48 Hours in Budapest – top things to see on a spring break – video

Last time I was in Budapest it was summertime, with thunderstorms threatening to crack the warm humidity and we took the children to watch the Hungarian folk dancing for the St Stephen’s day festival. This time I was back in February with a breath of snow in the air, but the promise of spring just around the corner. This was a family trip of a different sort; I had 48 hours with my parents and sisters, to see the sights, eat some great food and have as much fun as possible together.

I hope you enjoy the video below about our 48 hours in Budapest

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For such a short trip, I think the choice of a hotel can really make or break the experience, so after reviewing the many hotel options on the Avios website, we decided to go for 5 star Intercontinental Hotel. This classy hotel combines location and luxury and is perfectly positioned on the banks of the Danube, close to most of the main sites of Budapest.

The bedroom window framed a postcard view of the Royal Palace on the Castle Hill, so it seemed obvious to make this the first area to explore. A brisk walk across the Chain Bridge and we found ourselves at the foot of the hill, in front of the funicular which is more of a tourist attraction than something that the locals use. I guess it’s one of those try-it-once kind of things, but a little expensive at 1000 HUF (£2.90) or 1700 HUF (£4.90) return for the 5 minute journey. I’d already tried-it-once on my previous visit, so instead we decided to climb the easy paths that run up the hill. Once at the top, we followed the stone steps to the wrought iron gates that guard the Royal Palace and found ourselves in a wide paved square, beside the upper funicular station.

The Castle Hill

At the top of the hill the views from the balustrade towards the Pest side of the city and down the Danube were spectacular. In front of the Sandor Palace we watched the soldiers marching back and forth and stamping to attention, as they guarded the residence of the Hungarian President. It was pretty chilly, so we kept moving along the cobble street that runs along the top of the hill towards the St Matthias Church.

On our last visit in the summer a couple of years before, the family had decided to let me look around the St Matthias church alone, and sat in a shady cafe just opposite while I went inside. The church interior was surprisingly colourful with painted frescoes and pillars in rich shades of red and ochre. I recalled hearing somewhere, that many Medieval churches had paintwork that was far more colourful than the bare grey stonework that we see today. I loved the multicoloured tiled roof of the church which is not the original, but was replaced when the church was restored after shelling in the Second World War.

In front of the church is the Fisherman’s Bastion, a fantasy colonnade of turrets and arches, built at the end of the 19th century as a monument to the Guild of Fishermen. Here we found more spectacular views towards the Hungarian Parliament Building on the opposite side of the river, built on a similar design to the Houses of Parliament in London. In summer when we were here, there were open air cafes set up on the battlements and in the arcades, and I listened to the gypsy violinists playing Hungarian folk music for the customers, giving everyone outside a free concert. In February it was far from balmy, so we warmed up in the nearby Ruszwurm Cukrászda cafe over a coffee and slice of strudel.

St Stephen’s Basilica

Back on the other side of the river we walked from the Intercontinental to St Stephen’s Basilica, another major landmark of Budapest, with a dome that dominates the skyline. We had a browse around the souvenir shops in the square and the side streets near the Cathedral which are full of little restaurants and bars, making this a good area to eat out (we tried the Strudel House later that evening). We decided to return to the cathedral for Mass the following Sunday morning and afterwards had a look around the Basilica, which is named after King Stephen I, the first king of Hungary who brought Christianity to his country. Canonised after his death, the saint’s mummified hand is displayed in one of the chapels  of the Basilica and is paraded every year on St Stephen’s Day (20 August) which is a national holiday.

Later that afternoon we walked along Andrassy Avenue, an elegant boulevard with shops selling all the top international brands. We passed by the State Opera House, which I would also have loved to visit, on our way to 60 Andrassy Avenue, now known as The House of Terror.

The House of Terror

This museum was once the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis and until the 1950s housed the communist state terror organisations, where suspects were brought to be interrogated, tortured and executed in the bleak basement prison cells. The museum gives a fascinating insight to how the Hungarian population suffered under Nazi and later communist rule, and is a monument to the victims of terror.

Inside the foyer, we were greeted by a black and white wall of the faces of the victims who suffered here, together with a tank trapped within the inner courtyard, reflecting in a shallow pool of dark water. On the upper floors we passed through a series of exhibition rooms with films and videos showing marching armies and care worn faces of old men and women telling their stories of evacuation, deportation and oppression under the communist regime. The tour ended with a slow descent in the lift down to the basement to a video commentary about the process of execution and then we walked past the cold prison cells. Our visit to the House of Terror was a stark but fascinating and compelling experience that I would highly recommend if you want to understand Hungary’s recent history.

The No 2 Tram

If you want a low cost sightseeing tour, jump on the No 2 tram that runs along the river and stops outside the Intercontinental Hotel. In one direction the tram will take you past the Hungarian Parliament Building to Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island, where we enjoyed an afternoon dip in the open air Palatine Baths on our summer visit. In the other direction, the tram will take you towards the Central Market and Liberty Bridge which you cross to reach the Gellért Baths. You just need to stop at a convenience store to buy a book of tram tickets, which you validate on the tram each time you use one.

The Gellért  Baths

On Sunday afternoon after Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral and an elegant brunch at The New York Cafe, we took the tram to the Gellért Baths for that quintessential Budapest spa experience. This is one thing that’s equally fun in summer or winter; in summer the outdoor pools and terraces are open, while in the winter you can linger in the steamy Turkish baths with sauna and heated pools. The baths are part of the Gellért Hotel, but if you enter at the side, you’ll come straight into the glass domed foyer to buy your ticket at the kiosk. You’ll be given a rubber wrist band with a magnetic disc which gets you through the turnstiles and opens your changing cubicle where you can leave your clothes and belongings securely locked up.

In the central bath you need to wear a swimming cap, but in the other heated pools this is not required. There’s a small heated pool next to the larger one but at the far and of the baths from the entrance you’ll find heated Turkish baths and saunas as well as treatment cubicles on both side of the building. It’s worth checking which day to go as it seems that on some days, the two identical Turkish baths are segregated into male and female, while on other days all areas are mixed. Last time my parents came to Budapest and tried the Gellért Baths, they were directed to different changing rooms and spent some time wandering around, trying to find each other again. We had a good couple of hours trying out all the pools – our favourite was the beautifully tiled Turkish bath and we braved a run up the cold stone steps to the outdoor pool, which was thankfully heated once we got in. Bring your own swimsuit, towel and cap, as these seemed relatively expensive to hire, and flip flops are also useful to keep your feet off the cold and sometimes grubby floor.

The Central Market

On our final morning, we took the No 2 tram again to the Central Market which I’d also visited on my previous trip. The large, glass roofed indoor market is great to walk around and admire all the fresh fruit and veg, as well as the many stalls specialising in meat products of sausages and goose live pate. There were also as a large number of stalls just devoted to selling all kinds of Paprika products, the favourite spice of Hungary.

Upstairs there are stall selling handicrafts and souvenirs and this is a good place to come to buy small gifts to take home, such as the painted eggs that I’ve been collecting to bring out at Easter or hang from my Christmas tree. Along one side there are also a number of food stalls selling snacks and beer. You might like to try the Lángos which is a typical Hungarian street food; a kind of flat doughnut that’s served with many different sweet and savoury toppings, but traditionally spread with cream cheese with a sprinkling of grated cheese.

After lunch at the Central Market it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and take our taxi to the airport. We’d packed a lot in to our 48 hours in Budapest, revisited some old haunts and made new discoveries, had fun in the process, but still left plenty to uncover for next time.

More things to enjoy in Budapest

Folk art and Paprika – my souvenirs of Budapest
Memento Park – Icon’s of Budapest’s communist past
Luxury and Location – our spring break at the Intercontinental Budapest

Avios is an easy way to collect points at the places you shop online everyday, when you buy fuel or spend on your credit card. Then you can exchange the points for a flight, hotel, holiday or fun day out with your family. There’s plenty of inspiration on the Avios website to start planning your next citybreak. You can follow Avios on Twitter @AviosUK or on their AviosUK Facebook page and see some flying lawnmowers on the Avios YouTube channel

Through Avios we booked the luxurious 5 star Intercontinental Hotel Budapest which was perfectly positioned beside the Danube for sightseeing. The hotel has a lovely spa with a pool for those early morning swims as well as relaxing treatments. The hotel can be booked using your Avios Points and a room similar to ours at the time that we were there in February was around 15,000 Avios points or £150-180 per room/night including breakfast but may be higher in peak season. It’s worth looking out for packages that include breakfast and use of the exclusive Club Lounge. You can follow the Intercontinental Budapest on Twitter @ICBudapest and on their Intercontinental Budapest Facebook Page.

Thanks to Avios and Intercontinental Budapest for hosting our 48 hours in Budapest.

www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Budapest – Spring 2013 photoset

This article by Heather Cowper is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

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Five of the best kept secret eateries in London

If you’re tired of the restaurant chains and desperately need to get away from the crowded tourist hotspots of London, you’ll be pleased to learn that there are a wealth of hidden treasures tucked away exclusively for those in the know. From ultra-cool hipster hideaways to quaint and quirky bistros, check out some of the best (secret) eateries in the capital with Show & Stay.

Phat Phuc Noodle Bar, Chelsea

Get your mind out of the gutter; this is not the haunt of some grammatically-challenged chav. For those of us that are cultured and/or fluent in Vietnamese, Phat Phuc (pronounced as it’s spelled) translates to Happy Buddha. And very happy you’ll be once you’ve tasted this delicious Vietnamese food from this fantastic outdoor canteen. Pho noodle soup, a traditional Vietnamese dish, is the plat du jour. It’s a rich and nutritious broth packed with as much flavour as there are vitamins. So swing by, chow down and bon appetit, or more specifically chúc mọi người ăn ngon miệng if you’re Vietnamese.

The Seagrass, Islington

What’s a trip to London without sampling some traditional tucker from the capital? The Seagrass in Islington is a trendy little jaunt that’s affectionately adapted into somewhat of a semi-permanent pop-up. What’s more, it’s BYOB. Yes, that’s ‘bring your own bottle’, a notion often unheard of in today’s society of house wine and meal deals. So nab your favourite bottle of plonk, pull up a pew and enjoy some gorgeous gourmet food with a cockney infusion.

Upstairs Bar and Restaurant, Brixton

A delectable little bijou bar and restaurant, Upstairs is simply wonderful and an absolute must when wanting to enjoy super sumptuous food in the capital. This gastronomic taste sensation takes place in a fantastically designed little flat in London’s trendy Brixton. The food is seasonal and a new menu is selected every two weeks. It can be a little pricey, but every calorie of your meal is worth every single penny you splurge. Be sure to book ahead though as this tremendously tiny treasure is becoming increasingly popular.

Fifteen Street Eats, Hoxton

It seems that most celebrity chefs have trendy restaurants dotted all over the place, like The Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen to name but a few. Of course you can’t mention TV chefs without the excitable Jamie Oliver, where his amazing Fifteen has long been a hip and happening eatery for yuppies and trendsetters alike. However, the thrifty and not so cool aren’t to be neglected, as you can enjoy Jamie Oliver’s famous pucker tucker for just £5 at Fifteen Street Eats, Monday to Friday at Westland Place. This is the ideal way to grab that gastro-winter-warmer when lunch is on the go!

Paul Rothe & Son, Marylebone

This deli-come-café-come-grocery-store has been under the patronage of the Rothe family for  four generations; a family business that’s been running for over one hundred and twelve years. With an air of pleasant nostalgia and a fond homage to days gone by, the shopkeepers wear white overalls, the shelves are stacked with delicious jams and condiments and customer service is second to none, all of which make this exceptional eatery a charming little find in the heart of busy London. The father and son are reputedly ever-welcoming and known amongst the local community for being especially helpful and most accommodating to their patrons. When in the area, pop in, say hello and enjoy a perfect spot of tea and a caramel slice.

Many thanks for these quirky alternatives brought to you by Show & Stay, the UK’s best site for theatre breaks in London.

Photo credits: The Seagrass Restaurant, Upstairs, Brixton by linniekin, Jamie’s Fifteen by Eilam Gil, and Paul Rothe & Son by tiredoflondon, Phat Phuc noodle bar by Mirca23

More delicious food articles:

Veggie delights – Four favourite vegetarian restaurants in Brighton
From Cold War Canteen to Literary Salon – Five great places to eat out in Budapest
A guide to savouring the food of Cyprus

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

 Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Folk art and Paprika – my souvenirs of Budapest

When I travel it’s my pleasure to shop for small souvenirs that create memories of my travels. They have to be light and fun, because who wants to be burdened with too much stuff, spend a lot of money that could have bought another holiday, or pay for extra baggage? As I’m a hand-luggage only girl, my souvenirs have to squeeze in between the clothes and the laptop.

On our recent spring break in Budapest with Avios, we had our fair share of strolling the famous boulevards of Váci utca and Andrássy út, lined with designer names and top international brands. But my heart was in those folk-art gift shops, sifting through the striped woven table cloths and cut felt cushions, thinking about the work of some lady in the Hungarian steppes, who might be using skills that she learned from her grandmother.

Budapest is full of tempting and original souvenirs to buy, so here are some of the things to look out for when you visit;

Traditional Hungarian Folkart

As we were there just before Easter, I was drawn to these baskets of pretty painted eggs with colourful Hungarian motifs. The gift shop in the square of St Stephen’s Basilica had a great selection of these and other traditional Hungarian crafts. I bought a few in pinks and creams to hang up at Easter and one in red and gold to come out again at Christmas to hang on my tree. These painted eggs are perfect to hang from silver twigs or spring branches in a vase to decorate the house at Easter. I also saw some beautiful dyed and patterned real eggs in intricate patterns in the Central Market where the food stalls were downstairs and the handicrafts and souvenirs upstairs.

In the main shopping area we enjoyed looking round the Folkart Kézművészház shop that was full of textiles, red and white woven cloths and cut felt designs from the Hungarian steppes as well as hand embroidered blouses and table cloths.

Folkart Kézművészház, 1052 Budapest Régiposta utca 12

A modern twist on Hungarian crafts

The distinctive Hungarian embroidery designs cropped up again at Fian Koncept, a shop that we discovered along the road from Ruszwrum Cukrasda where we’d been having coffee after looking around the Fisherman’s Bastion. This store was packed with souvenirs and gifts that are modern interpretations of the traditional designs. Here I bought a gold leather purse with colourful Hungarian motifs by Gabriella Lukács and admired the embroidered zip bags that would make a great sponge bag or even a clutch. The owner offered us some dried apple from Fruitfull.hu which seems to be a local speciality and I also bought a red embossed notebook from Szia! for my travel notes. I loved the way that Hungarian motifs had been used on all sorts of desirable objects from Cinq Filles scented candles, to Hungarian gift cards from Moha Design; you can see some beautiful examples on the Fian Concept Facebook Page.

Fian Concept H-101 Budapest, Uri u. 26-28

Hand-painted Herend Porcelain

Herend is the world famous porcelain of Hungary and you can’t go too far in Budapest without seeing the classic, handpainted plates and ornaments. My parents used to collect Herend and gave me some years ago a beautiful plant holder that I kept on my mantelpiece, without realising the Budapest connection. If you are a serious collector, you need to watch out for fakes and be sure to buy from the Herend stores or from a registered stockist, and you should be given a little card of authenticity with your purchase. We passed the Herend Store on Andrássy út with this enormous painted lion which was far to big to bring home in the suitcase so instead my sister bought my mother a pretty little heart shaped dish to put on her dressing table.

Herend, 1061 Budapest, Andrássy út 16

Honey and candles

Walking under a covered arcade near the Intercontinental Hotel where we were staying, we spotted a small shop selling honey and beeswax products. There were all kinds of ornamental beeswax candles on sale as well as jars of local honey and some pretty decorative biscuits. They seemed to be keepsakes to give to that special person in your life, and as Valentine’s day had just been and gone, I wondered if they were just for Valentine’s day or sold all year round. The pretty heart biscuits were a more refined version of the decorated gingerbread that is sold in Christmas markets, more for display than eating.

Mehzi, Budapest 5th District, Erzsebet Square 1 (under the arcades)

Paprika, Sausages and Palinka

For edible souvenirs, we went to the Central Market where the downstairs is full of stalls selling more variations of paprika than you could possibly imagine. On other stalls, cured sausages hang in rows, flavoured with paprika and other spices, ready for you to add to a rich, hearty Hungarian stew. Another speciality is the goose live pate sold in small tins at all the meat stalls. If you want to drink the flavour of Hungary try a glass of Palinka in one of the restaurants you visit – it’s a strong spirit that’s flavoured with fruits such as cherry, strawberry and apricot. When I tried a sip at the Strudel House after dinner, it made my eyes water – I can see why it’s traditionally drunk in the morning to wake you up!

Great Market Hall, 1093 Budapest, Vámház körút 1-3

If you love to look and shop at beautiful handicrafts and textiles you’ll find plenty to buy in Budapest – enjoy looking and bring a little piece of Budapest home with you.

If you’ve been to Budapest, what were you tempted to buy as a souvenir?

More things to enjoy in Budapest

From Cold War Canteen to Literary Salon – Five great places to eat out in Budapest
Just back from Budapest – my photo diary
Memento Park – Icon’s of Budapest’s communist park

We booked our Budapest spring break through Avios, who offer ways to earn points at the places you shop everyday, that you can convert into a flight, hotel or holiday. There’s plenty of inspiration on the Avios website to start planning your next weekend escape and you can follow Avios on Twitter @AviosUK or on their AviosUK Facebook page and see some flying lawnmowers on the Avios YouTube channel

Through Avios we booked the luxurious 5 star Intercontinental Hotel Budapest which was perfectly positioned beside the Danube for sightseeing. The hotel can be booked using your Avios Points or directly on the Intercontinental website if you are not an Avios member and it’s worth looking out for packages that include breakfast and use of the exclusive Club Lounge. You can follow the Intercontinental Budapest on Twitter @ICBudapest and on their Intercontinental Budapest Facebook Page.

This article by Heather Cowper is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

 Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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