Saturday morning, we enjoyed a buffet breakfast in the Budapest Marriott Executive Lounge. The outdoor patio was full so we sat indoors.
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| hot buffet selections |
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| my breakfast |
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Afterwards, we headed 30 minutes on foot to
Hospital in the Rock, an underground emergency hospital during WWII and nuclear bunker during the Cold War, now turned into a museum. Photos were not allowed but a few of the rooms can be seen on their
website. Walking inside the caverns felt like going back in time, as everything looked as it would have been back in those days. The temperature was cool inside despite the 80+ degree F weather; coats were offered for guests. I had brought a long scarf and wrapped it around me for warmth. At the end of the tour, we walked through a special Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bomb exhibition, which was quite moving (and disturbing).
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| walking across Chain Bridge |
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| up the stairs |
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| down more stairs |
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| entrance to Hospital in the Rock |
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| opening hours |
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When the tour was over, we walked to Batthyány tér station, bought sandwiches for lunch, then took a 20-minute light rail ride to
Aquincum Museum. We had purchased a block of 10 tickets to share - tickets needed to be validated upon boarding the vehicle. When we got on the train, we didn't see anyone validating tickets; all must have had travelcards or passes. There was a machine near the door but when I slipped my ticket in, nothing happened; I was expecting it to be punched/marked automatically. The box did not look to be connected to power. Fortunately, no inspector was on board to check tickets as we would have been fined for not validating. On the return trip, I observed someone validate their ticket and learned that this particular machine was a manual "punch"; you slip your ticket into the slot, then move the black portion to punch holes into it. On other trains we rode, there were electronic validation machines which were more intuitive to use.
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| at the Princess Bakery |
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| manual punch validation box - no instructions |
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| tickets punched differently each day |
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At
Aquincum Museum, there were many Roman artifacts on display and you could walk around the excavated remains of this ancient city. There was also a reconstructed home you could tour that showed how the rooms may have been decorated and their function.
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| walking towards the ruins |
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| mosaic floor |
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| sundial |
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| steps into a Roman bath |
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| reproduction of marble exterior facade |
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We returned to our hotel in time for evening appetizers and desserts in the lounge. There was enough variety to make a light meal.
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| tonight's special: stuffed grape leaves and trout |
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| chicken meatballs |
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| salad fixings |
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| variety of desserts |
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Afterwards, we went back out and walked down
Andrassy Avenue, the Hungarian "Champs-Elysees". Many of the stores were closed for the evening. We bought a gelato cup for "second dessert".
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| tree-lined Andrassy Avenue |
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| Hungarian State Opera House |
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| gelato selections at Hiszteria Fagylalt |
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| yum! |
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One more stop at the hotel lounge before bed!
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| late night snack selection |
The next day, we had until noon to check out of the
Budapest Marriott, so we did a last bit of sightseeing (and eating) before heading to the airport.
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| last breakfast in Budapest |
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| Parliament building |
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| other side of Parliament |
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| on the light rail |
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| one last snack from the lounge |
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Since there was a lot of time before departure, I decided to try public transportation to
Ferenc Liszt International Airport versus hiring a taxi or private car. It involved taking the M3 metro from Deák Ferenc tér to Kőbánya-Kispest, then boarding the 200E bus to the airport, costing only two ride tickets. This
"We Love Budapest" webpage describes the process (though we did it in reverse). We each had a backpack and a rolling checked bag and had no problems with space on the journey.
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| take M3 metro in the direction of Kőbánya-Kispest |
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| at Kőbánya-Kispest, follow signs to airport bus |
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| where to pick up the 200E |
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| airport bus stop - ticket machine in foreground |
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| neat to hear the clicking of the split-flap departures display |
Once we checked our bags and received our boarding passes, we headed to the airport lounge. There were two to choose from, Skycourt and Menzies, so we visited them both. Skycourt was more crowded than Menzies, probably since it offered more real food.
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| entrance to SkyCourt |
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| decent food selection |
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| baked goods |
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| large selection of drinks |
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| Menzies entrance |
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| pretty empty |
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| smaller but good selection |
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| coffee machine |
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| non-alcoholic drinks |
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| packaged snacks |
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| more packaged snacks, a tray of muffins |
As mentioned in the
planning page of this trip report, we were seated in
Club Europe on our flight from Budapest to Heathrow. The seats in this section were the same as in economy; the middle seat is blocked off. We were served a meal as well as received an "Arrivals Fast Track" ticket to skip the line at border control in Heathrow.
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| middle seat blocked |
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| decent legroom |
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| Fast Track voucher |
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| apple juice and packet of cashews |
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| dinner menu |
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| drinks menu |
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| gin and tonic |
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| efficiency: appetizer served with dessert |
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| appetizer dish replaced with chicken entree |
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| beef cheek entree |
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After landing in Heathrow, we proceeded to border control, happy to be entering an empty queue at Fast Track. However, as I was about to show the voucher to the immigration officer, an alarm sounded. It wasn't shrill and loud as it would be in the US; if an alarm could be demure and courteous, this was it. I asked the officer what was going on and he said that the terminal was in lockdown and no one could go in or out at the moment. We waited for over half an hour until the all-clear was given by police. This incident happened a few hours before the
London Bridge attack where a terrorist drove a van off the road and killed several people, injuring many more. Fortunately, we were staying at the
Hilton London Heathrow Airport hotel and did not need to travel into the city.
This Hilton was located in Terminal 4 (there is another in Terminal 5), so we took the free Heathrow Express train between terminals, then traversed the long walkway leading us to the hotel entrance.
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| like the Space Mountain line at Disneyland |
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| nice to tell you how far it is |
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| getting closer |
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| arrived! |
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After checking in and settling into our room, we had a little bit of time before the hotel executive lounge closed, so we had a drink before bed (missed happy hour though). Having Hilton status is nice, thanks to having the
American Express Platinum Card.
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| view from the hallway |
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| comfortable king bed |
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| complimentary bottled water |
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| mini-bar items on sensors |
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| mini-bar price list |
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| hotel amenities |
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| coffee/tea service |
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| iron, hairdryer, safe |
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| robes and slippers, ironing board |
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| large rain shower |
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| lounge hours |
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| cold non-alcoholic selections |
The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast in the lounge, checked out, walked back down the long hallway to Terminal 4, then took the Heathrow Express back to Terminal 3.
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| cold selections, hard boiled eggs |
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| coffee machine |
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| hot selections |
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| whole fruit, baked goods, cereal |
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| special "hydration" juice |
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| trekking back to the terminal |
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Thanks to
Priority Pass lounge membership from having the
Chase Sapphire Reserve, we visited
Club Aspire and had "second breakfast" before boarding our Virgin Atlantic flight to San Francisco.
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| nice hot breakfast selection |
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| view of the gates |
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The flight was non-eventful. Passengers were well-fed and hydrated. I got to catch up on several recently-released movies. Virgin Atlantic's coach product is pretty good. I really love those
Gu dessert pots!
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| in-flight entertainment, bottled water |
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| apple juice and pretzels from Penn State :) |
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| we didn't receive menus - I think this was pork |
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| popsicle |
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| hot snack |
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| afternoon tea service |
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| I forgot what movie this preceded but it was indeed sad |
|
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| farewell candy |
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With
Global Entry, Kaleb and I bypassed the long lines at immigration in SFO, then picked up a rental car and drove home...the end of our month-long European adventure! What's next? A girls' birthday trip to San Francisco to see Hamilton the musical...stay tuned!
Missed any of the previous entries? Refer to the Trip Index at the top of this post to navigate.
***
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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