Budapest at Christmas

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30/12 Budapest at Christmas



We started our tour in the heart of Budapest on the banks of the Danube, across the water the Beautiful buildings looking very splendid all lit up.

Zsuzsi, our guide, pointed out the famous chain bridge which I recalled when we visited Budapest a few years ago on a Danube river cruise.

We stopped to view the exterior of the Vigado Concert Hall, The Vigadó Concert Hall is the second largest Concert Hall in Budapest, which was inaugurated in 1865. It was destroyed during World War II and was not re-opened until 1980. It has been wonderfully reconstructed as a Classical Building and Concert Venue.



We continued to Vorosmarty Square, The most famous building on the square is the Gerbeaud-ház built in 1858-1862 in art Nouveau style.

The first floor is the famous Cafe Gerbeaud one of the biggest and best-known coffee-house in Europe.

The square is usually full of Christmas markets at this time of the year but not this year.



The white marble statue of the poet Mihály Vörösmarty was covered up to protect it from the winter weather,apparently it is covered every year during the winter.



We continued down the main shopping street and popped into a local shop where Zsuzsi explained about all the different Hungarian specialities of food, spices, wine and traditional Hungarian artisan souvenirs.



Something very popular to eat at Christmas are Christmas rolls, Poppy-seed rolls or Walnut rolls. This Christmas delicacy was first invented in Bratislava and was then brought into Hungary.

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