Budapest, Part 3

During the winter break BB#1 and I had another great day in Budapest.

We visited my brother, who lives in the Castle district.

First we went to see the Fisherman’s Bastion, because BB#1 wanted to use his new binoculars, and there is a great view from there.

The Fisherman’s Bastion is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill in Budapest, around Matthias Church. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902.

From the towers and the terrace there is a panoramic view of Pest.

Its seven towers represent the seven Hungarian tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. (Wikipedia)

BB#1 and his binoculars 🙂

A bronze statue of Stephen I of Hungary mounted on a horse, erected in 1906, can be seen between the Bastion and the Matthias Church.

Then we went to have coffee and cake at the famous Ruszwurm Confectionary. It was founded in 1827.

BB#1 and my brother’s girlfriend enjoying tea and ginger 🙂

Their best cake is:

The Ruszwurm Cream Pastry

The classical Hungarian pastry, simply called “creamy”, is a cooked egg cream with vanilla mixed with the egg white after cooking. However, the Ruszwurm cream pastry is not mellowed with the egg white but with whipped cream, of course when cold.

Then we had some quite time in my brother’s flat.

Then we walked to have lunch in Pest:

We had lunch at an italian restaurant Pomo D’oro.

We ate a Mediterranean grilled meat platter for 2 persons (Tenderloin roll wrapped in bacon, marinated legs of pullet, lamb skewer, salsiccia – Italian home-made sausage, bony veal chop), pizza and salad.

After a big lunch we had to walk some more to burn calories and we found this:

an ice skating rink in front of St. Stephen Basilica 🙂

Do you like italian food?

Ten Thoughts Tuesday

1. This is the last TTT for 2014.

2. I was sick with some stomach virus for like 10 days, but luckily I get better in time for Christmas.

3. The good side of the virus was that I couldn’t eat nd lost some weight 🙂

4. Christmas Eve was spent at my parents house. Good food, Family and presents 🙂

5. The children really enjoyed Christmas, they got some nice gifts. BB#1 was most happy with his Olympus Binoculars. He also got some ice skates, so we will have to go to the ice skating ring to try it out.

6. On Saturday I took BB#1 to Budapest with a train to visit my brother and his girlfriend. We had a lovely day. The sun was shining and we spent the day walking, shopping and eating 🙂

7. It turned out we picked the best day to travel, because on sunday winter arrived. It was snowing the whole day and there was like 15 cm of snow and really bad winds…

8. On monday I had to take BB#2 to the pediatric ophthalmologist. He does not need glasses and he said his eyes even improved since last year so that is great news.

9. I have no idea what we will do for new years eve but it does not seem too exciting since husband will work on the 31st and on january first too 🙂

10. Happy New years to every reader of the blog 🙂

Budapest, Part 2

My brother left Hungary a long time ago. First he was living in the USA, mostly in California. Then a couple of years ago he moved back to Europe and has been living in the UK. So this spring when he finally landed a part time job in Budapest I was really happy, because this meant I would get to see him more.

So finally a couple of weeks ago, we finally arranged to meet each other in Budapest on a saturday. I was anxious to see where he was living etc.

Blackberry #1 had a school trip to Budapest for the same day, so I took him to the train station and took the same train to Budapest as the class 🙂 BB#2 stayed home with his Dad, so I was kid free for most of the day 🙂

My brother lives in the Castle district in Buda.

He lives 2 blocks from this beauty:

This is Matthias Church, a Roman Catholic church, also known as Church of Our Lady, it was founded by King Béla IV. after the Mongolian invaders left Hungary in 1242. Not much remained of the original building due to numerous expansions, wars and reconstructions.

We had lunch in the Manna Lounge, also located in the castle district:

 Appetizer:

Pumpkin-rhubarb Mille-feuille

 Main dish:

White wine steamed salmon with spinach strudel and Chardonnay cream sauce

Dessert:

Pineapple tatar with bourbon vanilla and raspberry mousse

After lunch we started our stroll:

The Habsburg Gate.

The Royal Palace.

The Matthias Fountain.

The view from the Castle 🙂 The river Danube, Pest and The Parlament.

We continued our stroll and crossed the Danube on the Chain bridge and found this strange statue at the other end of the bridge.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I have spent many hours here listening to interesting lectures, and was once even invited for champagne with the head of the Academy, when I received a tender for young scientists.

St. Stephen’s Basilica is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary. Today, it is the third largest church in Hungary.

Before going back to the train station we had coffee. Starbucks: Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin pie and apple pie 🙂

Have you been to Budapest before?

Budapest, Part 1

I have been blogging for more than a year now and I have not written anything about our country’s wonderful capital Budapest.

A couple of weeks ago I took BB#1 on a trip to Budapest, just the 2 of us. A little one-on-one time 🙂

He has only been to Budapest a couple of times, and we always just went to IKEA, so it was high time to show him something else 🙂

We took the train to see Hungary’s countrside:

The train ride takes 2 hours and 22 minutes. It was interesting that since I was travelling with a child (who has to pay for the train above the age 6, but gets a 50% discount) I also got a 30% discount on my adult train ticket.

An friend of mine (who happens to be a guy) picked us up from the train station and took us to the ZOO. Right next to the zoo is the famous:

The Gundel Patisserie 🙂

The Gundel restaurant has been one of the most famous restaurant in Hungary for more than a century. However only few people know, that Károly Gundel created wonderful desserts and cakes too, among others the Gundel crepes and the famous Gundel torte. This heritage is now being continued in the Gundel Patisserie.

So first we had some coffee and cakes:

They even make a coconut ball look exotic 🙂

I had some baked cheesecake 🙂

It was really nice to catch up with my friend, but he had to go to work so we entered the zoo.

The Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden is the one of the oldest in the world.

It has 1072 animal species.

The zoo opened its doors on August 9, 1866. The park has 1–1.1 million visitors every year.

First we took this bus around the zoo, because it started raining.

You could pet kangaroos 🙂 We only looked at them 🙂

The butterfly house was very exciting 🙂

At the zoo even the plant pots have lions on them 🙂

BB#1 with the piranhas 🙂

I never knew a brown bear was this huge!

This is how big the heart of a Blue whale is!

And we ended the day at Starbucks 🙂

The zoo is huge! So we only saw like half of it, so we will have to go back 🙂