11-12 Budapest

We arrived in Budapest on the train about 16:30 and we followed the advice in the guidebook and headed for the taxi rank instead of taking one of the many unofficial taxis that were trying to get passengers on the way through the station. The taxi driver had no idea what street name I was talking about, but luckily I had the hotel address written down. He told me how to pronounce it but I still couldn't, the street name was Lanchid utca.
We arrived at our hotel the Design hotel Lanchid 19, which is situated just below the castle on the Buda side of the Danube. The hotel gave us several leaflets of things to do, and told us that if we needed them to book anything for us they would. That evening we stayed in the hotel for dinner, and had a bottle of Hungarian tractor (tractor on label) wine between us (quality stuff ;-))
The following morning we got up had a quick breakfast and headed up to the castle on the funicular. We instantly began to like Budapest, the views across the Danube and the old looking buildings have a certain character which reminded us of Prague. We spent the morning wandering around the castle district before catching another hop-on hop-off which took us to the Citadel. We stopped to take some photos of the view at the top, and had some hot wine to keep the cold at bay. After that we took the bus to the Pest side of the river to have a wander on the Vaci utca, we had some ghoulash for lunch before getting the bus back to our hotel.
That evening was our wedding anniversary and I had booked us a restaurant for the evening. The restaurant Alabardos was world's apart from the restaurant in Vienna. We had the chef's surprise menu which had goose livers as a starter which I had never eaten before but they tasted great. They recommended wine for each course, and I'm not a wine expert by any means but they were all good as far as I was concerned. We were in time to catch the funicular back down to our hotel after dinner.
On the morning of the 17th we bought some tram tickets from the hotel reception and took the tram to the Liberty bridge so we could visit the Gellert hotel and Spa. We had a look around the hotel foyer but it wasn't much to look at so we headed off to the Cave chapel to have a look around. This chapel was carved out of the rocks and is quite impressive. After the cave chapel we visited the Gellert spa, you can buy a ticket which allows you to look around without going for a swim.
From the Gellert we walked over Liberty bridge and followed the Vaci Utca to the Elizabeth bridge. We kept on walking along the banks of the Danube until we reached the chain bridge and we walked back to our hotel. When we arrived at our hotel there was water dripping from the ceiling and there was no electricity, so we decided to go for a sightseeing cruise on the Danube to pass some time.
After we came back from our cruise, we went back to the hotel which had been cleaned up while we were out. We went to a local restaurant that evening for dinner.
At 12:00 on Sunday we headed off to the airport to come home, we have fond memories of Budapest.   

10-11 Vienna

On the 12th of October we flew to Vienna for a few days before travelling on to Budapest. We stayed at the Do & Co Design hotel on the Stephansplatz right in the city center next to the Stephansdom cathedral.
On the 12th we went for a walk around the city center to find out what was close to our hotel, and ended up stopping to eat some Sacher tart (eating cakes, theme of holiday :-o) We decided to stay in the hotel for dinner that evening. I ate the kebab which was consisted of pork and veal, and Margaret-Anne had a traditional Tafelspitz (Meat with a posh potato thingy).
On the 13th we got up and decided to go sightseeing, we had a look around the Stephansdom and Stephansplatz before going to see the Anker Uhr (Clock). This was supposed to take an entire morning but we were done by 10:30 and we decided to go to the Hofburg Palace. At the Hofburg palace we went to see the horses training at the Spanish Riding school, at first this was really busy but as time went on we found somewhere to stand and we stayed for around an hour watching the different horses and riders training for the shows. Unfortunately the only show that week was on the 16th (after we leave) so we were not able to go back and see it. After visiting the Spanish Riding school we walked through the palace grounds to the Museum quarter, and then back to the Palace garden where we stopped for a chocolate cake.
After cake we went to the State Opera house to find out about the hop-on hop-off tour bus round Vienna. There are three routes so we bought a two day ticket each planning to use them to get around. We took the red line but ended up going back at the Stephansplatz and we decided to go to a tea house to have some lunch before we went back to our hotel for the afternoon.
That evening we went to Figlmueller which has the best Schnitzel in Vienna, as you can see below it is the size of the plate and only costs 12 euros.

We almost managed to finish one each (maybe next time).

The 14th was Margaret-Anne's birthday (40th) so in the morning she spent some time opening her cards and presents before we went out. It was very cold so we visited the shops to buy gloves for each other and a hat for me (bald head). We caught the bus for the State Opera house and went to the Hundertwasser which is a group of appartments in a residential area of the city which look pretty unusual.

After visiting the Hundertswasser we took the bus around the blue line and went back to the State Opera house, where we walked through the Hofburg Palace to the famous cake shop Demel. Strange thing was when we walked in we see Phillipe Starke and his wife eating cake in the corner of the cafe, we have been watching a design for life on BBC2 and that is why we recognised them. We took a seat in the corner and ordered a coffee and we wondered why the waitress didn't come back to let us order some cakes, but she eventually stopped to explain to us that we had to choose the cakes from a big counter and then the waitress will get it for us (complicated). Anyway we ordered a second coffee to wash down the cakes.

After that we wandered back to our hotel stopping of for sausages on the way.

That night I had booked a special dinner for Margaret-Anne's birthday at the Drie Husaren restaurant in the city center. Let's just say if it wasn't so bad it was funny, it might have been a worse night. When we went in there were two other couples there who were obviously on a tour because they left about 20 minutes later. They had a piano player who only new about 6 songs and played them in a loop, he asked us what we wanted him to play. I just wanted him to play background music, so we said play whatever you want. After that he got up and left (in the huff no doubt), made us laugh. The waiter had one of the worst BO cases, after Margaret-Anne remarked about it we could hardly keep a straight face when he was at our table. The food was pretty good however (saving grace). After dinner when I got the bill I realised that we had paid three euros each for the piano player and they had charged us a cover charge for sitting down. Anyway Margaret-Anne went to the ladies room while I gave them my card to settle the bill, when Margaret-Anne came back from the toilet the waiter was in a cupboard looking at the wiring because the credit card machine didn't work, so they asked me to pay in cash. When I went to get my jacket, I discovered that they charge you for looking after your jackets (Margaret-Anne new that would please me ;-)) When I came back from the cash machine we settled the bill and left, lets just say that night will be remembered for being so bad it was funny.

On the 15th we decided to hang around our hotel as it was snowing, we spent some time looking out over the Stephansdom from the hotel bar before heading off to the train station to catch the train to Budapest. We travelled in first class and had a carriage all too ourselves.

Next stop Budapest!