On Sunday evening, we set off on the night train to Budapest. It was a little adventure for us since we had never traveled by train before, let alone overnight. Unfortunately, the night on the train wasn’t very restful. Either the ventilation was too hot or it got really cold. At some point during the night, I woke up freezing. As a result, we arrived in the morning feeling completely exhausted. The “breakfast” that was promised consisted of a cookie and a sorry excuse for a cappuccino in a paper cup.
Luckily, the hotel wasn’t far, and thanks to early check-in, we were able to get into our room and take a shower right away. The only “surprise” was that they had completely forgotten about our children, which meant that no beds had been made for them. Even after we kindly pointed this out after our check-in, nothing was done. It was incredibly frustrating when we returned to the hotel late in the evening after our sightseeing tour. This is not what we expected from a Mercure hotel. Otherwise the room is perfect for 2 adults and 2 kids.
After freshening up, we headed out warmly dressed. We wanted to see some of the main sights in Budapest: the Rock church, the Great Market Hall, the Star Wars exhibition, and the Christmas market. Of course, we also had to try the typical Hungarian lángos. At the Christmas market we had our first ridiculously overpriced, authentic Hungarian goulash and the best chimney cake baked over an open charcoal fire. A very successful first day.
The second day started with a terrible breakfast at the hotel. The coffee was undrinkable, the juices were overly sweetened, the scrambled eggs were still runny, and croissants were only available if you were lucky and the Spanish tourists hadn’t taken ten croissants at once. We were shocked to experience this at a Mercure hotel. Luckily, we hadn’t booked breakfast in advance. For the remaining days, we will definitely be eating breakfast outside the hotel.
On our second day, we visited the largest synagogue in Europe. The tours are free and very informative. Definitely worth a visit!
Since we wanted to do something special for New Year’s Eve, we had booked tickets for a 4-course dinner on a boat. It started at 2:00 PM, and we spent a total of 2.5 hours cruising on the Danube. The nice thing was that we got to see the famous buildings along the river both in daylight and after dark. The food was great, except for the main course, which was only served lukewarm. The “one-man band” though was way too loud, so we could hardly have a conversation. We had to practically shout at each other to be heard. We wouldn’t book the river cruise with dinner again in this format. However, a normal afternoon boat ride is definitely something we can recommend.
