The Pavements Of Budapest
Budapest doesn’t seem to do plain man-hole covers in the centre. They also allow shops to have their name in front in brass.
I would think they don’t have a theft problem.
Inside And Around St. Stephen’s Basilica
St. Stephen’s Basilica wasn’t far from the hotel.
I passed on the mulled wine, as I had just warmed up in the hotel.
Exploring Buda Castle
Eventually, I arrived on top of the city on the hill on which Buda Castle sits.
Note the excellent hot chocolate.
I think it may be true to say, that although a lot of damage was done to the buildings during the Second World War, quite a bit of damage was done since by the Communists. Wikipedia says that quite a few statues and facades were destroyed.
In the Hungarian National Gallery, there was a large section devoted to the works of Mihály Munkácsy. I’d never heard of him before, but to my untutored eye, he was fairly impressive.
Exploring Budapest
As I usually do, I used a combination of walking and the various trams and metro lines. There is a card called a Budapest Card, but at the first station I tried near the airport, they just sold me an ordinary 24 hour ticket.
These are some of the pictures I took.
Particularly useful was the number 2 tram, which ran up and down the Danube. If you’ve got a 24-hour ticket, just get on the tram and sit down. You don’t have to touch in, although my ticket was checked on the Metro.
The only problems I had were the extreme cold and the lack of information and maps on the street. But Budapest is one of those cities, where you can generally see one of major features like the Danube, Buda Castle or St. Stephen’s Basilica.
On the other hand, when I did get lost, a friendly Hungarian usually put me right. I was plagued a bit by hop-on/hop-off tourist bus salesmen, but I just ignored them, as I prefer to play my game of chance with the public transport. You see more interesting things, like the little girl sitting on the dog statue. How many places would allow that?
Incidentally, Line 1 of the Budapest Metro is the second oldest in the world and is included in the World Heritage Site for Budapest.
Inside And Around Le Meridien, Budapest
I stayed in Budapest at Le Merieden. Not the cheapest hotel, but I got a reasonable deal and I could trust the food for breakfast. These pictures show the hotel in its very central location, on the major interchange of the Budapest Metro.
They even offered to bake some gluten-free bread, as I left. That sounds late, but I suspect they hadn’t realised I was coeliac before.
They did find me an excellent restaurant though called Rezkakas. I did take a Hungarian celiac travel card.
I’d certainly stay in the hotel again.
The Anonymous Widower 