Budapest in a day

Introduction

we had clearly overestimated the time we would need in Vienna and had bargained on a few excursion. Our preference would have been to do the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse but that will have to wait for another day as it was too early in the season. 

Vienna to Budapest - train, rent, cruise or walk

The easy part of this question is that you cannot walk between the two cities but the other options are certainly available. If you have the luxury of time you can cruise along the Danube from Vienna to Budapest. I'm sure you can do it the other way but probably against the flow of the river.

The two options are train or drive. Train tickets for individuals or couple will probably work our more economical but for a family a rented car seems to be the best option. Car rental from Vienna allows you to cross the border into Hungary. The one thing you will have to watch out for is to pay the registration fee for you car to cross into Hungary. This is done at the border or one of the service stations before the border. Once you do this its a fairly straight forward journey.

Good maps and navigation are useful for city navigation but the road between the two cities is pretty straight forward. We picked Budapest but you can equally try Bratislava or Prague. Although Prague seems to be a little bit further.

The road between Vienna and Budapest is fairly boring and its a straight drive. We wanted to start early but changing currency getting used to the rented car and the wrong side of the road took a little time. But once on the motorway it was fairly straight forward. The journey time was about 3 hours. we arrived in Budapest around mid-day.

Walking around Budapest

We took the sightseeing bus around the city and it came with a evening cruise along the Danube. This is particularly worth doing as the city come to life in the evening.

Budapest at Night

Budapest really does come alive at night, most package tours include some sort of evening boat tour along the Danube. You can pitch along the wealth spectrum with tourist boat with formal sit down dinners to pizza and loud music boat tours, If you're on a short visit to Budapest then the day bus tour packages come with a evening boat tour (the pizza and loud music kind). You should not let this diminish the beauty of the evening on the Danube.

We were only in Budapest for the day but its clear to see that its a wonderful city to tour during the day and evening. If you can stay longer then its even better.

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Yeah, lets go to Vienna

Introduction

In typical style Easter and vacation came onto the doorstep of our 2017 timeline faster than anticipated. With nothing booked and fairly bankrupt for ideas the family named locations around Europe for a short break. For once we did not want to have another UK holiday as I want to introduce the family to camping and some proper walking in the summer of 2017.

Out popped Vienna as the destination of choice from one of the kids. A couple of hours later and flight and hotel were sorted and we went about the last few days of the working week knowing that there was a holiday at waiting for us at the weekend.

Vienna's architecture

Vienna has a very interesting history and culture seems very intertwined with German culture. Our break was just before the Easter long weekend and the weather in Vienna (Wien) was sunny and over cast although for most part quite cold. The last day was lovely sunny and warm as is always the case with holidays.

But that period of the year was quiet and whilst we saw tourists the place did not have the rambling hoards of tourist that you typically see across capitals in Europe during the summer. This did mean fairly easy entry into all the palaces and galleries

Our visit started with the Belvedere gallery where the big draw are paintings by Gustav Klimt. The gallery houses his most famous work "The Kiss" and whilst an endearing piece of work his painting of Marie Breunig caught my eye for the photographic quality of that painting.

We also spent time walking around the Opera house and the near by Hofburg Palace.

Vienna Opera House

St.Stephens (Stephanspaltz)

Belvedere Museum

I dont have any picture of the Klimt paintings but they can be found all over the place. The staff at the Belvedere Museum are particularly strict especially after being told off for sitting in the wrong place on a number of occasions 

Sachertorte : the dispute of a chocolate cake

Wars have originated for a lot less than chocolate cake but two cafe's in Vienna have literally gone to war (or more correctly court) about the origins of the famous Sachertorte. I'm sure you can read about this issue but it does give to the classic chance to taste both and settle the war for yourself. On the first day we went to the Hotel Sacher and on the penultimate day it was at the Cafe Demel. For me Hotel Sacher won it but you can judge for yourself.

Schonbrunn Palace

The palace lies a short journey outside the city centre but without doubt is on par with the other great monarchical residences globally. The palace has a complex ticket structure given we had a whole day we bought an appropriate ticket and ran for the guided tour.

The guided tours are fine but if you miss out or the timings do not match the carry guides are good but impersonal. The palace is a sprawling complex and can take a whole day depending on you appetite for detail. Our family has a split appetite for detail so some of us rush through the rooms and others take their time. So for us the guided tours did not really match the nature of our family.

The palace has gardens and outbuildings which are worth a visit. All in all this is a big palace complex and the majority of interesting things so see are inside the building. The building is essentially the history of the Vienna royal family.

As you can imagine there are extensive gardens whilst the layout of the gardens was visible. the flowers were not in full bloom but you can imagine from the pattern of the gardens what it would look like in full bloom.

The library

Usually a library is a place you would go to ready books but the library in Vienna is a sheer work of art. The library in question is the State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Nationalbibliotek). Whilst an ordinary looking building from the outside the inside is ornate and detail is stunning. Its worth taking a quick hour to have a walk around the building. Some of my photos are below

The library has a lovely contemplative air so in my opinion worth a visit, thankfully its nestled around the main tourist part of the city.

Hofburg Palace

The Hofburg Palace is the key attraction in the centre of town, its primarily royal family apartments and a museum. The key attraction that we missed were the Spanish horse riding (primarily as we were a little delinquent with our timings). So if this interests you then keep any eye on the timings.

While walking about

Take time to explore the other churches as they have immense character and design. Around the centre of town we popped into St. Peter's Chruch (Kirche St. Peter)

If you have a sunny day a walk along the Danube is also lovely. The Danube is quite a wide river through Vienna. We were lucky that our hotel was on the Danube and our last day gave us a spectacular view of the river.

The city is excellent to walk around with lovely gardens and buildings around the Rathaus area which has the parliament and museums. We were there for 5 days and we did a day trip to Budapest to breakup our Vienna visit. The city can be covered in a couple of day and if you're an avid and detailed visitor a couple more days will be necessary.

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