Big Day

Today we did the big tour of Castle Hill and Fisherman's Bastion, the most visited site in Budapest.

The weather is beautiful, high of 75, and it's supposed to be in the 70s all week. We are using the Big Bus mostly for transportation today so we got off at the funicular stop just to discover we're here the one week a year it's closed for maintenance. We had to buy tickets for the official castle shuttle bus which has several stops on the hill. It always runs for people who don't want to take the funicular. The funicular rails are impressive even without cars on them but it was a disappointment not to be able to stand in line and wait to ride it. Instead, we had to stand in line waiting for the shuttle. It's very touristy here, a few Americans, more Brits, and even Hungarians. Since Castle Hill is the most touristy place in the city, there were lots of tour buses and  lots of huge groups.

We toured the Hungarian National Gallery which has 3 floors of art, including a collection of impressionist paintings by artists everyone knows and their Eastern European contemporaries. The building itself is beautiful, both the interior and exterior.

We wandered around the Fisherman's Bastion but didn't pay to walk the upper wall. There are beautiful views of the river and Pest from any where you look. We did pay to see St. Matyas.  It's spectacular. Originally built in 1470, it was named after the king. Through most of the Middle Ages, only Germans could worship there. It was converted to a mosque when the Turks came to power in the 1500s. It was damaged in WWII and wasn't renovated until 1968. And yes, I plagiarized that information from a tour book.

The blogger app isn't working correctly so I can't label, but below is a pic of St. Matyas.

After touring, we walked to Pierrot, a fine restaurant that has duck liver three ways. Johnny and Terry found it originally and Nicole and I had it a few years ago. It's an appetizer and well worth whatever it cost. It has foie gras, seared liver and duck brulee. Delicious.

After the liver, we walked to Ruszwurm for the cream cake. They call 2 different desserts they call their popular cream cake. I had the one that's vanilla cream with a thin pastry top and bottom and no cake in sight and one is a chocolate layer cake with fudgy icing. The place was packed and they didn't run out but if they had, they also make multiple kinds of strudel.

According to Fitbit, we walked way too much during the day so we rested for awhile and then went for a boat cruise that's included in the price of the Big Bus ticket. We got there by a car service called Bolt. The app is similar to Uber but the cars are cabs. You don't want to hail a cab in Budapest because you'll be ripped off. It's cheap, quick and reliable.  We used it again after dinner.

The cruise was pleasant. We could have gone any time during the day but we wanted to see the city lit up at night. It's so warm, we could even stand outside for awhile. Below is the castle at night. The Parliament  is the most beautiful building at night but we didn't have a good camera angle.

After the tour, we walked to the Curry House, an Indian restaurant highly recommended but it was full so we went to the Europa Cafe on Vaci, a pedestrian street. Typical Hungarian food again. I had chicken paprika and Joyce had goulash stew, a reversal of what we had the night before except my goulash was soup. Except for goose liver, I think we've now had the highlights of Hungarian food. We might have to break down and make reservations at the popular restaurants. 

We haven't done laundry yet. This apartment has a washer and no dryer but the towel warmers in the bathrooms work. Always great for quick drying. We will have to do laundry soon though. We've been here two days.