Budapest; Tuesday, 22 December, 2015

Breakfast and check-out completed I left my bags with the hotel and headed out into the city. First stop of the morning was the Parliament building. The last couple of times I’ve been to Budapest the area was undergoing major rebuilding and refurbishment but that had now been completed so I wanted to go and have a bit of a closer look at the very impressive building.

I had a bit of a wander around the site, taking in the exhibition in the Lapidarium underneath the square, as well as watching the guards performing a ceremony. From the parliament I walked alongside the river back to the Margaret Bridge and picked up the tram from there.

Tram line 2 has to be one of the most picturesque on the planet, taking in the full sweep of the Parliament building before running along the bank of the Danube past the Castle and Gellert hills. I took the tram past all the key sights and onto the Zwack Unicum distillery a bit further down the river.

Unicum is the Hungarian national spirit and is made from a combination of 40 herbs and spices to create quite a unique flavour. As part of the tour of the cellars and museum there is the chance to taste both the original drink, which is quite bitter, or the sweeter and milder plum version.

Having consumed 2 shots of 40% proof booze in quick succession I perhaps didn’t give the museum as much attention as I should have. Instead I headed back into town to grab some lunch, if only to try and counter the effects of the alcohol.

Revived, mostly through strong coffee I caught the Metro under the Danube to the bank opposite the Parliament to take some more photos before walking back up to the Margaret Bridge, this time on the Buda side and then wandering across to the mid-point of the bridge where it takes a 150 degree turn and offers stunning views down the river, one of the few places in the city where you can get a good view of the Parliament, Citadella and full sweep of the castle in one place.

By now the sun was already heading low into the sky so I started my journey back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and head on out to the airport, though in the process I checked the app on my phone to discover I was going to have a much longer wait that I expected as the flight was already delayed by over two hours.