Budapest; Wednesday, 31 July, 2013

The train slowed to a stop within a few hundred meters of crossing the border into Hungary, made a clunk and a loud humming sound before the air-conditioning burst into lung busting life and the train took off.

Despite the new engine, and clearly a renewed vigour once it reached Hungary, we still managed to lose more time, and by the time we finally arrived in Budapest it was 45 minutes late. I walked the kilometre or so down from the station to the hotel and checked in before heading back out into the city.

First stop was up into the castle to take in the views of the city and have a wander around, pausing near the main palaces for a quick, and surprisingly given its location, relatively cheap dinner.

From the castle I caught the funicular railway back down to road level and the picked up the tram that runs alongside the bank of the Danube for a couple of stops before changing to the bus that goes up the Gellért Hill to the Citadella.

I arrived just as the sun was starting to go down, and was given a spectacular view of the city at sunset with the sky turning orange over the Danube and then slowly the city illuminating as floodlights came on.

I spent quite a bit of time on the top of the Citadella and it was staring to get quite dark as I picked my way back down the dimly lit paths back into the town centre.

I walked over the bridge back to Pest and picked the tram up along the riverside, aiming to catch it back to where it connected with the tram back to the hotel.

Unfortunately the line is still being repaired after the early June floods, so there was a bus for a part of the way, which meant I didn’t get quite such a good view of the river and the castle hill.

Back at the hotel I had a quick drink in the bar and then turned in for the night.