Prague - Budapest - London

We arrived by train in Budapest on the evening of Monday 2/1/17.
Our first impression of the city was the central Budapest Keleti Train station which was frankly quite unpleasant and more than a little bit seedy.
We took a local bus to our Airbnb apartment in the Terezvaros neighbourhood (on the Pest side of Budapest) just a 5 minute walk from the popular City Park. The apartment was warm, cosy and modern and once we were settled in we wandered down the street to pick up some groceries and a pizza for dinner.

On Tuesday after a leisurely breakfast at home we took a walk around the City Park including the Budapest Zoo, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Municipal Circus, skating rink and Szechenyi Baths.
We decided not to actually pay to go inside the zoo as most reports suggest that the zoo is of poor quality and the animals not well cared for.
Adjacent to City Park we walked over to Heroes Square (Hosok Tere) which is one of Hungary's World Heritage Listed sites. Heroes Square is famous for it's iconic statue complex including statues of the Seven Chieftains of the Magyars and other famous Hungarian leaders as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
We then took the communist era style metro to inner city Budapest and enjoyed gourmet burgers and Hungarian craft beer for lunch at Meatology.
We finished off the afternoon with a walk along the Danube River then made our way home.

(Photos: City Park; outside Vajdahunyad Castle; the skating rink; Heroes Square; lunch; Danube River promenade).

Wednesday was grey and very cold and we took the metro back into the city. We walked across the Szechenyi Chain Bridge to the Buda side of Budapest and then took the funicular up to Buda Castle. As soon as we arrived it started snowing and Matt was like a little kid enjoying his first proper snowfall.
We spent the morning exploring the Buda Castle complex in the snow including Fisherman's Bastion Matthias Church and the Golden Eagle Pharmacy Museum.

In the afternoon we walked back over the bridge to Pest and took a cruise on the Danube River.

(Photos: the Szechenyi Chain Bridge; funicular; Golden Eagle Pharmacy Museum; Fisherman's Bastion; photos from the boat cruise).

Thursday we went back to City Park and went ice skating then looked around the grounds of Castle Vajdahunyad which is now home to the Budapest Agricultural Museum.
It was extremely cold and I picked up Matt's cold so we spent the afternoon rugged up at home.

(Photos: ice skating; Castle Vajdahunyad).

Friday was the coldest day of our entire trip with a low of -12. As such it was the perfect day to spend at Szechenyi Thermal Baths. Szechenyi Baths is one of the largest thermal pool complexes in Europe with 21 indoor and outdoor pools of varying temperatures along with a sauna and wellness spa.

For dinner on our last evening we went to the very popular Robinson Restaurant in City Park. This was without doubt our favourite meal of the holiday and possibly one of the best restaurants we have ever been to!

Saturday we flew home to London and had two days at home before heading back to work.

(Photos: Szechenyi Thermal Baths; dinner at Robinson Restaurant).