Budapest, Hungary

Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on November 17, 1873 of right (west)-bank Buda and Óbuda with left (east)-bank Pest. Having spent all of our time on the Pest side of the Danube on our first trip, we decided to explore the hilly Buda side of the Danube.







Caving Under Budapest

Hungary’s capital, Budapest, is famous for its thermal baths, but only a few know that the hot water rushing up from deep underground created something else too. In the limestone mountains, under Budapest, the heated water formed a huge cave system, which is thought to be more than 100 km long. So we donned our overalls, helmet and head lamp to crawl (literally) in the second longest cave of Hungary, the Pál-völgyi–Mátyás-hegyi cave system, which is a real labyrinth system situated mostly under the elegant residences of Budapest. The 2 1/2 hour long tour leads on unbuilt, natural parts of the cave, with the supervision of professional caving guides. Be prepared to crawl, scramble and creep many times throughout this tour. I definitely do not recommend it if you are claustrophobic.




 Wine Tasting Beneath Budapest

The stone Faust Wine Cellar is part of the vast labyrinth system winding underneath Buda Castle. The inhabitants of the castle carved the labyrinth out of the chalk stone to provide escape during a siege in the middle ages. The cellar offers a wide selection of Hungarian wines from the country's best wine growing regions as well as traditional fruit brandies called pálinka. 


Gábor Nagy is the wine sommelier of Faust Wine Cellar and has a wonderful knowledge about each of the wines he serves. I tasted the white lovers and Tim tasted the red lovers. I started off with the pálinka. My white lovers tasting included a dry Egri Királyleányka from 2009, Villányi Chardonnay from 2008, Somoi Aranyhegy Olaszrizling from 2007, the Tokaji Tiszavirág "Mayfly" Cuvee from 2008 and the limited edition Tokaji Aszú from 1993. Each wine was simply better than the one before it.

Tokaji Aszú is the world-famous wine that is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem. The original meaning of the Hungarian word aszú was "dried", but the term aszú came to be associated with the type of wine made with botrytised (i.e. "nobly" rotten) grapes. Aszú berries are individually picked, then collected in huge vats and trampled into the consistency of paste known as aszú dough. Must or wine is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24–48 hours, stirred occasionally. The wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed and the aszú wine is to mature. The casks are stored in a cool environment, and are not tightly closed, so a slow fermentation process continues in the cask, usually for several years. The concentration of aszú was traditionally defined by the number of puttony of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must. Nowadays the puttony number is based on the content of sugar and sugar-free extract in the mature wine. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú-Eszencia representing wines above 6 puttonyos. Unlike most other wines, alcohol content of aszú typically runs higher than 14%. Annual production of aszú is less than one percent of the region's total output.

Tim's red lovers tasting also started with the pálinka, followed by Pannonhalmi Rose from 2009, the Villányi Pinot Noir (our least favorite with a strong taste of vegetables) from 2005, the Villányi A Cuvee from 2000, and the Tokaji Szamorodni from 1999, which was the least sweet Hungarian dessert wine.

The Tokaji Szamorodni type of wine was initially known as főbor (prime wine), but from the 1820s Polish merchants popularized the name samorodny ("the way it was grown" or "made by itself"). What sets Szamorodni apart from ordinary wines is that it is made from bunches of grapes which contain a high proportion of botrytised grapes. Szamorodni is typically higher in alcohol than ordinary wine. Szamorodni often contains up to 100-120 g of residual sugar and thus is termed édes (sweet). However, when the bunches contain less botrytised grapes, the residual sugar content is much lower, resulting in a száraz (dry) wine. Its alcohol content is typically 14%.

I left the wine cellar with a bottle of each the Tokaji Tiszavirág "Mayfly" Cuvee from 2008 and the limited edition Tokaji Aszú (5 puttonyos) from 1993, both sweet Hungarian dessert wines.

Buda Castle District
The whole Castle District in Buda, with its ample historic sights and wonderful panorama of the Danunbe and Pestm is part of UNESCO's World Heritage Site.

The Halászbástya or Fisherman's Bastion is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902 on the plans of Frigyes Schulek. Its seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. The Bastion takes its name from the guild of fishermen that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages. A bronze statue of Stephen I of Hungary mounted on a horse, erected in 1906, stands between the Bastion and the Matthias Church.

The oldest part of the present-day Buda Castle was built in the 14th century by Prince Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. The Gothic palace of King Louis I was arranged around a narrow courtyard next to Stephen's Tower. King Sigismund of Hungary greatly enlarged the palace. During his long reign it became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. The last phase of grand-scale building activity happened under King Matthias Corvinus, when Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen arrived at Buda. The Hungarian capital became the first center of Renaissance north of the Alps.

The spectacular Matthias Fountain (Mátyás-kút) decorates the western forecourt of the palace. It shows a group of hunters lead by King Matthias Corvinus together with hounds, a killed deer, Galeotto Marzio with a hawk and Szép Ilonka with a doe.



To view all our pictures of Budapest, click here.

Budapest

Budapest is comprised of Buda on the west side of the Danube River and Pest on the East and is the capital of Hungary.

Day 1

We arrived in Budapest after a relatively easy drive and checked into our hotel, the Radisson SAS Beke. We headed out to explore and found our way to the Hungarian Parliament building, the second largest Parliament building in Europe next only to the Parliament in England. We learned on our segway tour (Day 2) that there was a competition in Hungary to build a Parliament building. The plans for three different buildings were so great that all three were built in the square. Imre Steindl won the competition but the other two buildings still occupy the square as the Ethnographical Museum and the Ministry of Agriculture. The back of the Parliament faces the river, with stunning views of Castle Hill and the Buda Palace.

After a walk back to the hotel, stopping to scope out some possible restaurant choices for the following day, we got dressed to head out on a romantic dinner cruise on the Danube.

We were welcomed aboard the ship with a choice of a glass of champagne or a palinka (Hungarian double-distilled fruit brandy) and seated at our table. Salon music is performed by three members of the Rajko Folk Orchestra. We set off down the Danube with views of the Four Seasons and the Parliament on our right. We cruised the Danube to Margret Island, then turned around for views of Buda side of the river. We were invited to enjoy a buffet of traditional Hungarian foods including traditional Gulash soup, Tokaj style chicken, Vienna sausage, and stuffed cabbage. Accompaniments were buttered parsley potatoes and a variety of salads. Dinner was followed by an assortment of mini deserts and fresh fruits. We cruised by Castle District, Gellert Hill, and under the Chain, Elizabeth, and Liberty Bridges all by candlelight.

Day 2

Having read many rave reviews of City Segway Tours, we had to experience it for ourselves! We arrived at the City Segway Tours office and met our guide, Agnes. Another couple from England, Ben & Katie, were also on the tour with us and a nice man named Yew Wei. Yew Wei was the only one that had been on a segway before, so we all got a lesson. We learned how to get on, move forward and back, make turns, go up and down curbs, and how to get off.  After the lesson and a little practice in the street, we were off to our first stop: the Opera House on Andrássy Avenue.

Statues of the world's greatest composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi adorn the main facade of the Opera House, which was built in 1875. Scenes from the film Evita were also filmed here. We continued on down Budapest's famous Andrássy Avenue, which is part of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites list. The street is lined with sycamores and many expensive shops such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Gucci. 

Next we zoomed off, with many looks from people on the street, for a quick stop at Vigado Promenade and then onto Vaci Street, which is one of the main pedestrian shopping streets in Budapest. Vaci Street opens into Vörösmarty Square. At the centre of the square facing west is a large statue of poet Mihaly Vorosmarty and at the north end of the square is the famous Cafe Gerbeaud.

We carried on to the Danube Promenade, which runs along the Pest bank of the Danube between the Elizabeth and Chain Bridges. From the Promenade, a great view of Buda stretches out before you with views of the Taban Church, Buda Castle, Matthias Church, and the Chain Bridge.  Here we got to switch from slow to fast speeds and zipped down the promenade to the Chain Bridge.The Chain Bridge is a suspension bridge and it was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Budapest, and was opened in 1849.

From the Chain Bridge, we continued zipping along to the Parliament building. The rain was coming down a bit harder at this point and I literally ran into a pole on a building trying to avoid the rain run-off from the gutter above. With a now broken segway, Agnes kindly handed hers over and walked on with my broken one.  Mortified, We continued on from the Parliament to St. Stephen's Basilica and then back on to Andrássy Avenue to end the tour. 


Hungry, we walked back down Andrássy Avenue with hamburgers at the Folet Cafe catching our eye. These Hungarian hamburgers had to have been the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen and they were delicious! The hand cut steak pototoes (thing potatoes quartered and fried) and cabbage with mayonnaise (kind of like cole slaw) were equally as tasty.


We headed back to St. Stephen's Basilica to see the interior of Budapest's tallest building, built in 1851. In the very back left of the church is St. Stephen's chapel. The Holy Right Hand rests in the chapel. King Stephen died on August 15, 1038. On the same date in 1083, he was canonized in Szekesfehervar.  His right hand found intact was has been highly esteemed by the Hungarian nation ever since. Now shruken and yellowed, the hand still clutching precious jewels resides in a reliquary shaped like Matthias Church. We also visited the dome of the Basilica for a panoramic view of Budapest.

Ready for some relaxation, we visited the Szechenyi Bath, Budapest's first thermal baths on the Pest side in 1881. After a little confusion getting checked in, securing our changing cabins, and finding the towel rental, we headed outside to the three outdoor pools. From left to right, the first is a pool with streaming water, an effevescent bath, and massaging whirpool (32 - 34 degrees Celius). The middle is a swimming pool. And the last is a thermal sitting bath (38 degrees Celius). The hot spring contains a significant amount of fluoride and metabolic acid, along with calcium, magnesium, hydro-carbonate, sodium and sulphate, effective to cure degenerative illnesses of joints, as well as chronic and semi-acute arthritis. It is also fit for orthopaedic and post-injury treatments. The inside rooms of the bath house have 12 more thermal bath sections of varying water temperatures and a variety of dry saunas.  The thermal sitting bath was our favorite, especially as the sun set.


For dinner, we walked back to the Danube Promenade and had a lovely outdoor dinner at Duna Corso, http://www.dunacorso.hu/.  Warmed by the heaters, each table even has blankets if you need them, we dined on Cesar salad, fillet mignon of pork in smoked cheese with vegetables tagliatelle and red wine sauce, and roasted chicken with parsley potatoes and crispy vegetables.


We topped off the night with a stroll along the Danube Promenade and across the Chain Bridge to the Buda side of the river.