Today was a day for exploring – 19,380 steps, probably 400 stairs, 4 buses, and 2 trams worth!
The kids happily rode in the stroller, walked, and asked for an occasional “uppy” along the way, but they were troopers and we saw SO MANY THINGS. LOOK AT THE THINGS:
We planned to just go see the Castle today, but it was such a pleasant, cool morning that we were inspired to walk a bit. It was also the first time we were all out the door before 10am (thanks jet lag!) so we tried to take advantage of the day.
We walked from our apartment in District VII to Parliament, which took about an hour with photo stops and the occasional 3 minutes when one of the kids decided they wanted to try to walk.
From Parliament, we got adventurous and decided to take a bus across the river so we could ride the Funicular up to the Castle. Well…seeing the line (and the price) for the Funicular, my ambitious husband decided we could take the stairs. His philosophy in life is “anywhere is walkable if you have enough time” so off we went up the roughly 200 stairs to Castle Hill.
We took a short detour to the Fisherman’s Bastion which was absolutely gorgeous. I purposefully didn’t do too much research on Budapest so we could really wander around and be surprised by the city, so I was not expecting the beautiful bustling square we discovered at the top of the hill.
We were immediately greeted by the statue of St Stephen – referenced above as the “man with the horsey.” Then there was Matthias’s Church and the rest of the Fisherman’s Bastion at every turn. Finally we got to the wall and saw the view of Parliament and Pest and we were blown away.
Needed slushies to recover from the view
From there we continued on through Castle Hill, seeing the Turul Statue, Buda Castle, and the Torteneti Museum, before climbing down the “Water Carrier Stairs” (spoiler: there were many!) to the garden and Miklos Square. Always happy to see water fountains and the ever-present misters just when they are needed!
Last but not least, while we were on the Buda side of the river, we decided to do one final hike up to the Citadel for a view of both sides of the river. It took about 40 minutes to walk to the bus stop (yes, uphill in case you were wondering….). Then we caught a bus for exactly 47 seconds to the entrance of the Citadel. We were greeted by a rose garden that entertained the kids for much longer than expected and then we pushed through to the main attraction. The Citadel did not disappoint:
After all that, we were able to take a bus and a tram all the way back to our apartment where the kids immediately crashed. Remy fell asleep while chewing a chicken nugget and I had to fish it out of his mouth. He was so tired he didn’t even move when I had to stick my fingers in there.
The problem was that it was only 6pm when they fell asleep and we knew they wouldn’t sleep all the way through. At 8pm we got them up and walked around the neighborhood and let them play at a playground until 10pm. There were surprisingly a lot of other families still out at that time so we just let them play. Remy found a car in the sandbox so it was basically Christmas morning for him.
Still….both were awake at midnight 🫠
