Tuesday in Budapest Sept. 22

For our last day in Budapest, we set out for a restaurant that was less than two blocks from our hotel and we ordered the Hungarian breakfast - eggs with bacon and paprika, toast, juice, coffee and a garnish of fresh vegetables.  Very tasty and reasonably priced.

We then got on the hop on hop off bus and rode to the funicular - but the line had over 100 people waiting to ride, so we hiked up Buda Hill for a second time.  On Monday, we met a couple on the bus - he was 77 years old, his wife 73.  He did not take the easy paved path we did - our path went back and forth across the side of the hill and made for an easy walk up the hill.  The 77 year old took a short cut up the hill.  Today, we decided to take the short cut - when I got to the top of the hill, I took this photo of Harry coming up behind me.

Once at the top, we went in the opposite direction from Monday and went into the former Buda Castle which is now the National Museum of Art.

While photos are not allowed in the museum, we went up to the dome and took pictures there.

After spending about four hours in the museum, we went outside and shared a pizza for lunch with a nice cold beer at the outside cafe.  We then walked to the other side of Buda Hill and then down on one side to the Hospital in the Rock.  This started as the headquarters for their civil defense in the 1930s, but then was used as a hospital during the siege of Budapest during WWII, and then during the Soviet era, it was expanded and used as nuclear bomb shelter with its own air and water systems.  It is more than a kilometer deep into the hill and took an hour to tour.  The photos only show the entrance.

We later met Sara and Leonora (one of the Hungarians at Angloville; she works for British Telecom and needs better English for communicating with co-workers).  We met at Kalvin Ter (Calvin Square) at Calvin Bistro where Harry and I had been a couple of days before.

Leonora has made reservations for us at the If Cafe - it is named after the Island of If (just off Marseille, France) which is where the Castle d'If is located and which was made famous by the story of the Count of Monte Cristo.

If Cafe has live music.  Here is a video of the band warming up.  We did not stay for the show, as there was an additional cost, but the band setting up and warming up gave us music for most of our time there.

After dinner, we said our goodbyes, and Harry and I took the Metro headed home.  At the train station, we saw the first crowd outside the Migration Aid office - upon close inspection, this appeared to be a party for those who had volunteered and helped with the refugees who had passed through Budapest.

We then went back to our hotel for our last night.  I said goodbye to Harry, as his taxi would be at 4:00 a.m. and mine was not until 10:00 a.m.  On Wednesday morning, I discovered that I had the same taxi driver as Harry (we had the bell captain make the taxi reservations upon our return to the hotel).  I chatted with the driver and found out that he had been in the Hungarian military and had served in what was then East Germany from age 19 - 21, 1969 to 1971.  I told him about my time in West Germany 1967 to 1970.  He spoke Hungarian, Russian, German and English.  We had a pleasant chat about our common experience in the military during the cold war.

And so my trip ended with pleasant flights in Business Class on Lufthansa from Budapest to Munich and on to Boston for a visit with my sister and her family, and a quick trip to Vermont for meetings related to my classes at JSC and VTC.  I hope future trips will be as enjoyable as this was.

Monday in Budapest Sept. 21

As usual, we started our day with coffee in the lobby as we planned our day.  We decided to buy tickets for the hop on hop off bus tour, as the tickets were good for two days, included two boat rides on the Danube and an hour of biking on Margaret Island.  We set out on foot looking for a good breakfast place, and after walking down Rakoczi Street to Erzebet Street, we found a great little restaurant - Hirado Kavezo.  We had omelets, toast, fruit, juice and lattes for a very reasonable price and use of their wifi.  After breakfast, we walked out to where the hop on hop off bus stops, bought our tickets and began our journey.  I wanted to ride the funicular up Buda Hill, so that was to be our first stop.

As luck would have it, they regularly close the funicular on the odd Mondays of each month for maintenance.  Today was the third Monday of September, so it was closed.  That meant we walked up Buda Hill.

At the top, there is the President's home, guarded by uniformed military.

Beautiful gardens around the palace

We walked to the other side of Buda Hill which has numerous residences, businesses, monuments, museums and beautiful gardens, and yes, we stopped to smell the roses that were still in bloom.

One of the cathedrals has an amazing tiled roof.

We came across this busker who was playing traditional music on a traditional instrument of some kind.

We went to one of the castles like areas that is now a collection of restaurants and which offer great views of the Danube and the Pest side of the city (Buda and Pest were two cities at one time, but are now combined into one city - Budapest).

After looking out at the Danube and the city, we turned around and realized that the building behind us had a reflection of the building we were in.

We then walked down the hill, across the Danube on the Chain Bridge and sought out the dock for the boat rides we had available.

Two wild and crazy guys

We first took an hour long ride that took us up the river and around Margaret Island and back to our starting point.

Parliament

After returning, we turned around and took the cruise up to Margaret Island.  While on the boat, I joked that they had an alcoholic beverage named after Pres. Barack Obama.  I later learned it is not pronounced as written, but rather as barasspalinka - a peach flavored liqour.

Margaret Island is connected to the city by bridges on both ends of the island and has many lovely facilities, including spas, hotels, gardens, sporting facilities and eateries.

Here is a video of us riding our bicycles during our hour of use included in our tickets.

As we were departing the island, we came across this fountain and musical show in this video.

On the cruise back, Harry and I shared a bottle of wine - it cost less than if we had bought two glasses of wine each.

Later that afternoon, we met Sara - she was one of the Anglos we had met at Angloville - she teaches English as a second language, and is staying in Europe because she was going to volunteer at another session of Angloville in Poland.  She had been on a walking tour before meeting us.  We ambled around and stumbled upon Cyrano Restaurant and had an excellent dinner outside.  After talking with the hostess, we discovered that her father-in-law ran Callas, the restaurant we were at Sunday evening.  Both restaurants were excellent in our opinion, and apparently the reviews of others list these two restaurants as two of the best in Budapest - and we had found them both by chance.  I just love serendipity.

After dinner, we got Sara oriented and headed off to her restaurant, and Harry and I took the Metro back to our hotel.

Sunday in Budapest Sept. 20

Harry and I started our day with a full breakfast buffet at our hotel, the Best Western Grand Hotel Hungaria.  While it was okay food, it was an absolute zoo with hundreds of people rushing in and out - we definitely did not want to eat there again.  It also was expensive.

We decided to check out Keleti Train Station, the main train station in Budapest (there are three others).  It was diagonally across the square from our hotel, so it was an easy walk - there is also a metro station there.  We decided to check it out because it had been in the news as the place were there were problems with all the Syrian "migrants" going to Germany.  As you can see from the photo, it is a bright, modern, clean train station and there were no signs of any problems with migrants or anyone else on Sunday morning.

We then went downstairs into the Metro station - this is one of the new stations and new lines that was built after the Soviet occupation.

Our destination on the Metro was the House of Terror or Terror Haza.  This was on Andrassy Utca (pronounced uts, it means street).  It turns out there was a street festival going and the street was blocked off to vehicle traffic from Hosok Ter (Heroes Square) to Szent Istvan Bazilika (Saint Steven's Basilica), more than 20 blocks.  There were sections for different activities for kids, food, music and entertainment.

We only had to walk a few blocks to the House of Terror.  Outside the museum, there were numerous educational signs, memorials and monuments about the reign of the Soviets.

This was the end of the monument symbolizing the Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain monument

Terror House Museum

A section of the Berlin Wall

We spent several hours going through the museum and learned much about first the Nazi occupation during WWII (even though they were allies) followed by the Russian/Soviet occupation until 1990.  It is a very moving experience.  The museum is in the building where the Soviets brought people for interrogation, torture and/or execution.  Besides many exhibits, we went through the basement rooms where they had some of the former cells where prisoners were kept, interrogated, tortured and executed.  At the entrance/exit, there is this memorial.

After the museum, we continued down Andrassy Utca.  We noticed that there are many good bike lanes throughout Budapest - but someplaces had no such lanes.

We then went to Opera House for a tour, and we not only got the tour, but paid extra for taking photos and for a mini performance at the end of the tour.  The Opera House was built in 1802 - it is an amazingly beautiful building, made mostly of Hungarian materials except for the Italian marble.

Franz Liszt statue in front of the Opera House

At the end of the tour (which was in English) we gathered on the steps below this landing.  The instrumental music was taped, but the diva sang two songs for us.  On the second she came done the stairs and danced with one of the male spectators while she sang.

We then continued down Andrassy Utca and visited St. Stephens Basilica.  As with the Opera House, I was amazed that this amazingly beautiful building was in such good shape and had survived both world wars.

Inside, there was a choral group performing.

We then had a beer at a cafe on the plaza next to St. Stevens, and then proceeded back up Andrassy Utca to the festival.

Much to our dismay, the food courts were all closed or about to close, so we continued on to the Callas Restaurant - it not only had wifi, it was a superb restaurant that we had happened upon by chance.

At the suggestion of the waiter, we both had "Mangalica cigánypecsenye nyárson, burgonya dittával /
„Mangalica” roast pork gypsy-style on a spit served with Ditta potatoes," and we shared a salad. Again at the recommendation of the waiter, we shared a bottle of "Tiffán Villányi Pinot Noir Várerdő 2011 Pinot Noir szőlőből készült, új tölgyfahordós érlelésű, rubinvörös, bársonyos, finom aromájú, elegáns vörösbor. Kitűnően harmonizál a vörösés vadhúsokból készített ételek ízeivel.
An elegant ruby-red wine with a velvety, delicate aroma created from Pinot Noir grapes matured in new, oak barrels. Harmoniously accompanies the flavours of red meat and game dishes."  Before leaving on the trip, Harry's son-in-law Travis said we needed to try some unicom liquor, so after dinner we did that as well.  All was superb.  As we were finishing, the restaurant was preparing to receive a group about 50 people, and their live music began.  You can find more about this excellent restaurant at their website: http://www.callascafe.hu/index_en.html

We then took the Metro back to Keleti Train Station.  As we walked up from the Metro stop, we went through part of the train station near the Migration Aid office - the area was abandoned at that time of the evening.

The one isolated graffiti we saw about Syria was in the underpass that goes under the square/plaza that separates the Train Station from our hotel.

And so ended another day in Budapest.