Budapest is separated by the Danube River, so there are a number of bridges that bring the two sides together. The Chain Bridge is probably the most famous, and heavily trafficked, as it connects the center of both cities.

The famous Chain Bridge linking Buda to Pest

View of Buda from the Chain Bridge

Liberty Bridge is downstream of the Chain Bridge, close to the Market, and affords a number of photographic opportunities.

Liberty Bridge with Elisabeth Bridge in the distance

Fisherman’s Bastion

Buda Castle and the Fisherman’s Bastion dominate the Buda hillside and offer brilliant views of the river and Pest side of the city. They are also beautiful in their own right.

Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion closeup

panoramic view from the Bastion

National Gallery

Parliament

Seemingly the largest building and visible from many parts of the city, the Parliament building looks like it was designed for a movie set. Parts are undergoing renovation but from a distance you can’t even tell.

Hungarian Parliament- every bit as decorative as it looks

another view near sunset

closeup

Along the river and not far from the Parliament is the Shoes on the Danube memorial to Jews murdered along the river bank in WWII.

memorial to Jewish victims along the Danube

Certainly one of the more moving memorials we’ve experienced in Europe.

• the Hungarian language was just as hard to comprehend as we thought it would be. Luckily, most everyone spoke at least a little English, and we never too much of an issue.
• wow traffic! Budapest is a city on the move via all kinds of transport- car, bike, bus, boat, train and more. At times it was hard to get away from all the noise, so quiet spots were appreciated.
• It was sunny and near 80 every day at the end of April. More surprising was the heat retention at night- it took a while for things to cool down, so our long sleeves were mostly neglected on this trip
• Maps of the city are deceptive – Budapest is quite large, so we walked miles each day.

There are a number of sights around town, but 2-3 days would have been enough to see the sights of interest to us. Overall we felt it was somewhat like Brussels– the city is much more interesting at night, and we especially liked the food and wine places that we found. Through the next few posts we’ll detail where we went and what we tried.

Hotels:

Our original plan had us spending some time in another part of Hungary, Tokaj. When those plans fell through we tried to add night to our reservation at our main hotel but the price was simply too high. Instead, we spent our first night at the K+K Opera based in part on our good experience with the London location. This hotel has a good location just 1 block from the opera house and one street off the main thoroughfare. Our room faced a courtyard making it blessedly quiet for our first night.

comfortable beds

The bathroom was a little small but otherwise clean and manageable.

The remaining four nights in Budapest were spent at the Casati Budapest Hotel. Due to a great Cyber Monday deal in November we were able to reserve a junior suite at about half the normal price, and lower than their standard room rate. Switching hotels was easy as this was just three blocks away!

Our room had a fun owl mural and a large amount of floor space. Definitely one of the larger rooms we’ve experienced. Unfortunately, the room lacked storage space for clothes with a tiny closet and no drawers. Rather odd given the size of the room overall.

our room – not pictured is the black leather couch on the close wall.

The beds were very comfortable– combined with the quietness of the courtyard and thick wall, one morning we slept till just before 11a!

large bathroom (sans toilet, which is in a smaller room with real door on the other side)

We enjoyed the art in the lobby and murals in the hallways too.

 the unusually long hallway to our room

The Casati is a fairly small hotel with a single person at the front desk. Occasionally we could not find that person, possibly because they were doing something elsewhere in the hotel. The K+K is a larger hotel with a more standard check-in desk. In fact, their front desk was quite helpful and proactively recommended restaurants that would take reservations.

Both hotels included breakfast with the room rate, and both had a nice selection including scrambled eggs, a variety of meats and cheeses, pastries, granola, etc.

Overall both hotels were good options and we would consider them again on a future trip.

Saturday

We arrived Saturday morning and were impressed by Nashville’s arrivals area– they have 10 minute pull-through waiting spaces (with electornic timers) right next to the terminal for picking people up. Very civilized! We hopped in to Leah’s car and drove over to Marche in East Nashville for Saturday brunch. The restaurant was very busy so we had to wait about 20 minutes, but the croissant french toast certainly made up for the inconvenience!

Stuffed full of breakfast goodness we headed south to Cheekwood Gardens. The weather was beautiful and the tulips were putting on quite a show.

From Cheekwood we drove through the rolling residential areas around Franklin to Leah’s house. Having seen many of the renovations on her website it was nice to receive a personal tour of the current renovations, both inside and out. Later that afternoon we walked down to the small, but bustling, Franklin downtown. Leandra couldn’t resist the allure of several shops but the damage was minimal– some moonflower seeds and a few potential Christmas presents.

By this point we had walked several miles in all so we retired to Leah’s backyard for a well-earned local beer — Yazoo Brewing Company’s Sue, a deliciously-smoked stout.

That evening we tried J.Alexanders for dinner. Though we usually skip corporate restaurants, J.Alexanders came highly recommended, so we called ahead for seating and ended up waiting about 20 minutes. We were rather entertained by the various high school prom kids whilst waiting :)  Our orders came out surprisingly fast, to the point where we weren’t sure it could be ours, but each entree was exactly right and excellent to boot. Hats off to that kitchen, they were definitely firing on all cylinders.

Sunday

Unlike Saturday’s blue skies, we woke to an overcast morning. Leah wanted us to try The Loveless Cafe and knowing the wait times thought it best to get there before 9:30a. We were lucky to have about a 30 minute wait, so we bided our time browsing the attached stores.

Since this is also a BBQ place I was looking forward to the ham, but I was underwhelmed with the flavor and texture of the thick cut. Thankfully, the biscuits were proper Southern style, buttery and warm, and the cheesy hashbrown casserole was awesome.

From here we headed to Edwin Warner Park for some light hiking through the spring woods. Lots of wildflowers were in bloom including Virginia bluebells, trilliums and violets.

Plus a snake!

Having clearly earned it, we later visited Sweet CeCe’s Frozen Yogurt in Franklin, where I mixed thin mint and chocolate milk frozen yogurt with peanut m&ms and malt balls for a delicious lunch :)

We had to be at the airport around 7p, so we headed back to East Nashville for an early dinner at The Pharmacy, a burger place. You definitely can’t go wrong with a place that serves tater tots as a side… and their burgers were excellent. Once again, service was very quick, so we had a bit of time to stop at Bar 308 for a pre-departure drink. It was fairly quiet while we were there, but I can see how the place could be very crowded on a Friday or Saturday night. They have a fairly extensive cocktail menu, so Leandra tried a vodka and ginger drink she wished were a little sweeter while I opted for a vodka and citrus on the 2-for-1 happy hour menu.

All-in-all, a great overnight trip courtesy of our Southwest pass and Leah’s hospitality- thanks again!

Looks inviting, but in April it is still chilly – After about 20 minutes beach combing for sea glass and shells, Leandra learned how windy it can be on a beach in the spring!

Returning home we met back up with my parents and headed to Grana in Jamesport for lunch. All their wines were the same price ($30 bottle) so we ordered a Pugliese Pinot Grigio and three ‘personal’ pizzas…  I don’t know if their sizes have increased, or they were just feeling generous, but the four of us barely finished two of the pizzas! The third was not even touched so we just took it home. Thankfully the two we did eat were great, very thin with a crispy crust and fresh mozzarella.

Over lunch we discussed what we should do next and we all remembered our Christmas-time visit to One Woman Vineyards in Southold, so we decided to re-visit and try any new releases. On arrival they had a great sign on their tractor.

The Gewurtraminer was as good as we remembered. Next, we tried the 2010 and 2011 S.blanc, with Leandra liking the creamier 2010 better, and Eric the more acidic 2011.  Finally, Eric tried the new Tribute blend, which is a blend of their four white varietals and dangerously easy to drink. Note: though they charge for tasting, they waive y0ur tasting fee when you buy a bottle with cash.

We capped off our day at dinner with family, then packed up in preparation for our morning flight back to NC.  Though only a quick weekend trip we managed to pack a lot into our NY weekend!

In a first for us,  our flight from RDU arrived at LaGuardia 45 minutes early, so our cab arrived at the hotel right around our original landing time. At check-in we were notified that we had been upgraded to a lexington studio room on the 19th floor. One minute later we were in our spacious (by NYC standards) room.

looking left, looking right

our view in the morning

We decided to try out one of the better-known craft beer bars in the area, The Ginger Man, and along the way I took Leandra through Grand Central Station since she had never seen it in person.

The bar was quite crowded when we first arrived and we struggled to get an order in. We eventually got a menu (they’re printed daily as the beers change rapidly) and placed our orders for a Left Hand Ambidextrous II and the ‘t Smisje Imperial Sour. Beers in hand we scouted around and found stools and an open counter towards the back, allowing us to settle in and enjoy some people watching.  Around 9pm the crowd thinned out, then became quite busy again after 10p. Looking over the beer list again Leandra noticed they had the Alvinne Undressed sour beer that we’d only seen in Brussels.  That quickly became my second order (Leandra opted for a Two Brothers Northwind Imperial Stout), along with pretzels and a surprisingly spicy mustard sauce. Tired after a long day at work we gave up our seats around 11p for our super comfortable bed.

The next morning we had breakfast at Demarco, a coffee shop in midtown. Their breakfast sandwiches were tasty and Leandra really enjoyed her latte. As a bonus, they had complimentary copies of the NY Times so we read through a few sections with our breakfast.

Fueled up we walked across town taking in a few of the tourist sites that we hadn’t visited in about 10 years: Rockefeller Center, Times Square, then on to the Macy’s Flower Show in Herald Square.

Chrysler building (one of my favorites); 30 Rockefeller Center

still ice skating in April!

a typically busy Times Square

Macy’s flower show

Macy’s flower show

We returned to the Hyatt around noon, checked out, then took a taxi to my brother’s apartment on the Upper East Side. From there we all walked to the Guggenheim.

.

Photos are only allowed on the ground floor, but the exhibit spanning the main hall was quite interesting: long plastic tubes with colored liquid.

The Thannhauser Collection was our favorite exhibit, featuring an outstanding density of masters including Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc.

We spent the rest of the day with family, then back out to Long Island later that evening.

Floris Suites -  Unlike most of our trips, for this getaway we booked a package deal with airfare and hotel through AA vacations. We considered 6 different hotels, and though the Floris Suites is not on the water, their combination of price and reviews won us over.

Upon arrival the lobby is a little confusing, as the large desk you see is unoccupied. Instead, check-in was in an office to the right. Initially we were given a room next to the kitchen (room 1) which would have been noisy in the morning and evening; thankfully we were able to move to room 31 which was on the other side of the building. Our room was the smallest type they have, a Junior Suite with a kitchenette, sitting area and queen bed.

Plenty big for us! The room was quite comfortable, and the kitchen space was very handy to have. Some rooms have a garden view, others a pool view – we didn’t see much difference between those, but we liked the second floor better.

Lobby seating area

Hotel affiliated food

We checked in around 9pm, so on that first night we headed to the lobby bar for drinks and a snack. Eric tried the chicken satay skewers and the Bon Bini (white rum, green curacao, lemon juice and pineapple juice). Leandra tried the spicy meatballs and a Sjalotte (peach liquor, malibu rum, blue curacao and coconut cream). All together it made for a nice start to our weekend.

The hotel provides towels and access to Pirate Bay Beach Club and Restaurant on Piscadera Beach. We thought the beach was a reasonably nice site with good morning shade, but without movable umbrellas so we had to move our chairs around to stay in shade as the day progressed. The club was medium busy on weekend, a bit noisy with small kids. Chairs were always available but varied in their degree of comfort. Snorkeling wasn’t great along this beach, really only decent along the docks. We had lunch at the club once, splitting a ham and cheese toastie and making our own shandy by mixing limeade and beer. Charging to our room didn’t work here or at hotel bar and we never figured out why…

Food

Kome – Housed in an open two story building we were seated on the 2nd floor with a fun view of the downstairs. We wanted to start with a sparkling wine, but they were out of the bottle we wanted, so we switched to a rose. Leandra had scoped out the menu online and came in wanting the bouillabaisse, while Eric ordered the satay noodles as a starter and the beef tenderloin. Our waitress came back with apologies for the second time as they had given Eric an old menu and the satay was no longer ordered… he just stuck with his entree at that point. Besides the small missteps in ordering our experience was great and the food was very nice. The chocolate brownie dessert was great finish too.

Rozendaels - Our experience here started out nicely with a table outside on their large patio. However, they had a rush of tables around 7:30p, and we were ignored from that point on. Our dirty plates sat for almost 30 minutes after we were clearly done with our meal and we couldn’t get anyone’s attention. Finally, Eric got up and went inside to get the manager who cleared our plates without so much as a word. They never asked about dessert and we were so fed up we just paid the bill and left. It’s a shame, as the food itself was pretty good, but the experience was such that we just wouldn’t bother returning.

Centrum supermarket – On Saturday morning we made a trip here for groceries. Fresh pineapple, ham and cheese croissants, juice, etc. made up our breakfast each morning, while chips, cheese and adult beverages were enjoyed in the evening (or midday!).

 local rum and a South African rose

Unlike our last trip, island maps at the car rental counter were $3 so we were quite glad we spent the $1 on an offline map for our phones.

Our hotel included access to the Pirate Bay Beach Club on Piscadera Beach so we walked down and stayed there until about 2:30p on Saturday.

our chairs were under the tree in the middle!

I went snorkeling off the beach and found the best spots to be around the docks where there quite a few invertebrates.

Christmas tree worms and corals

As the afternoon wore on shade was in short supply, so we returned to our room for a tropical drink, then found a shady spot by the hotel pool.

There were a number of lizards, of all different sizes, around the pool area, and the posturing and antics were quite amusing.

 
antics by the pool

On our way to diner we stopped to view the famous Handleskade after sunset.

On Sunday we decided to trying snorkeling at a few of the beaches we hadn’t tried before. Along the way we passed the Jan Kok saltpans where we were surprised to see flamingos!

From the saltpans we continued along the road to Daaiboi — a fairly quiet, free public beach with a few palm covered huts.

We snorkeled on both sides of bay, starting on the left which featured quite a few fish including a small moray eel and cuttlefish.

The right side of the bay had a few soft corals, but we liked the left side better.

We also drove over to Port Marie, but there were a lot more people on the beach so it didn’t look like it was worth staying on a weekend, especially considering the $4 fee.

beautiful view, better on a weekday

Church of Sint Willibrordus, at the interescetion of the roads leading to Port Marie and Daiiboi

Altogether we had a relaxing weekend which was surprisingly quiet given the time of year.

Kunde Family Vineyards - this was on our lone wine stop on Thursday (i.e. the longest day of our lives) and we made it there about 4:30p. We had an enjoyable tasting but nothing really striking. Since we knew there was no corkage fee at Fig Cafe we bought a bottle of the sauvignon blanc to have with dinner that night. Also note that this was the only place we visited that didn’t refund the tasting fee with purchase ($15).

late afternoon light at Kunde

Loxton – our first stop on Friday, we walked into the building and found ourselves in a room surrounded by wine barrels with a small tasting counter. Lisa hosted us and provided fun commentary during our free tasting. Truthfully, we liked most everything they were making. Most memorable for us was the nicely balanced Chardonnay and the well-priced Zinfandel. We’ll definitely return to this small vineyard on future trips.

several Australia references at Loxton too

Wellington Vineyards- We’d previously tried Wellington wines due to a deal on wine.woot.com, and since it was right next to Loxton it made a good second stop on Friday. They were offering a tasting of 5 wines for $5 which would be refunded with purchase (a setup we approve of). Eric liked the Gewurztraminer, with a lot of stone fruit, best while Leandra liked the Pinot noir and Syrah. They were also pouring an interesting white port which had a light dessert wine style. Besides the wine, we enjoyed our conversation with the two guys running the tasting who also provided us with suggestions for San Francisco places to eat, plus a 6-pack shipper and tape to help get our wine home!

lovely old vines outside Wellington

Chataeu St.Jean Winery – probably the fanciest of the wineries we visited, Chateau St. Jean featured beautiful grounds with a formal garden and fountains.

Tasting is normally $15 per person but was comped due to our Visa Signature card! Here again we enjoyed our conversation with Jim, the pourer. Eric’s favorite was the surprise wine of the tasting, the 2011 Gewurztraminer. The reds were all perfectly drinkable according to Leandra.

Cline Cellars – our last stop on the way out, which was clearly the first stop for a good number of folks on the way in to Sonoma for the weekend. Their tasting counter had free tastings for their larger production wines while the specialty choices were $1/pour (refunded with purchase). Eric didn’t find the white wines that interesting, but Leandra found some lovely reds and settled on the Big Break Zinfindel and Ancient Vines Carignane to take home.

last vineyard view!

As with our previous Sonoma trip we had a great time tasting a variety of wines and talking to the people who clearly love what they are selling, all of which makes this one of our favorite US spots to visit.

Gaige House
Back in November, Jetsetter was running a Cyber Monday deal for $75 off any available property. We still hadn’t figured out where to stay in San Francisco, but when this hotel popped up, I knew a trip to Sonoma was in our future! The booking included a full hot breakfast, wifi, free off-street parking and a wine reception in the evenings. The hostess was very nice and helpful with dinner suggestions and the room, as you can see from the photos below, was quite stunning.

Although we were located in a room facing the road, it was very quiet at night and I really liked being able to walk to several good restaurants in town. The inn provided guests with flashlights as there aren’t any street lights and we definitely recommend walking down the road parallel to Arnold Drive to get the restaurant area and avoid the cars driving on a dark road.

Hyatt Regency SFO
Eric wanted to take advantage of an club lounge upgrade we needed to use, so we booked this hotel because of an early morning flight to begin our journey back to NC. After a day of wine tasting and driving around, we decided to eat the variety of snacks available in the lounge and skip going out for dinner. There was a good selection of samosas, bread, crudités and soft drinks to choose from. Then we repacked our luggage and chilled out with some TV in the room.

our view of the atrium

Food & Beer

After a long overnight flight from Hong Kong, we breezed through customs (thank you Global Entry), collected our bags and got our rental car without incident. After checking into the hotel, I was famished so I dragged Eric out to a late lunch at Russian River Brewing where we split a surprisingly tasty meatball sub sandwich. Eric was in sour heaven with the Supplication but I went the maltier route with the Mortification. Because we were there, we also got the $1 tasters of the Consecration, Rejection, and Blonde.

At this point, Eric’s brain was shutting down, so I drove us back to the hotel for a quick nap before one late wine tasting and happy hour at the hotel. After chatting with a few other guests and enjoying a glass of wine, we walked to Fig Cafe on very dark back road (see hotel note above). The restaurant was crazy busy, so the service was a little slow but the food was very good and there’s no corkage fee, so we enjoyed a bottle we picked up at Kunde earlier that afternoon.

On Friday the friendly guys at Wellington Vineyards tipped us off to a small brewery in Sonoma called Sonoma Springs Brewing. We browsed the choices beforehand and they looked promising, so we stopped in for a pint. Eric really wanted to try their sour but it wasn’t tapped, so he settled for the Kolsch. Most of the other options were too light or too hoppy but thankfully they had just enough left of the malty Octopotomus to let me try. The tasting room is very laid back with a bring your own food, have a beer and hang out feel. We even had a Boston Terrier eyeing us after we opened a bag of spicy poppadoms that we picked up in Singapore.

On the way to the National Orchid Garden we took a slight detour to enjoy the rainforest walk.

Then it was on to the orchid garden, one of the largest in the world. The garden was spectacular with lots of flowers (and shade!) in every color and size.

Crimson Sunbird, the national bird of Singapore

We thoroughly enjoyed the orchid gardens and would definitely recommend it as a morning excursion.

Neighboring the orchids are other parts of the National garden, including a ginger garden and palm grove.

bananas!

ginger

water monitor basking

With the temperature rising we walked back to the MRT and traveled to the Marina Sands area, where we had heard about a Lego exhibit at the ArtScience Museum.

Each exhibit in the museum has a separate admission price, and our tickets were checked no less than three times. ‘The Art of the Brick’ was an exhibit by a New York artist who creates incredible sculptures out of Legos.

Though a bit pricey the exhibit was awesome and the last room held boxes of lego parts where you could build whatever you liked. Coming out of the museum we took some additional skyline shots.

And then back to the hotel for a midday siesta.

At 5:30 we ventured back out, this time to Little India for spices. As we left the MRT we instantly felt the difference as Little India was definitely more bustling and a bit dirtier than other parts of Singapore, with more market activity right on the sidewalks and some of the only street hawkers we experienced in the country.

We made our way up Serangoon Road, with Leandra finding a few interesting new spices enroute, to Mustafa Centre. This department store is best described as a Harrods crossed with a Walmart and was an amazing experience- labrynthian, multi story, and crammed with everything. The grocery section was great and we bought several bags of chips.

multiple floors of goods at Mustafa

so many snacks

Later that evening we headed back to China Town to experience the night market a second time in search of a few small gifts. Just like Monday night it was crowded and colorful.

 
well stocked with colorful trinkets

Our time in Singapore was packed with sights and lots of walking. We liked the overall feel, from the politeness of people to the lush green plants on most streets, and we plan to return on a future Asian adventure.