Captain Grumpy: Princess woke us up at 6 am. She had already made her bed, so who knows how early she woke up. We ate breakfast and were on the road prior to 8 am. The plan was to walk to the Buda part of the city and hit those sites before heading back to Pest. One block into this itinerary and Monkey Hat and I were in trouble. Apparently, we were walking too fast, even though the little old lady with the walking stick passed us like we were standing still. Oh well…and away we went. We walked across the Scheznyi Bridge, a suspension bridge across the Danube and took a ride on the Castle Hill Funicular to the top. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity (4 minutes and 37 seconds to be exact) for people to clear so Mother Superior could take a tourist free photo of a gate, we then started walking around the Buda Castle/Royal Palace. We visited the Art Museum and tried to go to St Mathias Church, but Mass was in session and we didn’t want to wait. We walked down the hill to the nearest Metro. Halfway down, the other three started complaining about being tired. We then went to have lunch at a Dutch Pub. It was a cool place, but the food wasn’t all that great. Afterwards we picked up some strawberries from a local market and headed to the Museum of Fine Art. I can now cross “See the mummified remains of a crocodile” off of my life to do list. We headed back to the night life area and had dinner at Boom and Brass and dessert at the Gerbeaud Bakery. All in all, 3 miles of walking, 40 minutes of waiting, and only 8 hours of whining. Tomorrow I will throttle back.
Mother Superior: Before and after pictures of my feet would be a great way to recount our second day in Budapest. Somehow Princess managed to get up around 5h30 and jumped on Captain Grumpy – what a wake up call. An hour and a half later, we were eating breakfast and had plotted out our day on the map. From Vorosmarty Ter we strolled to the Danube and crossed over the Chain Bridge. The slow pace we kept, allowed us to relax and be hypnotized by the river and skyline of the Pest bank of the Danube. From the foot of Castle Hill, we jumped on the funicular. Monkey Hat and Princess giggled all the way to the top. The birds eye view of Pest was thrilling and we were camera ready. According to our guidebooks, the Royal Palace of Budavari Palota has been destroyed by locals, invaders from the west AND east, at least a half a dozen times and yet it continues to rise from its ashes like the mythological phoenix. We decided to visit the National Gallery that is housed in the former palace. Although we had not heard of the Hungarian artists that formed the permanent collection, it was interesting to walk through the various galleries and be the only four people in the room. The lack of security cameras and other patrons made for a ghostly experience. Maybe ghostly is not the best word – unearthly, as if some of the statues were the only ones watching us. Eventually, a few people started to show up and we listened to five minutes of a choral concert of robust women. We hastened our departure and escaped the musical purgatory. The palace gardens became our safe haven. Once outdoor, we enjoyed a small snack as we put one foot in front of the other until we arrived at St Mathias Church. Luck was not on our side. Mass was in session and would not end for another 50 minutes. Kids were crank, the parents were even crankier, so we bypassed the interior of the church and set course for Fisherman’s Bastion. As we paraded through hilly Buda, I thought to myself, “I’m outta here. The next landmark I want to visit is the bath houses for a Hungarian foot massage, body soaking, and wine drinking experience. We crawled back to Pest and decided to visit a local Hungarian eatery for lunch. At the Amstel River Café, we rested the throbbing footsies and nourished our tummies. Captain Grumpy, the Brave, ordered goulash soup. For the developed palates (aka the risk averse), we ordered spaghetti carbonara and fried calamari. The service was great, the waiter was cute, the music was retro, and the clean bathrooms were priceless. Now a reasonable man who is traveling with a 5 year old girl, a 9 year old boy and a wife wearing 3 inch heeled, leather boots would have tried to improve troop morale, but not our Captain Grumpy! Immediately upon having polished off our chow, he forced march us to Heroes Square. We assaulted the Fine Arts Museum, clearing the building floor by floor, room by room. It was evident in the Egyptian gallery that the former regime had not been allowed to rest in peace. Surely, their mummified remains and those of their pets (crocodiles, baboon, falcon, cat and ibis) had been dragged out of the resting places by unhappy foot soldiers that found the tour of the Nile too treacherous. In an effort to avoid the same fate, Captain Grumpy allowed us to take a knee, drink water, and sketch unimpressive replicas of Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez Spanish masterpieces that were on display. Sensing his totalitarian grip on power slipping away and a mutiny close at hand, Captain Grumpy launched his ‘Hearts and Mind’ campaign: “Chocolate and Ice Cream For All.” Religion might be the opium of the masses, but the Traveling By Four family answers to a higher power: Chocolate! The days maneuvers required a double dosage of chocolate. Our first stop was at the Antique Café where the kids first hugged the large ice cream cone, and then gobbled it up. The second dosage came right after dinner at the institution that was established in 1870 – The Patisserie Gerbeaud. Although the Hungarian landmark is an architectural paradise, the desserts fell short of heaven and the service staff was equally dry – but we are snobby foodies from the Tri-State area. What do we know?
Monkey Hat: Today we woke up and got dressed. We had breakfast and we set off. I crossed the Danube River on the Chain Bridge. Then we got on a funicular and went up a hill. At the top was Buda Castle. We went inside and looked at painting and watched fat ladies sing. At last we left and walked to the metro station and got on a subway. On the way, we passed the St Mathias Church. We ate and went to a museum of fine art. After the museum, we had ice cream. I jumped on the metro to get to Boom and Brass. We also had dessert at Gerbeaud. P.S. I saw cool mummies.
Princess: I woke up first and jumped on Dad. Then we went to breakfast. We went on the chain bridge. It had two lions.
No comments:
Post a Comment