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Twenty years after my first trip to London, I finally returned, but with my family and a larger budget. I was able to stay in a hotel near Green Park, making it a tremendously different trip. Staying in central London leaves a lot more time for sightseeing, but also more downtime. Traveling with kids meant we went to the Sky Garden, the Tour for Muggles and had Wizard’s Tea.
Stonehenge is an easy day trip from London. Some people say it is just a pile of rocks and, while they are not wrong, it is a pretty cool pile of rocks and absolutely worth the trip when you have a spare day. I took the silly, leaning on Stonehenge picture and completely failed it!
We left London and flew to Budapest, Hungary, staying our first night on the Pest side. The Pest side is supposedly the more lively part of the city and where you can find the famous ruin bars, although this wasn’t something we could indulge in with the kids. The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was to go to Gellert Spa and Bath, located next to the Danube. It is decorated in Art Nouveau style and there are sculptures and stained glass all around the property. The inside pools were quiet and peaceful, but most of the outdoor pools were a little more rowdy with a young adult crowd.
We spent the next morning visiting the incredible and informative Terror Háza Museum (Don’t forget to pick up the sheets in each room that are written in English). The museum has exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century.
A sunset Segway ride is another great activity with pre-teens, seeing sights both on and not far from the River. It was a great way for the kids to be interested in the history of the city. The Shoes on the Danube was very moving.
Our Segway guide provided quite a bit of information regarding the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 was quite interesting. The pictures below show the front of the Parliament Building where the Soviets shot into the crowds of people and into the building across the square, where those bullet holes remain.
I also went to an amazing wine tasting by The Tasting Table. It provided an opportunity to learn about Hungarian wine and try some famous types, including bulls blood and Tokaj wine. The sommelier referred to Hungarian wine as the best wine you have never heard of and he was spot on!
The next two nights were spent on the Buda side, which is the side with the castle. We explored around Fisherman’s Bastion, which feels like it is part of the Hilton Hotel. A short walk away is Matthias Church where coronations for Hungarian Kings used to be held. The church was at one point mosque for Ottoman Turks and is now a Roman Catholic Church.
We rode the Funicular down to the river to get a better look at the famous Chain Bridge, but it was under construction so not much to look at.
A lesser known place, but one that families should definitely visit, is Margaret Island. This beautiful island appeared to be primarily all park in the middle of the Danube and is home to Palatinus Bath. They had water slides for bigger kids, so my son was able to try them, but my daughter was too small. Luckily they had the perfect slide for my daughter. You definitely need water shoes for these parks. I recommend these ones from Amazon.
A trip to Budapest wouldn’t be complete without at least one quick river cruise. We opted for a sunset cruise and it was beautiful.
Transport Budapest provided us a vehicle and driver to get from Hungary into Bratislava, Slovakia. It was exactly what we needed: prompt, clean and safe. Upon our arrival in Bratislava, we went on a tour to Devin Castle with a company called Authentic Slovakia. It was fantastic. The guide provided us with so much information and spoke frankly about life under Russia’s control. The castle is at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers, which formed part of the border that was the Iron Curtain during the Cold War era. It is still the border with Austria, but no longer guarded. During the Cold War, if someone tried to cross the small river to find freedom in Austria, they would be shot.
After the fall of communism, the city placed statues all over to instill some life around town. I thought the small city of Bratislava was a lot of fun.
There is also a statue of Hans Christian Andersen, who apparently had nothing to do with Bratislava, but it is a nice tribute to him and his many books.
Bratislava was very easy to navigate and see in a day…plus it is a lot less expensive than staying in Vienna for too long! However, Vienna is not to be missed so we spent our last two days there. The architecture is stunning and I enjoyed wandering around admiring everything. St. Stephans Church is where Beethoven discovered his deafness and also where Mozart was married. My kids loved outside of the church because it was a fairly open space and someone was blowing bubbles.
I was very intrigued by the ornateness of the Plague Column, aka the Trinity Column, a Baroque memorial erected after the Great Plague of 1679.
The two monuments I enjoyed the most were the Iron Tree and the Wehrmann in Eisen. The Iron Tree, aka Stock im Eisen Nail Tree, is a bit of a mystery because nobody knows why nails were driven into the wood of this ancient tree trunk. It is thought that the practice of sacrificing a valuable item at the time, such as nails, was done as an act of thanks or for good luck. As for Wehrmann in Eisen, the wooden Iron Soldier, it was a wooden statue that, for a donation, people could hammer a nail into. The donations were used to support widows and orphans of soldiers who died in WWI, and when another memorial was being built for those fallen soldiers, the statue was set on a pedestal to collect more donations with nails being driven into the pedestal. What a great idea!
The number one thing you can’t miss in Vienna are the desserts. They are amazing – both pretty AND tasty. The lines were incredibly long for the famous Cafe Central and Cafe Demel. Instead I chose places around my hotel. I was absolutely not disappointed.
I can’t wait to go back for more!
