Our last weekend away was great trip to Budapest, Hungary. I had been there for work once before and had seen very little, but enough to know that it definitely warranted a return visit.Budapest is probably best known for its baths (although - amongst our friends it may be better known for the House of Hungarian Wines... more on that below). Filled with natural spring water the baths are said to have healing properties. We spent a morning at Gellert Baths - which are housed in a beautiful Art Nouveau building. There are various pools of different temperatures, massage tables, steam baths/sauna and sunbathing decks (although not so popular in Winter).
Having got nice, warm and sleepy we set off for the infamous House of Hungarian Wines. This little tourist attraction doesn't seem to feature in guide books - but is well known by friends who have been there and is now a compulsory stop on any trip to Budapest. Hungary has a surprisingly large wine industry - with 22 appellations. After paying for entry you descend into a cellar where you can wander through the wine regions - and in each you will find a 1 or 2 open bottles of wine - which you can help yourself to a tasting of. Dangerous? Indeed. Highlights were the Bivakar - a red blend known as 'Bull's Blood' and Tokaj - a sweet white dessert wine. Four hours later we emerged well tasted and with a few bottles to take home to London for the cellar!Budapest has many beautiful statues, monuments and buildings. We spend a fair bit of time wandering round exploring. On the Sunday we were up visiting the Buda Palace when it started to snow quite heavily! The first fall of the season. Although the snow made exploring a little difficult from a practical perspective - it did make Budapest even more stunning and it felt appropriate to be wandering round in this Eastern European city in the snow.
The final stop on our trip was the 'House of Horrors' - a multi-media museum/memorial to the Nazi and (more so) Communist past of Budapest. This was really interesting and provided an insight into the atrocities which occurred in the post-war Communist regime. It was incredible to think that just 20 years ago Budapest was firmly locked behind the iron-curtain.
A very full, but very enjoyable 2 days in this part of the world.
