Budapest

Budapest is beautiful. Our hotel is on a street of big, traditional, colourful houses, on a quiet street in Pest. Ours has a courtyard in the middle, and I guess the others do too. At the end of our street is a church, which is lit beautifully by the sun in the evenings. Round that corner is a pedestrianised street with restaurant and cafe tables set out across the whole street. We've enjoyed lots of delicious traditional dishes, including lots of pork. Everything is very quiet compared to Istanbul, which makes a lovely change, although I think I'll miss the busyness of Istanbul after we leave there.

We had breakfast of pastries and raspberries from a covered market place, we crossed the Danube on  a chain bridge and took the funicular up the hill to the Castle. We explored beautiful viewpoints, built with steps, walkways, and round towers, looking down across the river, where the parliament and other impressive buildings lie along the riverbank. We listened for a bit to a string quartet, and then heard part of an opera being performed from a balcony, over a square, in front of an ornate church with a highly patterned roof. On the other side of the church, Reuben got to hold an eagle. Miriam enjoyed it from close by, and Naomi was safely tucked behind Tim's legs, holding on tightly.

We went down into the caverns where Vlad the Impalor - Dracula- had been imprisoned for about 14 years. We discovered that Vlad had spent much of his childhood at Topkapi palace (in Istanbul), and was probably imprisoned because of his links with the Sultan - Istanbul always features in just about any historical event somehow. Some of the caverns had been left completely dark. Reuben led us round - he is really comfortable in the dark. It was very atmospheric. As I was groping around, tentatively exploring a small entrance in a wall there was a sudden roar from inside it, which made me shout out. Naomi had to be carried after that. It was some other tourists. Reuben later got revenge, as they turned back from looking in a little cavern with a coffin and a Dracula figure, he jumped at them and made one of them shriek!

I'm sure we will come back here for a longer visit some day. Now we have a short (4 hour) train journey to Lintz.