Maastricht

Early on Saturday morning (ok, ok: we're only an hour away from Maastricht by train, so I had to wake up at 09h00 in order to meet the rest of the people in Maastricht by 11h00) we arrived at the train station in Eindhoven. The 10h02 train to Maastricht was so full that we weren't even able to get on, due to an earlier train not arriving, and seemingly the whole of the Netherlands wanting to go the christmas market in Maastricht on a Saturday morning. Amazingly they were able to arrange for another train to take people from Eindhoven to Maastricht and within 20 minutes we were off again.

It was a chilly day in Maastricht, but the Christmas feeling was all around, and fun was had by all. Originally the plan was to visit Drielandenpunt and Valkenburg as well, but that will have to wait as there was more than enough to do in Maastricht itself. We went up on the ferris wheel at the Christmas market, and as you can see from the image above it's quite a sight.

We walked south from the city centre to Helpoort and the city walls, which are really a sight to behold:

We also tried to visit caves to the south of Maastricht, but missed the guided and tour, and unfortunately you can't go into the caves by yourself. So we had a beer that was made (stored?) in caves instead.

For the rest of the photos, see the Facebook album.

A weekend in Budapest

We arrived in Budapest on Thursday afternoon, travelled by bus from the airport to the closest metro station, and then by metro to the city centre. As we exited Deák Ferenc tér metro station,  we were smack-bang in the middle of the Pest side of the capital of Hungary. To get to our hotel, we had to cross the famous Chain Bridge (pictured above) built over the Danube river (yes, the one in the most famous Johann Strauss waltz "The Blue Danube"). The Danube splits Budapest into Buda (the west side) and Pest (the east side).

 The evening we went to the annual Christmas market in Vörösmarty tér Square, where they sell (only) hand-crafted goods, and delicious treats like "Kürtőskalács”, a traditional hollow, cylinder-shaped pastry - in a sense similar to good old Afrikaans "stokbrood", but coated in sugary goodness and cocoa (or coconut, or other assorted flavours - take your pick!). Also on the menu was traditional sausages, mulled wine (yes, it's glühwein) and some sort of extreme garlic potato dish.

The next morning we visited the Hungarian Parliament building, the third largest parliament building in the world. It houses the Hungarian crown jewels, which were kept in Fort Knox in the US for safekeeping from the Soviet Union.



Most of the fun stuff in Budapest is on the top of Castle Hill, and includes the Royal Palace (with National Gallery), Turul bird, Fisherman's Bastion, Mary Magdalene Tower, Matthias Church, Vienna Gate and the Buda Hill Labyrinths. The video above shows one way of reaching the top, but we usually just followed one of the many footpaths criss-crossing the hill.

Some of the interesting places to eat in Budapest include Marxim, a post-communist pizza place with pizza like "Laika's Favourite" and "Pizza a la Kremlin", and Nagyi palacsintázója ("Granny's Pancakes"), where a pancake with delicious Nutella filling costs about €0.50.

When in Budapest, you have to try the thermal baths - we tried both the Széchenyi and Géllert baths. Széchenyi Spa is the largest thermal bath in Europe - and yes, the trip from the change rooms to the pool in your swimming trunks when the outside temperature is about 6 degrees C is probably not the most enjoyable experience, until you reach the 36 degrees thermal spring heated water.

The rest of the photos from our trip is in a photo album on Facebook.