Budapest, Hungary

After a great train trip we arrived in Budapest.  Our hotel was on the southern arm of the river south on the Pest side,  I had copied down some directions off the hotel website,  so we set off on our way with the initial help of a friendly Hungarian whose actual original mission was to get us to stay at her hotel, but when she found out we already had accommodation she still pointed us in the right direction  - luckily or else we may have had trouble finding tram 23.  We jumped on and after awhile it became clear that there was no stop named anything like we were supposed to get off on.  I got my notes out again, and decided that no we must be right so stayed on for a bit longer.  Then got off in the middle of now where with no one to ask for help - then got back on the next tram and off two stops later  only to be told we were miles away from where we needed to be and to catch another bus blah blah blah - are you getting the picture yet!  By this time it was around 2pm, 34 degrees, packs were heavy and we were getting totally pissed off.  After catching another bus back to were we got off the second time, I said to Murray bugger this lets get a taxi, we asked the taxi driver who said no you can walk there - yeah right - about twenty minutes later we got there, literally dripping wet, dangerously thirsty and completely knacked!  Thankfully our cabin was really neat, but unfortunately the bar didn't open for about 1 hour, so stripped off and lay on the bed and had a zizzz.  Welcome to Hungary.

Hotel botel Lisa, Budapest

The local drop went down a treat, cold too.  We went for a little walk along the river bank, there was a big rowing club on either side of the boat, with eights, quads, doubles and singles.  Lots and lots of people were rowing.  And the river was actually quite busy, with small boats going up and down and people sunning themselves on the banks and people fishing.  The water, like the Danube was very dirty hence why no one was swimming.  We decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant which was really nice and tasty traditional Hungarian food - goulash - delicious.  

Yummy !

After a good nights sleep we decided to head off the next day, hire some bikes and go along the river.  Ah no -  you can rent a bike but pick up is in the city, we didn't really want to go back into a city and look at more old things ie churches, castles and the like.  We headed off towards the east sort of and hoped to come across the other river - which we finally did, and walked along until we could no further and then tried to get back came out in the middle of an industrial area and followed a train line out until we finally found something familiar.

The other side of the peninsular (?)

Lets just follow this for awhile and see where it get us......

We ended up by catching a train into Budapest.  We then jumped on a boat and went for a bit of a tour up the river.  We got off at Margaret Island.  A beauty spot with steep concrete ramps down to the edge of the river.  It was a stunning day and lots of people were out sunbathing.  The island was 2.5km long by 500m.  It had two major hotels on it, a running club, loads of parks, a padded running track right around the island, pubs, gyms, swimming pools and of course some ruins.  No cars, only taxis and buses, which is quite neat.  We went for a walk around some of it before heading back to catch the boat.  Definitely recommend a visit to this place.  Originally is was known as the Island of rabbits and was a hunting ground, then in the 13th century it became a nunnery and King Bella IV made a promise to his country that if he sent his daughter Margaret to the nunnery, he would then rebuild the city after the Mongol invasion.  So 11 year old Margaret was sent there and this hence the name.

On Margaret Island looking back towards Pest.

A big burly policeman trying to encourage a topless bather to put something on.
She was not keen at all and it appeared to take ages for her to reach for something to put on,
later on Murray - just happened to be walking past and she was topless again. - Poor boys!!

Hungarian boat ramp - Margaret Island style. 

Drive the boat on and winch it back up.

The hydrofoil that runs between Vienna and Budapest.

We caught the boat and headed back down the river, seeing some impressive sights along the way.  We got off and walked to the main train station to sort out the next days journey.

Hungary Parliament building, built in 1904, one thousand people worked on constructing it with 40 million bricks,
500,000 precious stones and 40 kg of gold !  Standing at 96m, and 268m long, with 10 courtyards and 691 rooms.
We were told the draughtsman never got to see it before going blind, as it took over ten years to build.

The Margaret Bridge

The Chain Bridge 

Its not every day you get 40,000 from the ATM