Advertisement
Stepping Out of the Tivoli
Gail and I left the hotel right after breakfast so that we could retrieve (we hoped) our van parked at the train station. Coming out of our hotel this is the first street corner we encountered. Nice neighborhood. Actually, we felt very safe despite the seediness.
Since this was to be our fifth Christmas in Europe we were finally catching on to the fact that most of Europe closes down during the Holidays. One of the attractions of going to former communist countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary was hearing that those particular A Much Clearer View of Wenceslas Square
And just a wee bit further down the street we came back to Wenceslas Square once again. nations didn’t come to a grinding halt during the Holidays. In fact, an internet pal from Prague assured me that everything would be open even on Christmas Day. I didn’t totally believe him however. We set up our itinerary so that our longest day of driving would be on the day when most sights and stores would be closed - Christmas Day. The trip from Prague to Budapest was expected to be 5+ hours. When I was at home planning the trip I added another hour to my calculations due to border formalities. With the borders being lowered only a few days before, we might even get to Budapest in time to do some sightseeing.
Once again we allowed ourselves to sleep-in just a bit on Christmas Day. We went down to breakfast at 8:30. As usual, Tyler was tardy. Gail and I were in a bit of a rush to hurry down to the train station and see if our van was still there. I fully expected some kind of vandalism. Ours was the only big van in a nearly deserted parking lot with about 8 other vehicles spread around the acre-sized lot.
After getting our fill
The National Museum Building
We didn't even have to think about whether we wanted to visit this museum today. It was surely closed on Christmas Day plus we were in a hurry to get back to our vehicle. Every minute wasted was more money to the parking authority. at the complimentary hotel breakfast, we left the others behind with our luggage while Gail and I made the trek to the train station parking area. The walk took us back through Wenceslas Square where we took a few more pictures. Two blocks later we returned to the sidewalk-less highway that ran toward the train station. Why there isn’t a pedestrian friendly path near the train station is astounding. After successfully dodging speeding cars and careening trucks we arrived at the train tracks running into the train station. We had to walk another three blocks past the semi-dilapidated station building trying to find our way to the parking lot. The place looked positively miserable in the light of day. Graffiti scrawl on the walls, cracked concrete all around, no decorations on the building and weeds crawling up the sides of the station. It reminded me of something you’d see in Newark, NJ.
Somehow we found our way to the
train station parking lot . Lo and behold our van was still standing there all by itself. I half expected it to be up on cinder blocks, but it was in perfect shape. Nothing missing and no damage. Now the sick feeling in the
Memorial to Jan Palach
Back in 1968 the Czechs became just a little too independent thinking for their Soviet masters. They had initiated reforms against the Communist system and this was too much for the Russians who invaded. As a protest Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square. His funeral drew thousands to protest against the invaders. pit of my stomach was in anticipation of just how much this was going to cost us. We prepared ourselves for the worst. The cost for a day and a half of parking? $96.00. Price for alternate transportation on Prague mass transit? $35 for seven people. Peace of mind seeing that our $40,000 rental van wasn’t stolen, pilfered or scratched? Priceless.
What had taken us about 20 minutes to walk took about 5 minutes in the van as we drove back to the hotel. A beautiful recessed driveway sat right in front of the Tivoli entrance and we pulled in there. (We had asked if the hotel would let us pay to park there on the night we arrived but to no avail). The rest of the crew was waiting for us in the lobby guarding the suitcases. There was no bill to settle so we were out on the road in very short order.
As is evidenced by the total lack of photos in this day’s blog, there was little of sightseeing interest during our day long jaunt to Budapest. The usually highly dependable Nuvi led us a bit astray as we tried to leave Prague proper.
The Very Scary Walk to the Train
The sidewalk suddenly disappeared a couple blocks from the station building. We had to teeter along the top of this curb as the maniacal drivers of Prague whizzed by us at top speed. Most likely satellite accuracy was a bit weak because we continually got instructions to turn after we had passed the intersection. We got to see the industrial quarter of Prague which made the run-down locale of the train station look like Beverly Hills. We found our way out of town after fifteen minutes of confusion.
The amazing thing about Prague was that almost as soon as you left the city proper you were back in farm country. No suburbs or industrial parks on the outskirts of town. One minute we were driving past apartment buildings and storefronts in town and the next we were passing through fields and pastures on a four lane Autobahn.
Before too very long my passengers were back doing what they do best - sleeping. The scenery on this route was virtually non-existent. Once we left the farm area with its endless fields we climbed into a minor mountain range. This put us in the middle of a big forest. But unlike Germany or Austria there were no castles, lakes or snow-capped mountains to gawk at. The very few exits we passed displayed a few of those brown and white signs touting points of
South of the Border
Thanks to Google Earth, this should give you an idea of what the abandoned Slovakian-Hungarian border stations look like. interest but nothing was visible from the highway. Sheer monotony. I was unable to pick-up anything interesting on the radio and not having the sleeping Gail yell at me about my driving eventually made me start dozing. Fortunately we needed gas about an hour and a half into the drive. Another $80 in diesel, a pit stop and a candy bar revived my flagging energy.
At a little after 1:00 we left the Czech Republic and entered Slovakia. You could barely discern the border. The scenery was still boring and the signs were still written in weird vowel combinations, but the license plates of the many maniacs passing me were now different. Tyler wanted to see Bratislava just to say we went there but I was in a hurry to get to Budapest. What I had read about Bratislava didn’t make it seem like a “must see”. Once again I was a tad concerned about possible border crossing delays. We continued driving for almost an hour through Slovakia.
The most memorable moment of the 5 hour drive was when we reached the Hungarian border. Just a few days before, the border formalities had ceased and it was eerie
My Million Dollar View
I shot this looking out my hotel room window. The castle and cathedral stay lit up all night, but an extra thick curtain in our room kept out the glare. driving through the ghost town of custom and toll booths at the border. What was even odder was the fact that you are driving on an Autobahn-like road for miles through the Czech Republic and for a short time in Slovakia but after you enter Hungary it becomes a narrow two lane road. Almost as soon as we entered Hungary we pulled over to a booth that was selling the highway vignette you supposedly need. The building was in the middle of a garbage and weed-infested parking area and was half vignette booth and half convenience store. The guy working there on Christmas Day was especially creepy and took almost 15 minutes to sell us our vignette.
He couldn't communicate in English, German, Russian or Spanish. Having just entered the country we had no local currency. A sign inside displayed the Visa and MasterCard logos. Holding up my credit card and nodding my head a whole lot I got the impression Visa could be used for the vignette. It took the guy forever to run my card. I wasn't sure if he was having a problem or just using my card to pay off his Skoda. I eventually had
The Bone of Contention
This was the hotel gift found in our rooms that Gail and Cassie went to war over. to sign a credit car receipt for 1170 Florints for a 3 day pass, which was a little over $6.00
Meanwhile my kids tried to entertain themselves looking around the store. Dracula's wife watching their every move convinced them to hop back in the van. I was considering skipping Hungary based on this initial encounter.
Fortunately, things improved greatly as we drew nearer to Budapest - the road turned back into an Autobahn, we drove through pretty countryside (mostly fields and few buildings), good signage and plenty of roadside services. The nearer we got to Budapest the more retail stores and shopping centers we saw.
Nuvi did a great job of taking us to the
Art’otel Budapest . The hotel is along the banks of the Danube on a moderately busy street. But the entrance to the ultra-modern hotel is set back from the street thus creating a nice sheltered little driveway for us to pull the van into. A doorman led us inside into the airy, comfortable lobby. Check-in was a breeze as we had paid for this in advance through Pricline.com. We could never have afforded this place otherwise. My first concern was parking. The desk clerk
Budapest's Parliament Building
This is the sight we saw as we left the hotel lobby. In the warmer months the river is full of these long river cruise ships. We were hoping to take a short river cruise along the Danube the next day. summoned the bellhop/doorman over and he came outside to help us. He directed me into another very very narrow garage where I feared I’d get stuck. But he kept beckoning me in into the cramped space. He was squashed between my van and the wall as he hit a button behind him. The door behind us closed and we felt ourselves descending inside our van which was inside an elevator. The door opened on a very clean and well-lit underground garage. As I cringed each time we passed under the pipeworks above us the bellhop/doorman directed us to a big isolated parking area in the back of the garage. We informed our helper that we appreciated his efforts but didn’t need any help with our bags since the elevators up to our rooms were just a few feet away.
The theme of this hotel is artwork by American artist Donald Sultan. None of us ever heard of him, but somehow every room in the hotel, including the halls and common rooms, feature works of art made by this guy. Cassie and my room was huge with a very modern bathroom, a fridge, a 27 inch TV, big beds and
Yonder is Pest
Snow was just beginning to fall as we made our way downriver toward the Chain Bridge. On the opposite side of the river is the more affluent and commercial town of Pest. some sort of canvas thing hanging on our wall resembling a Rorschach Test. On our second day there we also noticed that our room, like all the others, also had a black bird statue sitting up in the corner. For some I suppose this “art” was the prime appeal of the Art’otel, but for us the view out our room was far more stimulating. Rising up behind us was the Castle Hill District which was now floodlit in the early evening. It looked as fairy-tale like as Neuschwanstein does on a snowy winter evening.
We weren’t in our room 10 minutes before Cassie and Gail were back at it. The rooms came with a Christmas gift basket full of bath products, candy and champagne. Gail had given her mother the one from her room and wanted the one from ours. Cassie decided she wanted ours too. From there things escalated and before you knew what was happening neither was talking to the other.
Tyler, Gen, Grandma and I didn’t feel like sitting in our rooms while the Christmas Day War continued. After asking the combatants numerous times if they wanted to go out for a walk and
Chain Bridge Between Buda and Pest
Just like the Charles Bridge in Prague, it was a little confusing finding the entrance to the bridge. We had to negotiate our way under and over the roadway to finally get onto the bridge deck. And we were freezing all the way. dinner and both continuing to sulk, we donned some extra layers of clothing then headed out of our luxury hotel. A light snow was falling as we sauntered along the tram tracks paralleling the Danube. Directly across the river was the oft-photographed Parliament building also illuminated with scores of floodlights. It was incredibly cold walking beside the river but the absolute charm of the city lights summoned us onwards. We made our way across the Chain Bridge to the Pest side of the river. All of us needed to convert cash. We asked the front desk clerk at the Sofitel Hotel if there was a nearby cash machine. He directed us around the corner. After everyone else withdrew their funds I stepped up to the machine. Normally Gail handles the ATM transactions when we travel, but how hard could this be? I inserted my card then selected the English menu. When I went to the "Fast Cash" option the lowest amount listed was 500 Florints, then 1000, then 2000, followed by 5000, 10,000, and 20,000. I picked what I thought was the middle amount which was 2000 Florints. My tired brain calculated this to be about $110. After I withdrew
Buda Castle
Looming above the Széchenyi Chain Bridge on the southern end of the Castle Hill District is this magnificent palace. Throughout the ages there has always been some sort of fortification atop this strategic point. It has served the Ottomans, the Hapsburgs and the Nazis over the years. the money and met up with the others we started walking again. This side of the Danube seemed more commercial but even though we easily found an ATM machine, we couldn’t find an open restaurant on Christmas night. We could’ve spent $100 each eating in the Marriott but remembering that there was a little bar restaurant next to our hotel we reversed field and walked back over the icy waters of the Danube. About halfway across the bridge I realized I had only withdrawn $11.00 for dinner. I was going to have to borrow from Tyler. Very embarassing.
I wasn’t thrilled with the selections on the outdoor menu at the Dunparti Matroz Kocsma
Dunparti Matroz Kocsma but any port in a storm, eh Matey? We immediately ordered beers and hot chocolate. The beer selection was impressive with lagers from all over Europe. We stuck with the local Hungarian brews. The theme of this restaurant was cuisine from all the countries bordering the Danube. Most of the selections were fish, but there was also Wiener Schnitzel, Gulasch and Sertés szűz tocsni tortával fűszeres mártással . I had the latter. There were more letters in the name of the platter than there were
Looking back at Buda
We made a very brief incursion into Pest. We were looking for a reasonably-priced restaurant but on Christmas night very little was open. We eventually returned back across the bridge to eat at the bistro next to our hotel. pieces of meat and vegetables. It seems the place we had chosen to dine considers itself some sort of
pretentious bistro and portions reflected that whole Nouveau nonsense of serving food on a gigantic plate with skinny filaments of sauce decorating a teaspoonful of actual dinner. My bite was very good, but hardly enough. Fortunately we had candy and chips back in our room. I suppose $25.00 for dinner and two beers isn’t unreasonable but I would expect to feel like I actually ate something.
We went back to our rooms at a bit after 10:00. Cassie was asleep and Gail wasn’t talking to anyone yet. Best to leave the sleeping dogs lie.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.258s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 22; qc: 98; dbt: 0.1197s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
