After our late night out experiencing the crazy New Year’s celebrations in Budapest, we all slept in until about 8.20am. Much to our excitement it had snowed slightly overnight. Sadly, not heaps of snow but a definite coating on cars. The things Aussies get excited about! Anto went out to try and find some extra breakfast supplies and all the supermarkets nearby were closed, but we did scrounge up some supplies for the weary and hungry bunch.
Off to the Chain Bridge
After a very cold day in Budapest the previous day, the weather was not looking any better today, with a minus 3 start and no sun (or temperatures above zero) forecast. We still wanted to go and explore though and on the agenda for the day was a trip over to the Buda side of the Danube to check out the castle and beautiful buildings. We’d been hoping the fog would clear to give us views both sides, but it wasn’t looking good, but we didn’t have many days left here so went anyway!
It was mid morning before we made it out to find a bus to take us down to near Budapest’s famous chain bridge’. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge was the first permanent bridge across the Danube and was opened in 1849. At the time of it’s construction it was regarded as a marvel of modern engineering and is still one of the most photographed spots in Budapest.
Today there were again not a lot of spectacular views across the bridge and down the Danube but the bridge was still rather grand in the fog.
As we wandered from the Pest side (where we were staying) over to the Buda side, we enjoyed watching the river cruise boats and checking out the buildings we’d seen the previous night lit up during our NYE Danube cruise. It hadn’t really changed temperature since then, and was still definitely freezing at feels like minus 5!
The bridge is 375m across and ends near the Castle Hill Funicular, which conveniently cuts out a bit of a hike up to Buda Castle.
Up to Buda Castle
When we arrived over at the base of the castle complex it appeared the funicular wasn’t running, despite there being no indication it was going to be closed today. With the cold and the kids having racked up well over 30,000 steps each the day before (and that was before the midnight fireworks excursion), we decided to catch the little ‘Castle bus’ up to the top, despite Anto and I thinking it would make a lovely walk in nicer weather. The bus tickets turned out to be a reasonable investment for the kids in the rather miserable weather and they did enjoy zipping around in the bus between stops.
As we head off from the base of the Castle complex you could almost see back across to the Pest side of the Danube.
If you take the funicular or the stairs it’s a trip pretty much straight up but if you follow the roads it’s quite a journey. The Castle Quarter is quite large and there are plenty of interesting buildings and museums to look at within the complex.
We hopped off at the first stop near the Fisherman’s Bastion and St Matthias Church. Despite it being cold, foggy and a public holiday there were still quite a few people out and about.
We were in Trinity Square which has a number of beautiful buildings and the very prominent Holy Trinity Statue, which is located just outside St Matthias Church.
St Matthias Church (or the Church of the Assumption of Buda Castle) is one of the largest churches in Hungary and was initially constructed around 1015 but the current gothic styled building was constructed in the second half of the 14th century. With it’s position on top of Buda Hill and it’s beautiful roof it’s hard to miss.
Adjacent to the church is the Fisherman’s Bastion. This is one of the most visited places in Budapest with it’s fairy-tale appearance and views over the Danube and across to the Hungarian Parliament building.
We started with a walk through the Fisherman’s Bastion, which is indeed very pretty. You can climb up the turrets for views over the Danube and to the Pest side. Access to the turrets was free today, although the veiws were pretty much non-existent due to the fog, it added to the Wintery atmosphere.
You could also get an excellent view of the beautiful detail in the roof of St Matthias church from the ramparts of the Fisherman’s Bastion.
We enjoyed our foggy views across the Danube although we all pretty much lost feeling in our hands by now!
I could have spent hours wandering around looking at the views across Budapest and the foggy vistas but if you stood still for more than about 30 seconds you pretty much froze to the spot….
Despite the fog we could still see the giant Hungarian Parliament building, across on the Pest side of the Danube. It had looked amazing from river level the previous night on our NYE cruise. The building is just enormous!
We were keen to visit the Hospital in the Rock and nuclear bunker which are up in this area but they were closed for the public holiday. All now rather cold (everyone declared they were freezing even with hand warmers in our pockets and all our Winter gear on) we thought we’d better get an early lunch before it got too busy, and our fingers froze.
A warm Hungarian lunch….
We found an open restaurant in one of the old town villages not far from the Fisherman’s Bastion that had Hungarian food and was a former Michelin star restaurant. It was lucky we turned up early as we only managed to get tables by sitting separately.
We got some tasty and warm fare that only cost 1 kidney rather than 2.
I somehow ended up with 2 hot drinks, one mulled wine and an apple hot drink. Most of the group feasted on pulled pork burgers, except Zinnia who had Hungarian chicken soup and I had lentil stew with goats cheese. It had been a couple of weeks since I was last in France and was having goats cheese with every meal, the standard vegetarian option!
We all felt much better now we’d warmed up and had some tasty lunch so it was off for more exploring. The temperature was now minus 1 (still feels like minus 5). It appeared it just wasn’t going to get any hotter today!
Off to the Castle…..
It was now about 1pm and we still had plenty to explore. We took the Castle bus for the ride over to the Buda Castle. The castle site is currently being restored. Like many areas of Budapest a lot of the buildings need restoration as they’ve been let go a bit. The tourists don’t want decrepit buildings to look at so there seems to be a lot of construction, just not in a timely manner.
The signs all indicated the castle projects were supposed to be open around 2020 or 2021 so they were running way behind schedule! The restored sections were very nice and well restored.
We had been hoping to see the changing of the guard at the castle, but it wasn’t running for the public holiday, so instead we saw where the guards would be standing on another day……
Despite it being the middle of Winter there were some very pretty trees and plenty of green grass. We imagined how beautiful the views down the hill and over the river would be in Summer.
We checked out the Turul statue in front of the castle. The Turul is mythological bird of prey, usually depicted as a falcon. It’s a national symbol of Hungarians. The statue on the gates guards the castle and overlooks the river.
We walked around the castle grounds, and checked out the views down to the now even more foggy Danube. There was plenty of entertainment as we watched people taking selfies perched high on stone walls while wearing not enough clothes for a 25 degree day let alone minus 5!
The castle courtyards and statues were rather interesting and we had a nice walk along the ramparts which have been well restored. The ramparts run along the edge of the hill and we had plenty of ‘wintery’ views of the Danube, now heavily coated in fog.
The castle ramparts are quite extensive and we spent some time wandering along and checking out all the different statues and courtyard areas. We were all now freezing again and thought we’d better head back towards the bus. Max, Di and Astrid had got separated from us while we were walking along some ramparts and they took the lift down off a rampart and ended up getting to the bottom of the castle complex via some stairs.
Meanwhile, after a few laps of some ramparts and stairs Anto, Soren, Zinnia and I got a message they were somewhere at the bottom so we head back via a very zoomy (and cold) castle bus ride to the bottom. When we arrived it looked like the funicular was finally running but we’d had enough castle for one day so instead it was hot chocolates for the the kids to warm up.
Afternoon shopping adventures…
With the fog and temperatures worsening and almost sunset,the kids voted to head back to the apartment.
After a fairly efficient regular (non-castle) bus ride back across to the Pest side of the river and we checked out a little market near our apartment for a few Budapest souvenir purchases. It was not yet 4pm and well and truly getting dark.
After a cold day out with a reasonable amount of walking, the kids were voting for some quiet time in the warmth of the apartment. Anto and I left them buried in devices in the warm, with Max and Di supervising, and went off on a public transport adventure to find an open supermarket on the public holiday as we were running low on supplies.
We had limited success but got enough to get us through, and discovered some very grumpy Hungarian bus drivers. After dutifully buying our public transport tickets every day that had never been checked, we found today they had actually started checking tickets. This left some rather annoyed locals who were getting booted off buses without the appropriate ticket.
By the time we had found an actually open supermarket it was well and truly dark. There were still plenty of Christmas decorations and lights up. It’s a very pretty city both by day and night.
We’d managed to negotiate a busy metro ride back and found all the children still alive and barely noticing we’d left them with Granny to go out and procure their breakfast supplies. They were however well and truly ready for dinner.
An entertaining Hungarian dinner experience
We’d found a nearby Hungarian restaurant for dinner and had made a booking when walking past earlier in the day. They somehow forgot about the booking but did find us a table. Our waitress was not a fan of us at the start (which seems to be the Hungarian way). By the end of the meal we’d won her over and she may not have understood our sarcasm or humour but did find us amusing. Most of the meal involved weird door slamming, things being plonked on tables, being waved at dismissively and general grumpiness.
There was langos, goulash and various soups. I had a garlic one that could have repelled a thousand vampires. Everything is served in bread but we’d certainly worked up an appetite in the cold. I even tried the local specialty of Jewish cake which was a good reward for a day of walking but not as good as the strudels in Austria.
Our waitress had eventually even cracked a smile at us and packed us all off with some chocolates and lollies. She didn’t understand us strange Aussies but had decided we weren’t so bad after all.
The forecast for our final full day in Budapest was slightly warmer and some partial sun. As we went home from dinner it was lightly snowing again so we were hanging out to see if the improved forecast actually came true…..
Up next……
Our last full day in Budapest. Would we see the sun? No we would not but we did get snow. We had another visit to Heroes square (now coated in snow) and checked out the Hungarian Parliament building and had some more delicious food.
