We’ve just got back from a long weekend in Budapest, Hungary.

What an amazing place! The city is full of incredibly ornate buildings and monuments like the one picture above. We began our weekend in the city by walking to Buda, the medieval part of the city, built around a castle hill on one side of the river Danube. There we were able to visit a fine baroque church, the bizarre but strangely beautiful Fishermen’s Bastion, the castle itself and the labyrinths beneath the hill. The curators of these labyrinths had done a fine job of presenting them. Rather than going for the obvious - a grotesque, dungeon spectacle, the had chose to turn the path through the caves into an oddly charming new age journey through the soul and history of the area. It worked really well.

That evening we had an excellent dinner aboard a barge on the Danube which was not quite as blue as we had been led to believe. However, it had been in flood up to a couple of days ago so allowances must be made. Being landlocked, Hungary does not have a lot in the way of seafood. They make up for this in the restaurants however, by doing amazing things with fish often considered inedible, so we dined well on Perch, Pike and Catfish washed down with plenty of Hungarian wine, which they are particularly proud of.

 

We hadn’t done a lot of forward planning for this trip. In fact we only decided to go 2 weeks ago. However, one thing we really wanted to see was Statue Park. After the fall of communism, many statues were removed to the outskirts of the city where they were later re-erected in a slightly tongue-in-cheek memorial to the Soviet occupation.

 

Budapest is also known for its hot springs and baths, so after nearly 24 hours of on  the go sightseeing, these were a welcome relief. Like everything else in the city, the bathhouse was a grand ornate structure with an overwhelming feeling of opulence. Going to the hot-pools had never felt like such an occasion.

 

We spent the rest of our time in the newer part of the city (Pest) where we visited the Basilica and took a lift to the top of the great dome for some fantastic 360 degree views.