River Cruising with AMA Waterways November 2011 – Pre Cruise 2nd Stop…Budapest

Budapest Train Station

Another thing that I love about Europe is their train system.  What an easy way to travel!  You can get anywhere by train for a pretty reasonable price.  We took the train from Prague to Budapest and it was such a smooth process.  We only bought our train tickets the day before and we could pick and choose what time we wanted to leave as there were about 3 different train times during the day.  I don't always suggest purchasing your tickets last minute like this.  It does vary by what line your travelling, especially during peak season like the summer, but it worked out well for this trip and the time of year.  

Prague Train Station

We decided to head out late morning which worked out quite well.  It was a 7 hour train ride from Prague to Budapest but it went by very quickly.  As long as you have a good book or a good chatting buddy, you’re good to go.  I would however recommend that you bring snacks with you.  The food they offered was pretty limited (mainly chocolate bars) so you may want to bring something a little more substantial.  We were starving once we arrived in Budapest and quickly bought the first bag of chips we could see at the station to satisfy our growling bellies.  Also a good tip is to try and pack as lightly as possible when doing train travel.  I, of course, had a massive bag with me which made it interesting to find a place to store on some of the trains.  It all ended up working out but I would have preferred if I had a smaller suitecase or backpack for the train travel.  I wasn't the only one with a large suite case but I think the Europeans were looking at me like I was an idiot for packing so much.  You would think that I would learn how to pack lighter with all the travelling that I’ve done.  But nooo…I just don’t seem to learn.  I do have to say that it is a lot easier to pack a smaller suite case when travelling to a hot destination.  I blame it all on the bulky sweaters that I had to bring!  I am however very glad that I did bring them all because it was so freaking cold!

Our cute "little" room in the Cosmopolitan Hotel

We arrived at our hotel in Budapest after a cab ride from the train station.  Our hotel, The Cosmopolitan Fashion Hotel, was in a great spot but the entrance was off a side street which we weren’t expecting.  The hotel is definitely on the basic side and kind of had a "very nice hostel" feel to it.  We got to our room and opened the door and we were not sure if we should laugh or cry.  The room was sooo tiny that we could barely fit our luggage in it.  I spent about 5 mins in it and finally said “this is ridiculous” and then made my way to the front desk to ask if there is a larger room.  Unfortunately there wasn’t.  We were late to arrive that day and all of the other rooms were occupied.  So we had to stick it out in the tiny space.  We did notice that there were some larger rooms but I guess it’s just the luck of the draw to when you check is as all of the rooms are the same price.  The price was definitely right though.  It was well under $100 so you couldn't beat that.  We knew that we weren’t going to be spending much time in our room so spending a pretty penny on a fancy hotel was not a priority for us on this leg of the trip.  Other than the size of the room, the hotel was good.  It was clean and the décor was funky with pink and purple accents.  The room definitely had “character” which is what we were going for.  It was your no frills hotel, cheap and cheerful, with a clean place to hang your hat.  So all in all, we were content. 

On the Hop On Hop Off Bus with our styling headsets

In Budapest we did the hop on hop off bus tour and it worked out quite well for us because when we bought the pass, you got a second day for free.  It really allowed for us to get to various parts of the city that we probably wouldn’t have made it to if we were to go around and explore it on our own.  It was money well spent!  We did see some pretty amazing sights.  It’s just unfortunate that there was not an ray of sunlight that came through the clouds.  Even with no sun we still managed to have fun!

Heroes Square & the Millennial Monument

Vajdahunyad Castle (there's a tongue twister for ya!)

Vajdahunyad Castle

 I just couldn't take enough pictures of this place.  Such a beautiful place in a great setting in City Park

Vajdahunyad Castle

On the Buda side, you'll find Castle Hill where you will see...well...castles (hehe) and the likes.  It's also a great place to capture some amazing views of the Pest side.

Matthias Church

This was actually a pretty cool church.  It was originally built in the early Gothic style but it was constantly being rebuilt to enlarge it and was eventually built in the Neo-Gothic style.

Inside Matthias Church

 I love the above photo!  One of the many stunning stained glass windows in the Matthias Church.

Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

The Royal Palace

The Royal Palace is home to the Hungarian National Gallery (which we went to).  We somehow passed as students (bless them!) and we got into the gallery for free!

In front of the Royal Palace with great views of Pest behind us

View of Budapest from the Citadell

I am a sucker for desserts and this seemed to be a dessert/snack that we found all over Budapest.  This is me before I demolish my Kurto Kalacs - chimney cake covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Yummy, warm, doughnut like goodness.

The Christmas market at dusk

St. Stephen's Basilica & Square 

A view down the street of St. Stephen's Basilica

The Chain Bridge

We were lucky enough to catch the first couple of days of the Christmas market while we were there.  We were both very excited as Christmas is one of our favourite times of the year.  All of the decorations, scents, lights etc...Europeans just make it so magical.  At the markets, you'll find local artizans selling handmade everything.  From jewellery, pottery, food, toys, decorations and there is so much to see and buy.  I would have to say that the most popular places were the food and schnapps stalls.  Every type of meat and sausage you could think of and pretty much every flavour of schnapps.  Mulled wine was also the popular thing to consume while walking through the market.  Oh and you can’t forget the various bakeries that were there.  The first purchase that we made at the market was strudel!  Quite yummy!  I had a sour cherry strudel and it was to die for.

The 1st weekend of the Christmas Market in Budapest.  

Lots of different hand made items to see and  may different traditional dishes to sample

Look at this stall packed with beautiful wreaths and garland made of oranges and limes.  They had such a lovely clove scent.  If Christmas had a scent, this would be it!

Another fun thing that we stumbled upon was the Budapest Ice Bar.  It was about 20 steps from our hotel and we only found on our last night there.  It was a totally fun and a great little way to end our stay in Budapest.     

If you do find yourself in Budapest, definitely check out the Four Seasons hotel while you are there.  Absolutely stunning!  What a way to spoil yourself for a night or two stay.  Lovely!  

If My Passport Could Talk...
                                           "Another beautiful European country down...Bring on the river cruise!"

River Cruising with AMA Waterways November 2011 – Pre Cruise: 1st Stop…Prague

I can’t believe that the last time I was in Europe I was 17!  How time flies!!!  I can’t tell you how great it was to be back.  I’d almost forgotten how great it is there.  So much culture, an amazing vibe, and sooooo much to see!  For such a small continent, they sure do pack in a ridiculous amount of places and things to visit.

When I decided to head to Europe for a river cruise I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to revisit some places that I had visited as a kid that made a huge impact on me.  Those two places were Prague and Munich.  The river cruise was down the Danube starting in Budapest, Hungary and ending in Nuremburg, Germany so adding Prague and Munich to the mix was pretty easy.  Gotta love how small Europe is!  Every country just seems like a hop skip and a jump from one another.

Old Town Square & the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

So…Prague was the first destination on this 2 week European trip.  I checked the weather reports prior to departing and they were forecasting around 7- 10 degrees or so.  Big fat liars those weather people were!  It was freaking cold!  I personally don’t take many vacations that require a winter coat (or at least go to those destinations in the summer months) so this was new for me.  I really wasn't sure how it was all going to go down.  Even though the weather was bitter, I ended up being quite thankful that I was able to experience this time of year because…Europeans sure know how to do Christmas!   I can also pretty much have fun in a box so I didn’t let the weather get to me.  I was in Prague for friggin’s sake!

What a beautiful city.  This place was made for photographs!  Especially photos at night.  All of the beautiful buildings and amazing architecture are all lit up at night so it does make for some pretty amazing photo ops. 

We got in late afternoon.  After some crazy flight stories…we were supposed to fly into Prague in the morning but our connecting flight from Dusseldorf to Prague had some problems landing.  We actually flew to Prague circled around for about 15 mins, because it was too foggy to land, then proceeded to fly right back to Dusseldorf where we started.  So it turned into a full day of flying and killing time at the airport.  On the bright side…I did have an amazing lunch at an Italian restaurant in the Dusseldorf airport.  Curry pumpkin gnocchi!  Wow it’s was to die for.  It was like a stew, nice and hearty!  I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture.

Once we arrived at our hotel, Hotel Liberty, we dumped our stuff had a quick shower and went off to explore.  The hotel was in a fantastic location!  It was on a pedestrian street just off of Wenceslas Square so right in the heart of Old Town.  It was perfect.  It was an old style hotel which was exactly what we were looking for.  We were not interested in staying in any of the regular chain hotels because we really wanted to feel like we were in a hotel in Europe not in a hotel that you could find back home in Canada.  The room was very spacious with old style furnishings and fixtures.  The beds were definitely broken in but they could have been a lot worse.  The bathroom was huge with two sinks and a bathtub shower.  FYI…it’s a European style shower head so really it’s a bathtub with a handheld shower.  Oh ya and no shower curtain so it was a challenge to keep the water in the tub as opposed to spraying it everywhere.  Oh to be a fly on the wall!

Mmm...Seafood Risotto!

The interesting thing was finding a place to eat that night.  As we were walking up Wencesles Square, we were searching for restaurant options.  We should have asked our hotel for recommendations but we were on the “let’s see if we can find a hidden gem on our own” mentality.  What we are used to, is being able to walk up a busy street, window shop the restaurants and then settle on one that suited us both.  The thing we didn’t realize here is that a lot of the restaurants are in buildings, down corridors or up on higher levels than street level.   We kept searching but not many restaurants were really popping out at us.  We also didn’t want some fancy, high end restaurant.  We just wanted a comfortable place to eat (maybe even pub fare) for a nice easy meal.  Since we were new and still getting used to exploring out of our comfort zone, we only found a place once a hostess actually approached us and said, first in Czech, then after seeing the confused looks on our faces, in English “are you looking for a place to have dinner?”  We looked at each other and hesitantly said yes and then she proceeded to show us a menu.  At that point the menu items looked pretty good but I was a little confused as to where the restaurant was.  We gave her the nod and she took us to an elevator and pushed the button and motioned for us to entre.  I was praying to god that we weren’t going to be entering some kind of strip club.  The elevator doors opens and with a pleasant surprise we walked into some kind of resto/lounge with a pretty funky atmosphere.  Who knew!?!  The restaurant was called Duplex and our dinner was probably one of the best we had in Europe..  Gotta love it...we completely unknowingly found this great restaurant.  I believe this place turns into a club at night as well which I’m sure would be fun times. 

Charles bridge in the background

After a decent night sleep we were up and ready to take on a full day of Prague.  We figured that we must have walked for at least 10 hours that day.  Holy cow!  We pretty much saw all of the “must sees” of Prague so if you need a good list of what to see when you are there here it is:
1. Old Town Square & Astrological clock
2. Old New Synagogue
3. Jewish cemetery
4. Charles Bridge
5. Prague Castle 
6. St. Nicholas Church
4. National Marionette Theatre - Don Giovanni
5. Wencesles Square
It doesn't seem like a whole lot but it does take you around the city and if you just weave through the beautiful streets it takes you on a great adventure with beautiful architecture to look at.   We just kept walking and walking until we couldn’t walk any longer.

Old Town Hall Tower & Astrological Clock

Astrological Clock in Old Town Square

Old New Synagogue 

Jewish Cemetery 

This picture was actually taken outside of the cemetery.  If you walk the perimeter, you'll find there is a small barred window through the concrete wall.  This picture was taken through the barred window and I think it turned out quite nicely.

St Nicholas Church in Lesser Town

This being our first church of the trip we were quite in awe of it.  You can see that it was built in the Baroque period with the very ornate architecture and décor.  It's unreal how much detail there is in these churches of that period.

Now that's an organ! St Nicholas Church

The guards at Prague Castle

St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

As you can see, there is quite a difference between St. Nicholas Church and St. Vitus Cathedral.  St. Vitus was built in the Gothic period and it is considered to be a Gothic masterpiece.  Gothic is not as ornate as Baroque but has this vast airiness to it.  The stained glass is quite beautiful throughout with the rose window at the entrance.

St Vitus Cathedral 

On the Charles Bridge

Preparing my sausage (aka Prague Street Meat).  Yum!

Prague is such a beautiful city and I loved every minute of being there.  Such a great start to the trip and it’s going to be a hard place to top.  I can definitely see myself returning here yet again J

Powder Gate

Prague Tips:

• Bring Koruna (Czech Crown) as Euros are not widely accept here
• The old town is small enough that exploring on foot is the thing to do.  Make sure to bring some good walking shoes!  Look up and look in as there are so many places hidden off the main streets. 
• If you get a hotel anywhere around Wencesles Square, you’re never that far from the train station.  It’s a good spot to be if you are using the train to hop from one country to the next.

If My Passport Could Talk...
                                           "After 18 years, it's great to be back in Prague!"