Budapest Beckons

One of our keenly anticipated adventures was to cycle from Vienna to Budapest along the Danube. 

When the time came, we discovered we'd be riding 7 days x 50 km per day, potentially in 27+ degree heat. 

We wimped out and caught the train.

As we have done elsewhere, in Budapest we grabbed Hop On/Hop Off bus tickets which once again proved to be an excellent option to see maximum sights with minimum fuss and cost. Even if a certain taller passenger did have to duck under the many roadside trees, much to the amusement of a certain shorter passenger. 

And the first thing we did on the bus was to get off, for a 'free' walking tour. I say 'free' because it was only available if you had bought the fully optioned bus ticket, plus the guide asked for tips at the end. 

The guide was a born-and-bred local so, as we have come to expect from local guides wherever we have been, the tour was excellent, informative and entertaining.

Our two favourite stories:

Michael Jackson had been staying in Budapest over the road from a tree that was dying. The household staff found some of his hair when cleaning his hotel room, and planted it under the tree, which promptly perked up! The tree is now a shrine to Michael. I guess that means he went from King of Pop to King of Poplars... 

Not to be outdone by Michael, Freddie Mercury and Queen were cruising down the Danube and spotted a really cool building that they thought would be an even cooler holiday home. Freddie wanted to know how much the owner wanted for it, and was not immediately dissuaded from his quest when he was politely advised that it was in fact the Hungarian Parliament Buildings.

Freddie apparently offered to do two free concerts as payment...

Part of the Hop On/Hop Off ticket included a Danube cruise of our own, basically upstream to Margaret Island and back. After going upstream we figured the scenery unlikely to change on the way back down, so we got off the boat at the island.

We walked probably a quarter of the length of the island in the aforementioned 27 degree heat when we noticed a lot of people casually pedalling carts with shade covers. Hmm... 

We walked back to find a cart, and found something even better - electric golf carts converted to look like old cars. Now we're talking!

We booked for an hour and proceeded to explore the island. The roads soon ran out, so where to next? The only warning we had been given was to stay off the red running track, so we drove along every walking path we could find where the cart would physically go. Nobody yelled at us, and none of the pedestrians complained as they got out of our way, so I assumed it was OK... 

To make it extra special, we drove past a concert venue where the local orchestra was promoting their upcoming performance with Shostakovich's Romeo and Juliet. Very romantic! And we only had to dodge one violinist... 

A brief 'not a food blog' moment - as a special treat, dinner was at the famous, and admittedly expensive, New York Café. Best burger ever, accompanied by live chamber orchestras and solo performers playing on a tag team basis. Worth a visit... 

We also asked one of the waiters to take the obligatory photo. Note his colleague in the background... 

Now all we had to do was to get back to Austria. Getting into Budapest had been very straightforward. Getting out again was not:  a mudslide closed part of the track; there were no guaranteed seats on a proposed alternative bus, which would only be there if they hadn't cleared the track in time; access to the platform for our first train was blocked by a film crew with no signposted detour; and we were going to miss both our connecting trains but couldn't book alternatives in advance because we didn't know when we might arrive at each station! 

We're really looking forward to a couple of relaxing days in the Tirol mountains to recover from the stress!