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Published: September 30th 2017
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We rented a car to start Day 4 and headed out to Szentendre (a small artisan town about 45 minutes NWish of Budapest).
Travel recommendation #1 from this trip is to download an offline map app. No data needed and it lets you know where your are. You can look up reviews for app options, but T had "Citymaps2go" which was a great little app. It doesn't give directions so I had to have separate turn by turn instructions as well to navigate. Still - it got us back on track when we missed some turns so I am all about these apps now.
I downloaded "Maps.me" as it has GPS like T's app AND it can give you directions, so we'll see how that one works out when we get to the driving part in Romania. I used it for walking directions in Budapest, and it was excellent.
A must for me now (and anyone travelling abroad in my humble opinion) as it was super useful.
Szentendre was charming and well worth the drive out. We did some strolling about, T and I had lunch at a cafe and we met back up with the mamas.
Szentendre
I bought an apron here Next stop was Godollo Palace - about 40 min east(ish) from Szentendre. It was a favourite "vacation " home of the Hungarian Queen Elizabeth ("Sissi"). There is a trilogy of movies from the 50's about her that T and the mamas has seen, so they quite a bit about her already. The palace had been run down before a big renovation initiative. They had photos and video of the before and they should be proud - their hard work shows. It's a beautiful place. No photos allowed inside so we don't have many.
After that we headed back to Budapest, got gas to top up the tank and return the car (the rental was very close to our hotel and service was great...well worth the day trip).
I started this next sentence with "Even though we were in the...", but then fell asleep on my iPad and now have no clue what I was going to say. Sheesh.
Our last day in Budapest started with heading out early to the Szechenyi thermal baths. We had a long soak in their famous healing waters and then were on our way. T and I opted for lunch at
the Central Market for Langos (see pics - guess which one I had???) - these lovely bread things topped with goodness - followed by a fascinating walk about the National History Museum. We checked out the main exhibits - history of Hungary parts 1 and 2 but despite having successfully navigated part 1, couldn't find the entrance to part 2. A couple of mistaken turns led us to some special exhibits (which we hadn't paid for and no one stopped us from going to. Pity me thinks. We were obviously stunned) and a special dark room with artifacts from the last coronation. There, too, the kindly guard took pity on us, turned the lights on, let us in and watched as we figured out that we had *not* in fact found part 2 of the history exhibit . We did end up finding the exit to part 2 (by either dogged determination or dumb luck) and decided to go backwards through the chronology do we did get it done in the end. So much for my fancy book learnin'...I can't seem to follow basic instructions. Sheesh x 2
While we were doing that, the mamas went for a walk
to the Opera House and had a glass of wine at a fancy hotel. Keepin' it classy.
I loved, loved Budapest and my only regret is that we didn't have more time. Everything about it was great - lots to see and do (I could easily have spent another few days just in our neighbourhood), safe, clean, easy to get around. It has everything. This city should be on everyone's must see list.
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