Travelling to Budapest

This trip is a 10 day visit to Hungary, the main purpose being our daughter’s wedding weekend which is taking place in an old chateau south of Lake Balaton in the Hungarian winelands. We have built a holiday around this momentous event – 3 nights in Budapest before the wedding weekend and 4 nights in a cottage near the north shore of Lake Balaton after the wedding. Joining us on some or all of this adventure are 3 other couples, Penny and David, Stuart and Fiona and Sheena and David.

We set off from Folkestone just after 8 am this morning, it was drizzly. We were cheered that the weather in Hungary was going to be about 30C for the whole time we are there. Bob drove us plus Pen and Dave to Heathrow. We left the car with Bee Parking literally just outside the airport. A funny carpark. I hope our car will be OK. I took lots of photos of it just in case.

We checked in fine, all very smooth. Met Stuart and Fi in Pret a Manger and then we sat and waited for our gate. The flight was due to leave at 145 (British Airways) but was about 45 minutes late. They managed to claw back 15 mins though. No problems getting through the airport in Budapest, it was pretty fast. I’d booked a car to transport the 6 of us and our copious luggage! It worked well – a Mercedes taxi van – we all fitted in and a nice driver. It took about 45 minutes to get from the airport to downtown. Stuart and Fi were staying at the Intercontinental on the Danube. It looked gorgeous, a very prime spot. Penny, Dave, Bob and I had an apartment in the very lively district around Asboth. Sheena and Dave were already here staying in a hotel. We had booked a table for dinner at 8pm at a restaurant called Hungarian Hell’s Kitchen which got really good reviews on Tripadvisor.

At this point we had a bit of a disaster. Our apartment was on the 1st floor of the building and the directions to finding it once inside the block were very much less than clear. Some parts inferred we were in apartment 4, others 2. It was self check in so no staff around We had a code for the keybox but it didn’t work. I rang the contact but his English was poor. At this point, Bob had loaded all our luggage into the tiny lift – one of those with internal and external doors, very very small – and started up to Floor 1. He got there but the outer lift doors would not open!!!!! And then the lift ‘wouldnt ‘go anywhere, just flashed an error code at us. So, Bob was stuck in the lift with all the luggage, in increasingly boiling conditions…. we were outside on the landing unable to reach him and also unable to find an apartment that had the right keycode. Finally the contact got us to the right door and we got the key out of the keybox, then couldn’t get the door to open….. Bob still stuck…… We persevered and got in…… In the end a man came and used a giant allen key type thing to manually open the outer lift door to release Bob….. phew… horrific. Poor Bob. Not a good start at all. The reason we couldn’t find the right apartment is that unusually (in my experience) the apartment numbers are the same on each floor ie each floor has a Flat 2 and to make it more complex, the first floor is the Mezzanine not Floor 1. Yikes!!!!!

By now we were late for our reservation so we messaged the others that we were on our way and after a quick wash, we headed out. Very nice apartment by the way. 2 bedrooms – good size, 2 bathrooms, big well equipped lounge with kitchen. Good a/c and wifi and the location is great. Right in the centre of things with lots around us.

It was about a 10 minute walk to the restaurant. Home – Large wooden bowl kitchen | Hungarian restaurant in the heart of Budapest (nagyfatalkonyhaja.hu) A really nice place, buzzy, very attractive, good traditional music and lovely food and staff. We had a thoroughly good evening and left full up and happy. As you can imagine by the time we arrived we needed a beverage. I had roast pork knuckle with crisp potatoes and horseradish cabbage. It was really delicious and an enormous portion. Bob had crispy duck leg with similar sides. We had wine, lots of beers….. In all it came to £56 per couple and I thought it excellent value for such generous food and entertainment.