November 1st (Allerheiligen)is a public holiday in some states in Germany. Due to a special weekend promotion by Lufthansa Travel, we used the time to visit Budapest over the weekend.
Divided by the Danube river, the Hungarian capital consists of the Buda (left of the Danube) and Pest (right) area.
In this picture, we are looking towards the Pest side.
Our journey started with the arrival at Budapest Airport, which is really very small but convenient to get around. Grab some 10 pack tickets at a newsstand and just wait for the 200E. From the airport, it is really easy to get into the city centre by taking bus and change to the last M3 station.
The streets are very clean and not so crowded at the time we visited.
Budapest itself is very modern and tourist friendly.
The shopping street has a lot of shops you might know from other European countries, what we observed was a large amount of Austrian/German chains inside the town.
We just got there the day after of Halloween, apparently the pumpkins have suffered from some weathering and hot candles…
The main street offers a lot to eat. We chose some better food at Cyrano for lunch and we amazed about the delicacies offered on the menu - very glad about the fact that we chose this restaurant over the Italian next door.
Most of them are located on the Pest side, though upscale are found near the Buda castle. Our hotel was at the Pest side, the Royal Park Boutique Hotel is a quiet, clean and convenient hotel we can recommend.
The breakfast was okay and as the hotel was included in our travel package, a good pick for the price.
Don’t forget to take a free map in your hotel. We did not take any hop on hop off buses but were pretty okay with some single tickets and some walking.
To get from the most southern to the northest point within the routes, you would probably need less than 60 minutes. The walks across the bridge take some time, so we did the green and the blue route on the first days and the red route on the last day.
Even the old US President Ronald Reagan is here at Liberty Square:
It is there because the Hungarian people wanted to show their appreciation for the former U.S. president’s efforts in ending the Cold War, which in turn helped to end the Russian influence in Hungary.
St. Stephen´s Basilica
We ended our day with a nice view to the Liberty bridge and with some beers at the river bank.
Great Market Hall
One of the things you do not want to miss is the Great Market Hall. This is one of the most famous markets in Budapest (for the tourist) and has a lot of foods, gifts, souvernirs, lunch picks to see.
Fresh vegetables..
and spices for some geniune Gulash waait for the hobby chef to be taken with him/her.
The hall itself is large and consists of two stories.
You can get non-food items in the upper level, while the lower level hosts vegetables, meat and fruits. Just be a bit careful upstairs, it can be a bit crowded.
Fisherman’s Bastion
Gellert Hill
The surroundings invite to talk a walk and enjoy the leaves and mood of late autumn. It made us breathe in for some moments and enjoy being together in Budapest.
View from Gellert Hill
Szikatemplon Cave Church
The Cave Church is on the left river side and worth a visit. It takes you about 25 minutes to walk up.
You can’t miss the entrance as it is sprayed on the floor.
For some “donation”, you can get an audio guide which we can recommend. With that, you get a lot of background about the church to listen to.
Ascend the hill a bit more and you will get to the top. For late autumn, it was very warm and convenient to travel.
The view was always magnificient.
The hill fortress hosts a weaponry exhibition which we did not see. Outside you can see flaks, tanks and some other big boys’ gear.
Just in front of the fortress you can see some bronze statues. I wonder if they have a connection with the soviet era, since the depicted men look very heroic…. but wait:
Heroes Square
We walked by the Heroes Square to go to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath.
Themal Baths
There are about five thermal baths to Budapesters visit regularly. It is said that the water quality is very high due to different minerals. Pkan in some time if you want to visit them all. If we had not chosen Szechenyi, we would have taken Gellert.
The one we visited was Szenechnyi Bath. This is one of the most famous since it hosts some 20° and 38°C pool outside. You can get a cabin for two with an RFID key to use. We also rented our swim suit but missed some shoes.