Trip Report The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Advent season

We were booked at the Medos Hotel, very near the Oktagon/Andrassy Ave. It’s not a fancy place, but rather “respectable”, in a great location. We had booked one of the top-floor suites and it was perfect. We had a huge balcony, and I immediately spotted the Parliament in its illuminated state, and the dome of St Stephen’s Basilica. Other comforts included a ton of windows (corner location), a giant soaker tub, and a rudimentary kitchen with fridge, microwave, bar sink and dishes. We dropped our bags and headed out for some food. We had Menza restaurant on our list, and the front desk also recommended it—and it is literally across the street from Medos. It was a great start. Busy on an early Saturday evening, but we started at the bar with cocktails, then got a table before we had time to order bar nibbles. I love a spot that has locals, and this place had probably a majority speaking Hungarian, with enough English that our already-confused brains weren’t further taxed. Great Hungarian staples (goulash and salad to start, and I had a lovely duck breast, Ron a great schnitzel), nice service, absolutely perfect for us. We were back in our comfy room, asleep, by about 8:30.

Sunday morning we took it easy on ourselves. We wandered out in time for lunch, another delicious bowl of goulash and other good things at Ket Szerecsen, then we mostly wandered. I have been to Budapest but Ron had not and I wanted to show him how beautiful this city is. So we wandered. And Budapest was her beautiful self. Also, side note, now that we were awake and not so stupid, we quickly got used to the excellent public transit system in Budapest. Ron qualified for the free access for seniors and I bought a pass on my phone. We went through checks only a couple of times at subway stations, where I showed my pass on my phone, and I waved in Ron’s direction and said “65”!

By early evening, we were on our way to meet up with Mr. É for a drink at Tadarka, a wine bar he favoured. Mr. É had been super helpful with all my many questions in the Hungary forum, and we wanted to buy him a drink to say thank you. We planned to part company and find ourselves dinner afterward. Well, sometimes conversation (and wine) flow, and we came pretty close to closing the place. Thank goodness they offered a small menu of food! The excellent sommelier kept bringing us great wines, and we kept drinking them. Thank you again Mr É for a great evening!

For some reason on Monday morning we were not super energetic. ; ) We again wandered, had a look at the ruin bars, took a tour at the Doheny Synagogue, and discreetly admired all the local dogs in their winter gear. (Weather was dry and cold, very nice for late November, but All The Dogs Wear Coats. Canadian dogs don’t need coats for that kind of temp! But there were dogs in coats everywhere we went, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany.) We found the Danube and the Christmas market at Vorosmarty Square and got our first gluhwein. The market was pretty, but for vibe no one holds a candle to Bavarian markets in my opinion, and honestly, we weren’t there for the Christmas market. We had a lovely stop at Gerbeault Café (where cake and coffee was more than any meal we had in Budapest, but absolutely worth it), and then took a river cruise. Beautiful Budapest lived up to its reputation again.

Tuesday morning we went to the Szechenyi baths, around 9 am. It was an absolute highlight. I expected to hate it, and feel self-conscious, and cold, and otherwise uncomfortable. It was so relaxing and pleasant. We played in the not-so-lazy river pool, then found our bliss in the big outdoor relaxing pool. It was 6c outside and the water was wonderful. The inside was “faded glory” elegant, with lots of tile and dark wood changing cabins. We spent some time in the indoor pools too, but the outdoor pools were best. There were lots of tourists, including the Instagram crowd with their phones in waterproof neck-bags, recording the moment, but also lots of locals, and it was a pleasure to join their contentedness. I never considered visiting thermal baths before but now I get it, and will take any opportunities that present themselves in future.

After that on Tuesday and Wednesday, we ate good food, drank good coffee, with little more of note. Found some very fresh and yummy langos where we were the only English speakers. Spent a lovely hour introducing Ron to some co-workers whom I hadn’t seen since 2018. Saw the Basilica Christmas market. Coffee and cake at the Central Café. Ogled gorgeous buildings. Enjoyed the terrace of our hotel room with good wine. Took the #2 tram and wandered around the Parliament, and along the Danube at sunset.

There were lots of things on our list we didn’t do. But we loved our time in Budapest, and we left reluctantly, but relaxed and happy.

I’ve always loved train travel, even when it’s exceedingly prosaic (which it generally is, if you don’t do the super luxury trains, which we don’t). When we were cobbling the trip together, we decided to connect Budapest with the rest of the trip with a night train. It’s not fancy, it’s not new, but we were excited to book a sleeper from Budapest to Munich. Because we had the sleeper we started our Wednesday evening journey in the business lounge at Keleti Station, which was peaceful and not overwhelming as train stations can be. We boarded our car around 6 pm and were rolling by 7. Our sleeper had a weird little sink, but the bathroom was down the hall. The beds were made when we got there and we had a lot of laughs figuring out how to be comfortable, stow our luggage, yet still access toothbrushes and night clothes and the like in the tiny cabin. We turned in early as breakfast was coming at 5 am prior to a 6 am arrival in Munich.

We got about as much sleep as you would in economy on a transatlantic redeye, albeit with more privacy and a “lay flat” space. I really like the feeling of the swaying when the train is rolling and was thinking it would lull me to sleep. Unfortunately the train was stopped as much as it was going, and every time we arrived at or left a station or siding, the change woke me. But hey, I didn’t miss much of the “experience”! I woke around 4:30 and gave up, as our breakfast was scheduled for 5. I was paranoid we wouldn’t be ready to bound off the train in the short Munich station-stop. (I believe the train terminated in Stuttgart, so it had a way to go after our stop.) Breakfast was a portable affair, some coffee in paper cups, a couple of slices of white bread with some salami and cheese, and some juice. Then we hauled the bags out of the ceiling-level racks and waited for Munich.

That’s enough for one read, and if you got this far, congrats! I’ll return with our next leg, our first visit to Italy, as soon as I get a chance to chronicle it.

Lovely trip report, JoAnne! I'm planning to visit Budapest in the fall of this year, so it was great timing! And how nice that you got to meet up with Mr. E! I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

JoAnne, I am absolutely loving your trip report. It's great that you were able to share Budapest with your husband.

Good for you taking the night train !

Can't wait to read the rest.

Great report - Keep going!

But we loved our time in Budapest, and we left reluctantly, but
relaxed and happy.

That is how you should leave.

Your sleeper train experience. I took one back in 1980-something but not since and have few memories of that one. Then last week I had to ride two sleepers. I gotta tell you, it was an experience ... one that I many have to repeat .... but only if there is no other option. But it was fun from the point of view of novelty.

G-d bless and keep you safe. See you on your return.

JD

A wonderful adventure so far! I am glad you were able to squeeze Budapest in with this trip, after all your planning earlier!

We got off the train at 6 am in Munchen Ost. It was cold and dark, but there were plenty of people on the platform getting ready to start their day. We made our way to the S-bahn and got tickets for Munich airport to pick up our rental car. It was about a 30-40 m ride but very straightforward. Once we got off at the airport, it couldn’t have been easier to find the car rental hall. It was massive, clean, and at 7 am ish on a Thursday, empty. Within 15 m we had our rental (upgraded to a Mercedes from the cheapest little box we had booked). We prefer small cars in Europe, but the Mercedes was no harder to maneuver and park than the Fiat cinquecentos we’d had on our last 2 trips—it just rode a lot better! It was the first day of our trip that the weather had been less than seasonally perfect—it was grey and wet, and hovering near freezing. But we were excited for our first visit to Italy!

Google says it’s about a 4 hr drive, down into Austria, the Brenner Pass, and into Italy. We were fairly well rested, and eager to go, so we hit the road. There was something very odd about the gear shifter (it was an automatic), but Ron adapted well and didn’t crash us or anything! We stopped for coffee at some point, and had a gas station panini once we got into Italy, but otherwise we just wanted to get there!

The drive was NOT fun. Did I mention it was raining for the first time during our trip? I knew it’d be mountain driving, but I anticipated twisty roads and steep climbs, maybe the need to adapt to snow, not tight and crowded traffic. The roads were mostly divided highway with two narrow lanes, and the traffic was HEAVY with transport trucks. Everyone was driving the speed limit or more, and the rain robbed us of distracting mountain views. Ron is a great driver, and experienced in Europe, but I was white-knuckling it until we arrived in Bolzano.

Bolzano is the regional capital of the Sudtirol / Alto Adige area of Northern Italy. North of Lake Como and the like, about an hour south of the Austrian border, it is in the Dolomites with their particular craggy personality. We love the Canadian Rockies—and the Dolomites are nothing like that! Gorgeous, but a kindergartener couldn’t just draw triangles to represent these mountains! And you can’t help but recognize the lengths to which humans have gone to live in this region. Hundreds of terraced vineyards, thousands of gorgeous alpine chalets in precarious glades. So much life being lived on vertical surfaces!

As I mentioned, we’d never been to Italy and were excited—but this is apparently not your typical region of Italy. It has changed hands over the centuries and as late as the 20th C, this was Austria. Every town has two names (e,g., Bolzano in Italian, Bozen in German) and German is widely spoken. The architecture is very Tyrolian-Alpine-Austrian. Menus are in both languages (and sometimes English and/or Ladin, a local dialect). I had prepared my standard “polite” traveller’s vocab in Italian, but got waaaay more German while we were here. (Or English. Everyone spoke English.)

The rain had cleared, and we arrived around mid day and found our hotel easily. It’s funny looking back, I thought we’d have a walk to get to the Old Town. But the front door of the hotel opened right into one of the small mostly-pedestrian streets, and directly into one of the covered arcades we had found so charming during our research.

The hotel was Palais Hortenburg, a fairly new apart-hotel style place. We had I think the most modest double but it was great. Very new. A little too “stylish” for us—polished concrete floors and digital controls everywhere. Gorgeous new bathroom with a big shower. (I like modern in a bathroom!) King bed in a more North-American-sized room, a walkout to a terrace on the back, a 2-person dining table, and a small but well organized “kitchen”, which was like a closet unit stacked with a microwave, kettle, fridge and some dishes. Reception was staffed 9-5 but there was no breakfast or any community space, more like an apartment on that count. I did learn something important here, though: there really is something that I’d consider sound-proof windows! As I mentioned, we had a ground-floor unit with a balcony, opening into a sort of shared courtyard. When I opened the curtains, across the courtyard I saw an excavator working away. (Like many historic towns, there always seems to be someone either fixing something, or building an in-fill place to house visitors—the place we were staying was probably one of those update/infills a year or two ago!) I immediately groaned and was picturing industrious construction dudes revving engines and scraping rocks at 7 am on my vacation… Well, maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. With the door and window closed I could not hear a thing!! In my experience “sound proof windows” are better than antique windows but never actually sound proof. These were! 100%! Imagine! Also the hotel had those heavy duty metal shades that lowered over the garden door and the windows and it was completely dark inside with them lowered. So if you are an easily-disturbed sleeper like me, take heart! Anyway, the location was great, and even though I prefer a different esthetic, it’s impossible to complain about anything in this thoughtfully-constructed place. They also give out “the Bolzano card”, which is super useful for transit and other attractions.

We may have napped a little. : ) It seemed a long time since we got off that train, but still, we were a little sleep-deprived. But before the sun went down we were wandering the streets, enjoying the vibe, noting the differences from other places. There is an extensive produce market that covers the main intersection near our hotel, open daily (not Sundays maybe?), very local and not touristy. It was Thursday, I guess Thanksgiving in the US? And there were also lots of shoppers in the streets around the arcaded retail area, with every shop touting “Black Week” (as opposed to “Black Friday”). Also charmingly, many many displays of nativity scenes of various sizes and styles, and pretty Christmas lights as twilight hit.

Somewhere I learned about the Italian tradition of aperitivo, and we both really wanted to experience it, but were worried we wouldn’t find it in the North, in winter. Well! I’m told it actually originated in the north (as did my now-favourite cocktail, the Hugo Spritz), and cold weather doesn’t stop it. I’ll tell you more in the next post!

Catching up on your comments on Saturday morning, before I get the day moving.

Glad you're enjoying it! I guess we all love talking about travel, or we wouldn't be here!

I'm so glad I got to go with Ron to Budapest. We were reminiscing this week and he was making comparisons to Paris, where Budapest won. A convert! Paris lovers will probably not agree, but maybe Budapest is more to our particular style. Mardee I hope you have a great visit. TexasTravelMom, yes we couldn't skip it again. Now we just have to find the time to resurrect our cancelled Poland plans.

Mr E, lovely to "see" you again. I started to pick through your Christmas trip report, looking forward to finishing it. I'm glad you got to connect with your friends, and try out a sleeper again! Seems like the sleep part of sleeper is a little of a misnomer, but hey, we don't mind that much!