Budapest, Hungary
The second stop on our 2012 European Delivery adventure was Budapest, Hungary.
We stayed at St. George Residence for three nights.
The package we bought on Luxury Link was for an 800 square foot room with a fully equipped kitchen, separate living room, breakfast for two each morning, a 3-course dinner for two, a bottle of champagne and a bouquet of fresh flowers.
Pretty sweet deal!
After we settled in we went to the courtyard to plan the rest of our afternoon…
… over a couple of beers.
We stayed on the Buda side of Budapest up on Castle Hill, the oldest part of the city.
My favorite thing about Castle Hill is Matthias Church.
The church was originally built in 1015 in Romanesque style, and I think it’s stunning.
It is located in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion, a terrace with seven towers overlooking the Danube River and the Pest side of Budapest.
The Danube River separates the two sides with Buda on the west bank:
And Pest on the east:
We read great things about Hunyadi Étterem Restaurant on Trip Advisor City Guides so we checked it out for dinner.
It ended up being our favorite meal in Budapest. It was everything we love to find in a restaurant while traveling — creative food, attentive service, and mostly locals eating there.
We started with Sautéed Oyster Mushrooms with Thyme, Camembert, and Goat Cheese:
Next I had the Fillet of Chicken Breast rolled in Bacon and stuffed with Ewe’s Cheese with Potato Dumplings and Paprika Sour Cream.
Our dessert was a Chocolate Souffle with Sour Cherries sauteed with Pálinka (a traditional fruit brandy).
After dinner we walked along the terrace of Fisherman’s Bastion:
And then ooed and awed as we walked around Matthias Church.
Budapest is one of the prettiest cities we’ve been to.
The next couple of days we took in most of the sights.
The Hungarian National Gallery is located in Buda Castle:
Buda Castle is massive and we ended up spending several hours there.
The Chain Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects Buda and Pest. It opened on November 20, 1849.
It was the longest in Europe at that time and was one of the modern world’s engineering wonders with just two towers supporting the spans with giant iron chains.
St. Stephen’s Basilica is the largest church in Budapest.
The basilica has six bells — one in the south tower and five in the north tower.
It was completed in 1905 after 54 years of construction.
54 years!
The dome collapsed during construction in 1868 and they had to start over from the ground up.
We took the elevator to the top of the dome and got an amazing 360° view of Budapest.
The Hungarian State Opera House is located in central Budapest.
It is considered to be among the best opera houses in the world in terms of its acoustics.
Unfortunately, they do not have performances in July or August but we were able to tour the inside.
Szabadság Square is downtown Budapest.
They had a huge TV in the park playing the Summer Olympics so we hung-out and watched Hungary and Taiwan play Ping Pong.
The Hungarian Parliament Building is one of Europe’s oldest legislative buildings.
It sits on the bank of the Danube River with the main facade — and prettiest side in my opinion — facing the river.
After 3 days of exploring Budapest we started our journey towards Bratislava, Slovakia.
We passed several wind farms along the way, and I don’t know about you, but I think they are really cool.
We crossed into Slovakia and were in Bratislava by early afternoon.
Next stop, Bratislava — European Delivery.
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You can read about the BMW European Delivery process HERE and HERE.