Budapest, Hungary / Stuttgart, Germany. Wednesday/Thursday 11/14-July-2026.
Table of Contents:
- All posts
- Amsterdam, Holland / Stuttgart, Germany, 08/09-July-2026
- Graz, Austria, 10/11-July-2026
- Budapest, Hungary, 11/14-July-2026
- Pardubice, Czech, 15-July
- Gdansk / Malbork, Poland, 16/20-July-2026
- Warsaw, Poland, 21-July-2026
- Vilnius, Lithuania, 22/25-July-2026
- Riga, Latvia, 26/27-July-2026
- Tallinn, Estonia, 28/30-July-2026
- Helsinki, Finland, 31-July/01-August-2026.
After back-to-back travel days this was our first multi-day stop to allow for full on tourist stuff.
Saturday 11-July-2026.
After parkrun and a shower in Graz we headed off to the main station for a five and a half hour train journey to Budapest.
We may have been in First Class but the air conditioning was not working and the windows were not openable so it made for a pretty steamy trip. Despite it being such a long journey, there was no buffet car so we couldn’t even get a drink or a sandwich. Luckily we had eaten lunch before we set off and had water with us
We passed countless fields of sunflowers. It would seem to be a major crop, presumably to go into cooking oil and margarine manufacturing.
Our accommodation was in a Home Exchange apartment in a large block of flats with a huge central courtyard.
As it was was late, we went to a nearby bar, Guru Serhaz, that described itself as a bistro. Beer it had aplenty but the food was very basic pub grub.
Dark beer for me, light for Mary.
From the very limited menu I had jalapeño poppers with chips and Mary had chicken wings with chips but we did get to sample several beers.
Sunday 12-July-2026.
Even the railway stations are fancy. This is Budapest-Keleti, the nearest main station to our apartment.
We wandered around Pest admiring the many fine buildings, many of them neoclassical from the late 1800s. So many that I can only feature a small selection. This is a grand hotel.
Even the manhole covers are fancy.
We saw these cute “gate guardians” protecting one doorway.
Down by the river there was a touching memorial: the Shoes on the Danube Bank in Budapest a powerful public art memorial featuring 60 pairs of 1940s-style iron footwear. It honours the predominantly Jewish victims executed on the banks of the river by Hungarian fascist militiamen towards the end of World War II.
St Stephen’s Church. Very, very ornate: unsurprising as is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary (c. 975–1038), whose right hand is housed in the reliquary. Interestingly the dome was supposed to be decorated with paintings but they used mosaics instead - see the detail in the bottom right hand picture.
That evening we went out for a very classy meal at A Kert Bisztro. A marked contrast to the previous evening’s meal!
The food was great and the prices were reasonable but the wine prices were exorbitant and were per decilitre (100cc) which meant double for a sensible sized glass.
Our nightcap was in the New Palm Cafe and Pub just along our street.
Monday 13-July-2026.
We spent the morning exploring Buda on the West Bank of the Danube. This is the castle hill as seen from Pest across the river.
First stop was the Buda Tower, all that remains of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where we climbed the tower, lots of stairs in a narrow and hot spiral staircase. At the top we were rewarded with stunning views.
Top - National Archives, middle - the tower, bottom - Parliament.
We walked along the backstreets to end up at Fisherman’s Bastion with great views over the city.
Statue of King Stephen 1st founder of Hungary at Fisherman’s Bastion.
We walked down to the tram line and took it along the banks of the Danube to the Market Hall. This large building downstairs had colourful displays of fresh produce, upstairs had fast food stalls and tourist tat.
We went to the food stalls and making a mistake with the currency conversion we bought an oversized lunch, so large it did us for supper as well.
Late afternoon we went for a short river cruise seeing again from the river some of the buildings we had seen on land. The parliament building:
The cruise included an audio guide you could download to your phone. Mary had left her phone on charge at the apartment so we shared my earbuds - one ear each.
After a supper of our Market Hall lunch reheated we went out to Amigo, a local rockabilly themed bar for our nightcap. Instead of a beer I fancied some red wine. I received a generous sized glass of average wine that may have been open for some time. Next time I’ll stick to beer.
Tuesday 14-July-2026.
Given our support for the Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths we had to check out the thermal baths of which there are several in Budapest. We spent the morning at Szechenyi Thermal Baths.
This gives an idea of the extent of the baths with multiple pools and saunas to choose from:
We went back to the apartment for a bit of relax and then out to a wine tasting at Bortodoor City followed by a meal at Kata
The wine tasting was meant to be two hours but overran by half an hour thanks to our enthusiastic and knowledgeable host “Smike”. We know nothing about Hungarian grapes and this delivered exactly what we wanted: a history of Hungarian wines, and introduction to the local grape varieties and tastings of sparkling, through white, rosè and reds. I even got a bonus sip of Tokai.
The restaurant was fortunately only three minutes walk away so we were only slight late. We had spotted this restaurant previously as it promised a gluten and lactose free menu. The food was excellent.
No nightcap today as we were knackered and needed an early night for a prompt start for the next leg of the journey on the morrow.
Next stop: Pardubice.
