December | 2017 | JnR’s Adventures

For Christmas we visited Cologne and Budapest. We like visiting the Christmas markets found all over Europe.

In Cologne we saw 4 different markets, including one at the base of the Cathedral. All were lit and decorated a bit differently. Our favorite was the brownie forest. (brownies are said to aid in tasks around the house) There was a lot of street food available- Jenn especially enjoyed Glühwein. I liked the Rösti. The Cathedral was really impressive; we probably should have made more time to explore inside. They were doing work on it so there is scaffolding around it in places, even attached to the side very high up. Overall, we enjoyed our few days in Cologne.

: Cathedral, first night

: Christmas market by Cathedral

: Walnut being battered by the wind

: Inside the Cathedral

: Another Christmas market

: Housewife scaring away the brownies that were trying to do her husband’s work

The bulk of our trip was spent in Budapest, Hungary. We both really loved Budapest. The city has an old world feel, reminiscent of Prague or Vienna. The architecture is beautiful, while still showing the scars of it’s past (unlike the aforementioned cities). In general, Budapest was very affordable. I went to my first Michelin star restaurant here (Costes) on this trip and it was fabulous! A bit expensive, but it was quite an experience.

We took the hop-on hop-off bus, as we frequently do, to help get an overview of the city and a little bit of history. The bus was ok, the audio was low content and the wait for the bus to arrive was rather long. We took the BigBus tour, and I would try the other company if we were to go back. We really enjoyed the chamber music concert we attended.

: Chamber music

: Heroes square

: Seven Chieftains of the Magyars

: Overlooking Pest

: Mathias Church

: Budapest Castle

: Istvan and the Magyar Chieftains

: One opening into the vast underground tunnel network

We like to take food tours, and Jenn found a great one in Budapest. We got lucky and were the only people on the food tour the morning we’d booked. The guide, Nora, gave us more history about Budapest, going back to the Magyar. And of course, we had a lot of really good food on the tour. Jenn and I both found the food in Budapest to be quite good (not just on the tour or at Costes!)

: Monument of the March for Life

: Inside coffee house

: The great market hall

: inside the market hall

: Fantastic food!

: Still-visible damage from revolution (bullet holes, shrapnel)

: Train station at end of food tour

On our last full day we took the Hammer and Sickle tour . The tour was very informative, going into what daily life was like 20, 30, 40 years ago in Budapest. It’s interesting to take tours like this because the history classes in my education glossed over these parts of history, and when it was mentioned, it was always in a negative light.

: Building near our apartment

: Jewish monument

: coffee house with socialist era motif

: Parliament

Our trip was fantastic, and I’d really like to go back. Though we stayed several days, there was a lot more we could do in Budapest (so many restaurants we missed!) The people were friendly and it seemed the majority spoke english so it was very easy to get around. They have good public transit, and it was generally inexpensive.

We just went to the Festival of Lights in Lyon. It was beautiful! Different groups set up light displays around town for the public. It is a free event that they hold annually. Some of the displays were just incredible.

: The mural of Lyon

Though we were only there for the weekend, I thought Lyon was a lovely city. Of course, it was very crowded and security was a (necessary?) nuisance. It was a little cool, but no worse than one ought to expect when wandering around outside at night in December. The city has two rivers, the Rhone and Saone that flow through it, so there are quite a few bridges crossing them. It’s the third largest city in France.

Some of the exhibits were really spectacular. Nearly all of them were animated or in motion in some way. My favorite might be the flowers near the Ferris wheel, but the giants mantle clock was cool, too. The lighted horses were interesting but difficult to photograph.

We stayed in an airbnb that had a fantastic location for the festival. It was nicely outfitted but had a few small issues that I imagine the owner will address soon. We ate a very nice dinner at Cafe 203 Friday night and had street food Saturday night. Jenn enjoyed a bit of Vin Chaud- a hot spiced wine. Walnut was with during the day, but for the festival in the evening, we took him back to the apartment because of the temperature and crowds.

It was a great visit, and I look forward to going back to Lyon. I could see us going back for the Festival of Lights in a few years or maybe spending a few more days in Lyon in better weather.

What we did right:

Apartment was in a great location
Had sandwiches/street food for lunch and dinner Saturday (inexpensive and tasty)
Went to Cafe 203 for dinner- delicious food for 30€
brought warm clothing
The Festival of Lights was fabulous

What went wrong:

didn’t read the sign for public transit tickets- spent a few € we didn’t need to
didn’t have a plan for the added security and accidentally left the ‘secure’ area once, only to have to go through security to get back in
planned to use the metro but ‘security’ didn’t allow transfers within stations- got shunted outside only to find a 1/2 mile long line to the entrance to the next metro

JnR’s Adventures

Month: December 2017

Christmas 2017 – Cologne and Budapest

The Festival of Lights in Lyon, France