One of the things Silvette wanted to do was visit the European Christmas markets. The most famous markets are in Germany, but the German markets finish on Christmas Eve. This year was Andrea’s 40th birthday on December 26, and when she heard we were thinking of going to the markets, she wanted to go with us. Unfortunately, as a teacher she was not able to go until about the 21st which would be an expensive time to fly.
After some research, we realized that Christmas markets continued until New Years in both Budapest and Prague. Since they were a reasonable distance from each other, we decided we would visit their markets. Our plan was to fly into Budapest, take a train from there to Prague, and then fly home. We would leave on Christmas Eve and return on New Year’s Eve.
On Christmas Eve we had our son and his wife over for breakfast since we would not have Christmas with them. They then dropped us off at the airport. We had a pretty uneventful flight to Amsterdam where we met up with Andrea. Immigration in Amsterdam was slow due to lack of personnel, but we made our flight to Budapest on time.
We arrived in Budapest in the afternoon on Christmas Day. A taxi took us to our hotel in the Castle Hill area. Since Andrea had been to Budapest once before, she took charge of our first day. After settling into our hotel, we walked down a few blocks and then started going up some stairs. We walked up two different long flights of stairs.
When we reached the top of those stairs, we looked ahead to see a church that was all lit up, Mathias Church. This Catholic church has a long history in Hungary including the location for the crowning of two kings. While we did not go inside the church, we did walk all around it.
Just past the church is an area known as the Fisherman’s Bastion. This area has walls and some towers along the edge of the hill. While it looks like a fortress of sort, apparently people saw it more as a gathering place. There are a number of observation points that are part of the walls and towers.
The main viewing attraction is the Parliament Building. This structure is on the edge of the Danube River and is huge with many decorative towers and features. It is the building to see in Budapest. The hardest part about observing and taking a photo of the Parliament is the lights. Huge lights point at the walls of the Fisherman’s Bastion from below. They light up the walls but can interfere with a photo one is trying to take of the city below.
There are actually two levels to part of the wall. We did go up to the second level hoping to escape some of the bright lights. It didn’t help that much. Besides the parliament, we were also able to see other buildings of the city as well as the bridges that cross the Danube.
One of the fun things about the evening was the moon was shining brightly. I made a point to include the moon in some of my shots.
The area was well decorated for Christmas. Some booths provided a bit of a Christmas market, but not many were doing business on Christmas Day. We walked around the larger area some. We passed a Lutheran Church that was having a Christmas Evening service. I might have gone in to participate, but Silvette said she would probably fall asleep. Across the street was a unique nativity scene in a large case. It seemed handmade.
From there we decided to have dinner at a Jamie Oliver restaurant we had passed. Then we headed back to our hotel to crash after a very long day.
I woke up unexpectedly early the next morning. After a very nice breakfast at the hotel, we were off for our one full day in Budapest. We walked down to the Danube River. We were on the Buda side of the river; Pest is on the other side. Originally they were two different cities, but they eventually united together. We walked through a tunnel to get to the river which comes out at one of the more famous of the bridges, Széchenyi Chain Bridge. This was the first permanent stone bridge to connect the two sides of the Danube River in Budapest. It is also famous for the four lions that are on the four corners of the bridge.
However, rather than cross the river here, we decided to walk along the river. It was still early, and the Christmas markets weren’t open yet. There is a nice walking path beside the river. We passed a number of churches along the way. The first one had a very unusual tile roof section. The colors were very deep and rich. It happened to be a reformed church with a very tall steeple. A little later we passed a church with two towers on the front. The tops were a style of architecture that we saw often in Budapest, but I had not seen this style in other European cities. There was a Catholic church nearby with the same type of tower. From this side of the river we could also get nice daytime shots of the Parliament Building.
We eventually came to another bridge, the Margaret Bridge, which we were going to cross to get to the downtown area. From a distance the bridge didn’t seem very interesting, but up close there were a number of interesting details. In particular crowns decorated part of the bridge. Before we crossed the bridge, however, we passed through a park with another statue with a lion.
About two thirds of the way across the bridge, there was a path that went off to the left and onto an island in the river. Sports and recreation seemed to be the main use for the fairly large island. A jogging path encircled the island going one way. Made from a rubberized material the path looked comfortable to jog on. We walked a little ways onto the island but didn’t explore it too much.
Back on the bridge we continued into town. Since we were close to it, we decided to take a walk around the Parliament Building. There are so many different angles and sections to look at. Around the front of the building was a nativity scene set up with large carved wooden figures. It was a pretty impressive display. From this side of the river we also were able to get a nice view of the Mathias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion which we had explored the night before.
After checking out the Parliament Building, we headed toward the first of the two Christmas markets we planned to see. To get there we walked through Liberty Park. In the park we were surprised to see statues of two American presidents. The first one was Ronald Reagan, and the second was George Bush Senior. My assumption is that they were being honored for their part in helping to bring down the communist regime in Hungary.
From this park we finally reached the first Christmas market. This one is in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica. We wandered through the booths to see what they had to offer. I guess my first impression is that it was smaller than I had anticipated. I had expected to see 100 booths or more, but there were maybe half that number at the most. The other impression was that a majority of the booths were selling food. The number of artisans seemed small and were offering mostly traditional items.
When I was researching the markets and reading about the foods one would encounter, there were two that piqued my interest. One of them was a chimney cake. Bakers make them by taking dough and wrapping it around a cone shape. They are then baked over hot coals. Recently these cones have been used as more like an ice cream cone. However a traditional chimney cake might just have cinnamon and sugar on the outside.
I bought one like that. It had just come off of the coals so when the guy handed me the bag, it was hot and steaming. I couldn’t hold it by the cake itself. When it finally cooled off enough to eat, it was actually quite tasty. It tasted somewhat like a donut. The pieces kind of unwind as you eat it. It is best eaten warm. We didn’t eat all of it at that time, and I had some in the evening, but it didn’t taste as good.
Our day in Budapest was far from over at this point, but I have written enough for now. Next week I will continue our adventure as we explore the second Christmas Market and enjoy a cruise on the Danube. In the meantime I’d love to read about your experience either with Christmas markets in Europe or a visit to Budapest in the comment box below. Until next week.
Credit: Picture of me taken by Silvette Lee