle where the girls sat upfront and James and I peddled.  It was the fastest and most fun way to explore the island.

 

We explored some 14th century Franciscan church ruins and enjoyed the beautiful spring day.  There were plenty of paths to peddle on and with two people peddling we quickly toured the island.

We jumped back on the boat and was rewarded with beautiful views of the Hungarian Parliament building. 

We still had plenty of daylight time so we walked up to get a view of Budapest from above.  One thing I love about traveling is when you come across people from the USA that are from the same general area as you are.  I met a gentleman who was familiar with Western NY and had a brief conversation with him about it and what brought him to Budapest.

We ended our day with dinner at a delicious Greek restaurant.  The restaurant was right on the river, the staff were polite and the food was ah.maze.ing.  I know, I know someone is wondering why we didn’t eat Hungarian food and I promise we did. 

I was only going to write one post about Budapest but since this is photo heavy I’ll add the second part later this week.