Budapest travel blog - September 2017

What with moving house and getting Barney, we hadn't been abroad for three years. We also hadn't been apart from Barney since we got him fifteen months earlier (I know!), so a trip away was long overdue. We managed to find a willing volunteer to look after him for a long weekend and thought we should take the opportunity to get away. We considered various options but settled on Budapest. We'd enjoyed our time in Prague, and hoped Budapest would have a similar feel to it.

We flew out of Heathrow, which was surprisingly easy to get to now that we live in Wiltshire, even if the M4 was a bit sticky. It was a late flight and so not full, so we spread out and took over three seats for a bit more space. I'm not a keen at flying but it went well and we landed before my boredom had got too extreme. I'd booked airport transfers in advance so we headed through to arrivals and were met and handed over to our taxi driver when he arrived. The journey to our hotel took about half an hour, after check in we were glad to get to our room as it was the early hours of the morning due to the late timing of the flight.

When we got up the next morning it was a bit of a miserable looking day. We headed down for breakfast to set us up for the day and then headed out. We thought a rainy day would be a good day to spend on indoor sightseeing and so started off heading for the Great Synagogue. It's the largest synagogue in Europe and interesting as it's not set out in the usual Jewish style. It was sobering and fascinating, well worth a visit.

Great Synagogue, Dohany Street

Great Synagogue, Dohany Street

Great Synagogue, Dohany Street

Emmanuel Tree memorial, Great Synagogue

We then headed to St Stephen's Basilica, stopping for street food on the way. St Stephen's is the largest church in Budapest and is dedicated to Hungary's first king, St Stephen. It is home to Hungary's most sacred (and most bizarre?) treasure, St Stephen's mummified right hand. 

St Stephen's Basilica

St Stephen's Basilica

St Stephen's Basilica

St Stephen's Basilica, christening in progress

A bit of an odd relic, the mummified holy right hand of St Stephen

We headed back to our hotel afterwards to drop off our cameras and to decide on somewhere to eat, after a bit of Googling, we settled on the Tuning Bar and Burger. We were both tired after our late night and just wanted good, easy food. This was a great choice, the food was excellent and service prompt. We headed back to the hotel afterwards happy and full.

The next day we got up and were pleased to see blue skies when we drew back the curtains. We had a quick breakfast and then headed off for a full day of sightseeing. We walked down to the riverside and then up to the Chain Bridge before walking over. 

Chain Bridge

Buda Castle from the Chain Bridge

Once over the Chain Bridge we headed to the funicular railway and took this up to Buda Castle. 

Funicular railway

Looking back over Chain Bridge from Buda Castle

We had a walk along the frontage of Buda Castle and took in the sights looking over the river. From here we walked through the streets to Matthias Church. It was much smaller than St Stephen's Basilica, but just as impressive in a different way.

Matthias Church

Matthias Church

Matthias Church

After visiting the church we crossed the courtyard to Fisherman's Bastion, a viewing platform looking over Pest. 

Fisherman's Bastion

View of Matthias Church from Fisherman's Bastion

From here we headed back down to the riverside and walked up towards Margaret Bridge. On the way we stopped to take in the view of the Parliament Building across the Danube.

Parliament Building

By this time our legs were starting to feel like we should be heading towards the hotel, so we stopped off at Margaret Island for a late lunch and to rest our feet with a stop to watch the dancing fountains.

Stunning fountains on Margaret Island

After a break we crossed back to Pest over Margaret Bridge and headed back down the riverside, passing the Parliament building and Shoes on the Danube, a memorial to the thousands executed on the riverbank.

Shoes on the Danube

We found ourselves heading back towards St Stephen's Basilica and decided to stop for an early evening meal in the square outside. The food was good and the view spectacular.

We woke on our final day to another grey day but had half a day to fill before we had to head home. We packed and left our suitcases in the luggage room and then headed out. We walked over to City Park, which was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. There was a protest camp and renovation work underway. It all looked a bit rundown and tired. We headed through the park to Heroes' Square, which was more what we expected.

Heroes' Square

Once we'd visited Heroes' Square we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags and wait for our taxi. We were back at the airport in about half an hour and then had a painful wait due to our flight being delayed. Again, we had a row to ourselves on the flight home, the views over London were spectacular, we circled around and saw the O2, the London Eye and Tower Bridge, a perfect sightseeing end to our holiday.

London at dusk

My Fitbit told me that I'd walked 36 kilometres over the three days on holiday, so I was happy to do my final bit of sightseeing from my seat. Budapest was a really interesting city to visit; I'd been anxious before I went that I didn't speak any Hungarian, but everyone we met was friendly and spoke good English so I needn't have worried. I think our choice of city for a long weekend was perfect, we got to see everything we wanted to, but without feeling like it was a rush. Perfect.

My plans for 2016

 

Whenever I've come up with New Year's resolutions in the past they always seem destined to fail. I think putting pressure on yourself to change a number of things all at once is just too much. As such, this year I've not so much come up with resolutions as plans for the year. I've left out anything which I have no control over, and things that are traditional resolutions as I don't want to set myself up for a fall. That leaves me with a list of things I'd like to achieve which I can review as the year goes by, and which I'll actually enjoy.    

Read sixteen books 
This was originally going to be fifteen until a friend pointed out that 16 in '16 sounded much better. I struggle to find time to read (I think I read just one book last year), so I've just set a number rather than making it more specific, by genre or subject. I've got a number of unread books on my Kindle, so I just need to focus on picking it up and reading when I have spare time, rather than just browsing Twitter for the twentieth time that day.     

Find one hundred geocaches 
We had this as an objective last year but my husband's eye surgery in November and December scuppered us. Although the year hasn't got off to the best start, with yet more surgery, I'd still like to try to achieve it this year. I love geocaching, it's a great motivator for getting out for a walk and some fresh air, even if we do look like mentalists digging around in the undergrowth when we reach ground zero.     

Maintain Vitality gold status 
I get private medical cover through work with Vitality. Every time you do something that's good for you (whether it's exercise, going for a dental check up, getting a health check etc.) you earn a certain number of points. You start on bronze status and build up through silver and gold before reaching platinum. I've managed to reach gold each year and want to do the same again, if for no other reason than it gets me a free weekly cinema ticket, free coffee at Starbucks and an iTunes gift card.     

Try three gym classes 
As with so many things, my gym trips have been curtailed by recent medical events, but hopefully I'll be able to get everything back on track before too long. I normally hit the treadmill and then call it a day but I think it's time to try group exercise. There are lots of classes at the gym, so I'd like to aim to try three of them in the hope of finding one I'd like to attend regularly.     

Meet up with an old friend 
I've moved around a bit, I grew up in Shropshire, left for college then moved to Gloucester for work, moved to Bristol when I met my husband and then moved to Wiltshire last year for work. Every time I've moved I've lost touch with friends, however hard I've tried to keep in touch. Honestly, I'm sure Bristol is only 40 miles away, not 400! This year I'm going to put a special effort into meeting up with a friend who I've not seen for a couple of years or more. Everyone has such busy lives, especially once they have children, that it takes a bit of organisation to meet up, but it's always worth it.

Blog once a month 
Last year I found it virtually impossible to find the time to write any posts. I'm going to try harder this year, I'm hoping this list will mean I'll have something to write about, as I make progress.    

Watch a new film once a month  
I love watching films and saw quite a few at the cinema in the first half of last year. I've got quite a long list of films that I'd like to see, they may no longer be new releases, but they're new to me. I'd like to try to watch one of these a month.    

Take two holidays 
Work is pretty full on through the summer, so we normally try to take a week off either side of the traditional summer break. This year we went to Northumberland and Skye. Whether we go abroad or not will depend on whether we get a dog this year, but I'm sure we'll have a relaxing time wherever we go.    

Take six day trips 
We're both keen photographers and love a day trip to see something new and take some photographs. As we've only been in Wiltshire since last May there are plenty of places for us to explore. We just need a break in the rain to enjoy them!


Suddenly this seems like quite a long list! I've already made a start on a few of these and will post an update each month on my progress. If you're doing something similar, I'd love to hear about it. 

Birthday break in Pembrokeshire

 At the end of April we went to Pembrokeshire for a long weekend for my husband's birthday. We'd both had a bit of a stressful time with work, and so were desperate for a few days away from it all.

The drive to Saundersfoot, where we were staying didn't take long, around three hours, we arrived at St Brides Hotel mid afternoon and were welcomed and show to our room. It was cosy with a balcony that gave us a view of the coast.

 As it was such a clear, dry day, we didn't want to stay inside and so headed straight back out for a quick look around town and some geocaching. It didn't take long to realise that although the weather looked fine, there was a cold wind blowing off the coast. We had a walk around, did a couple of caches and were then pleased to get back to the warmth of the hotel.

Before we left the house that morning, we'd had a Patisserie Valerie cake delivered from Andrew's bosses. A piece of cake broke the afternoon up nicely!

 

 We stayed in for the rest of the day, had a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant and generally lounged around reading and watching television.

The next morning we headed over to Pembroke Castle. It was even more impressive than I'd imagined. It was in a good enough state of repair that you could climb up inside a number of the towers, which gave a great view of the surroundings, and work your way around using the walkways that connected them.

We had a bit of excitement when the wind caught Andrew's hat and blew it off over the castle walls. We managed to spot where it was on the ground below, so we could collect it later.

 After exploring the castle, we stopped for a cup of tea and then headed into Pembroke to find some caches. We ended up walking by the river, which gave a great view looking down to the castle.

That evening we headed out to the Marina restaurant for some proper seaside fish and chips. They were delicious, much better than the greasy battered fish we get at home.

The next morning, we set out for a day of geocaching. We found nine in total, and probably covered about five miles. The one that really stood out was this one, an old World War 2 underground bunker. I was glad to stay above ground and let Andrew explore!

We had a final meal at the hotel that night and headed home in the morning. Unfortunately we didn't find time to make use of the spa facilities on site, but that may just make for a good excuse for a return visit!

Getting away from it all in Norfolk

It seemed like ages since our last holiday, our trip to Iceland (you can read about that here), we'd both had a rough few months, plagued with illness and too much work, and so were in desperate need of a week away. We wanted somewhere away from the hubbub of modern life, where we could relax, curl up in front of a fire, read books and go out for a walk when we fancied. We decided on North Norfolk and found a cottage with some availability for the week in mid November when we both felt that work could manage without us.

We left home late morning and made the mistake of following the satnav, rather than common sense. After a journey along the M4, round the M25, up A roads and ending in crawling up unlit single carriageway roads in the dark for hours on end, we were very glad to arrive at around 6pm. As it was so dark, we struggled to find the cottage and then had difficulty finding the house where we had to pick the key up from. We managed to find house names with the light from our mobile phones and were soon unpacking the car and getting settled in.

The cottage instantly felt both cosy and luxurious as it had heated floors, a welcoming sofa, huge bed with cushions and a drench shower. We'd brought some food from home and were happy just to heat that up and settle down for the evening. 

Andrew is known for forgetting something nearly everytime we have a week away from home in the UK. First time it was socks, then pants. This time it was pyjamas. At least that meant we had something to do the next day, King's Lynn it was, to see what their M&S could offer him in the way of night attire!

Luckily our trip to King's Lynn was succesful, we parked easily, found M&S, purchased the necessary nightwear and then headed to Sainsbury's to stock up on food for the week. After stopping off for coffee, we headed back to the cottage to put our feet up.

Andrew loves steam trains, so when I read about the North Norfolk Railway, I knew it was something we had to do whilst we were in the area. As we were well out of season, it wasn't running every day, but as the weather forecast for the next day was good and the trains running, we made plans to do that as our Sunday activity.

We got up and drove to Holt (only about 15 minutes from where we staying) to get the train. Andrew headed off to take photos, whilst I grabbed a seat inside, he joined me just as the whistle blew to announce our departure. The journey to Sheringham didn't take long and the views from the window kept us entertained. On arrival, we headed down to the sea front and had a bracing walk, before the wind forced us away from the front. We made our way to the model boat lake where Andrew had spent many an hour in his childhood, as his great Aunt had a holiday flat there, which the family used to stay in. We decided to do a couple of geocaches whilst we were in the area, and so walked up to the cliffs beside the golf club. After taking in the view, we returned to the town, had some lunch and explored a little more, before taking the train back to Holt.

 

On the Monday, we finally did what we had planned for the week; very little. We relaxed, tried out the cottage's collection of boardgames, watched television and read books. It was good not to feel guilty about doing nothing!

That said, by the next day, we felt we needed to get some air and decided to go out and do a few geocaches. We found a circular set of twelve caches around the village of Mileham and set out to do them. It was a lovely day out, we bumped into some friendly locals, both four legged and two legged, took in some fresh air and got some exercise into the bargain. The sunset on the way back to the car was breath-taking.

On Wednesday, we decided to take a trip into Norfolk, for a wander round the shops. Whilst there we stopped off at the cinema to see Skyfall. We both really enjoyed it as we rarely get round to going to the cinema at home. By the time we came to head home the fog had rolled in. With the roads being unlit and mostly without cats eyes, the drive home was pretty nerve-wracking. I was very glad that we got back without incident.

By Thursday, we felt like we should be making the most of the fresh air and so ventured out geocaching again. I've blogged about our day here. It was fab, we had a really good walk around Castle Acre which was a lovely village, even if we did get rather muddy!

We got up early on the Friday to head home, this time over-ruling the satnav and avoiding the M25! We'd had a great week away and it set us up for the last six weeks of work for the year.