Sunny morning in Budapest, a new day, new places, new memories. Today’s plan was to spend more time in parks, which have not less important place in this beautiful city.
The first place that we decided to go today was Vajdahunyad Castle, which was inside the City park. This is one of the romantic castles in Budapest, with a nearby boating lake, which becomes a skating rink on wintertime. There are several festivals, concerts and exhibitions organized here during the year. The castle contains part of buildings from various time periods and this is the reason it has different architectural styles, such as Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque and Renaissance. Today the biggest Agricultural Museum in Europe is located in this castle. There is a statue of Anonymus standing in front of the main entrance, who lived in 12th century and wrote chronicles of Hungary and also a statue of Hungarian-American actor Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula in original film.
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| Vajdahunyad Castle |
On the left side right after the entrance arch, there is a very romantic Catholic Chapel with wonderful architecture, Chapel of Jak (locals call it Jaki Kapolna). There are many religious ceremonies and concerts being organized here, as well as wedding ceremonies, but for this one you’ll need to book a day 6 months in advance!
As already mentioned, the park is built in the City park, which is a big area with lots of trees (I can imagine how beautiful it is here from spring till late autumn!), small brooks and bridges and a lot of people (mostly locals), who was just spending time there, relaxing, reading or playing with dogs. Yes, almost everybody has dog here, you may meet any type of dogs, from small to big, from famous and exotic ones. This was awesome!
There are a lot of attractions inside this park, like a zoo (which is closed in winter), museums, as well as one of the biggest and famous thermal spa centers Szechenyi Thermal Bath, which has a lot of indoor and outdoor pools with different water temperatures. If you want to have such experience, plan to spend a full day here, as you’ll have a lot to do inside and will need enough time for a good relaxation.
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| Szechenyi Thermal Bath |
On the other side of the lake the park ends and the huge square opens, Heroes’ Square, which is one of the major squares in Budapest. It includes the statues of many important national leaders, as well as the tomb of Unknown Hero. The square is surrounded with Museum of Fine Arts on the left and Palace of Art on the right. In the middle of the square is Millennium Memorial of Budapest. On the back side of the monument there are 2 matched colonnades, each with seven statues, representing great figures of Hungarian history.
On the other side of the square is Andrassy Avenue (Andrassy ut), which is one of the largest avenues in Budapest, that has spectacular buildings and is recognized as World Heritage Site. It’s also one of the main shopping streets in Budapest.
Going down by Andrassy ut and then on the right side there is another relaxing spot for relaxing. That is Margaret island. All you need is to cross Danube by Margaret Bridge, which is on the right site of Parliament house and here you are. This is a small island in the middle of the river, mostly covered with landscape parks. There was nothing much to do on this time of the year, but still was very quiet place to walk, chill and rest. By the time we came here the sun was already going down and we could see an adorable sunset over Danube, that made the sky and water shine in pink colors. Seagulls flying over the river were fulling the view with a live emotions.
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| Danube River, Margaret Island on the left side |
And the sun went down, dark sky appears and cold weather came from nowhere. So it’s time to turn around and go back home. While crossing the bridge again, a wonderful scene appeared on the left, shining Parliament house on one side of the river and Buda Castle on the other. The waves were reflecting all the lights coming from every corner, every building and every bridge. A fantastic view.
As the best way home was passing over Parliament house, the Gresham Palace and St. Stephen’s Basilica, we decided to spend some time on Christmas Fair near it and have some traditional pastry called Kurtoscalacs and warm up with hot mulled wine. But we even didn’t know what kind of surprise we’ll have. Suddenly we saw countdown numbers on the walls of basilica and then the magic started. There was a 3D lightshow interpretation of The Nutcracker by P.I. Tchaikovski on the front wall of St. Stephens’s Basilica! We urgently turn on cameras to record this view, but because of many people around making noises the voice wasn’t recorded well. In any case, I’m leaving the link here, so you can also see the show. Hope you’ll enjoy 🙂
But we still have one more day to spend in Budapest, so don’t miss to read about more spectacular places of this gorgeous city!
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