In the four years we've lived in London, we have
spent nearly every Christmas holiday apart from our families in the US. Our first
Christmas in London back in 2012, most of my family came to visit us here. But since then,
we have not traveled back to the US nor have we had any other family visitors be with us on Christmas. So instead, we've spent the last three years hitting various
destinations in Europe.
2013 - Germany, Austria and Czech Republic
2014 - Bruges, Belgium
2015 - Edinburgh, Scotland
Back in the late summer/early fall, Geoff and I
started discussing possible places to visit around the holidays. Budapest is
always at the top of the list of most beautiful European Christmas
destinations. Couple that with my family's Hungarian heritage (my
great-grandparents on my mom's side immigrated to the US from Hungary) and the
appeal to return to my roots. So it was decided.
One
of the biggest highlight of visiting European cities at the holidays are the Christmas
markets. Stalls are set up around the city squares with various vendors
selling their goods and foods. We spent Christmas Eve wandering the market
stalls and streets of the city.
Drinking apple cider to stay warm!
This kid had the good life. Being pushed around while comfortably warm in a sleeping bag. No wonder he's smiling!
The lovely Chain Bridge, connecting Buda to Pest over the Danube River.
By this photo we were frozen. The wind and extra
damp air around the river made it absolutely bone chilling cold.
For dinner on Christmas Eve, Geoff booked us a
table at the restaurant in our hotel. Not many restaurants were open on
Christmas Eve around the city and this restaurant was offering a special 6
course Christmas menu, so it was an easy decision to dine there. The
result: the longest dinner ever. EVER!
Our reservation was at 7:00. We left the
restaurant sometime around 10:15 and that was only after getting 4 out of the 6
courses!! The service was so unbelievable slow. The time between each course
was anywhere between 30-45 minutes. They skipped bringing us our first course
and the kids were falling asleep at the table by the end, so we asked to have
our dessert sent to our room. At one point during the meal, Geoff asked
the wait staff if we could have our courses brought out a bit quicker seeing as
we had THREE LITTLE KIDS at the table. However, the kitchen and staff were on
their own schedule that night. Definitely not ours. We played lots and lots of
rounds of I-Spy at the table that night.
Despite being away from our home, we tried to make
it feel special on Christmas day for the kids. Our elf Andy magically
followed us from London to Budapest. He brought with him a little Christmas
tree (thanks to some helper elves at our hotel 😉), a few gifts and some
special treats.
Merry Christmas from Olivia, Ashton and Quinn!
The weather was cold and lightly sleeting on
Christmas, Ashton wasn't feeling well and most of the major sights of interest
were closed. It was tempting to just stay in the warm hotel room all day, but
we forced ourselves out. No point in visiting a city if we stay in the hotel
room, right??? We found a tram, which was semi-warm, that ran along the
river so we hopped aboard for a ride.
Olivia looks so much like an urban, European girl to me in this photo!
We got off the tram at the Hungarian parliament
building for a more up close look. Gorgeous!
For Christmas evening
dinner, we boarded a boat for a lovely dinner cruise up and down the Danube. We had
traditional Hungarian food and heard traditional Hungarian music. The way the
buildings light up at night along the river is really beautiful and gives the
city a whole new feel.
Loving the Hungarian dumplings!
Merry Christmas!
The day after Christmas, the weather warmed up considerably and the sun appeared, making it so much more enjoyable to see the city.
We rode the tram across the river for a hike to the
top of the Gellert Hill. Reaching the top of the hill left us with gorgeous
views of the surrounding city and river. We also discovered a small
playground of sorts along the way, which was definitely the girls' highlight of
the trek.
