Budapest is a city tottering between two worlds – one marked by grandeur and the other marked by ruin.  Many of the buildings reminded us of this commercial while others showed scars of world wars and years of communism.

We arrived in Budapest on Saturday afternoon and headed out for a casual lunch of beers and hot dogs.  That afternoon, we meandered around and visited the Fisherman’s Bastion, Matthias Church, and Buda Castle.  On the way back, we stopped in at the Four Seasons bar for some classy cocktails and discovered the most delicious old-fashion.

Tiny door at Matthias Church

Liberty Statue from afar

View of Citadella Hill & Liberty Statue

Fisherman’s Bastion

Matthias Church

Citadella (notice the shrapnel)

View from the Citadella

Matthias Statue at Buda Castle

St. Stephen’s Basilica

Holocaust Memorial

After a full day of traveling and walking – we had a pretty low-key night with a delicious dinner, a few glasses of wine, and an early night to bed.

European breakfasts are notoriously underwhelming.  They usually consist of cold-cuts, cheese, yogurt, and bread.  While we do enjoy all of these things, we often find ourselves Hungary (see what I did there?) for a big, hearty American meal – and Budapest delivered just that.  We aren’t typically people who take pictures of our food, but we couldn’t stop ourselves.  It was truly the best breakfast we have had … maybe ever.

In 2010, we enjoyed our time at Széchenyi Thermal Bathhouse so much we decided to go back to the same place on Sunday afternoon.  The building perfectly captures the essence of a city that once was.  The formerly lustrous facilities are now quite dated and a little rough around the edges; however, everywhere you look, there are reminders of grandeur – statues, gilded lighting, beautiful filigree, you name it.  At risk of sounding like a hippy, I would say the place is very poetic (obviously Sarah’s words, not Chris’s).  Regardless, we had a relaxing day enjoying the indoor and outdoor pools and a 70-minute full body massage.  The best part of all is the fact that Budapest is incredibly inexpensive, so an entire day at the baths (with a massage for 2) was a mere 120 USD (or 35,000 Forints).  Yeah, their currency is crazy.

For dinner that evening we booked a dueling-piano river cruise with dinner.  The food wasn’t great and the piano performances left something to be desired, but the experience was ultimately worth it because the views were SPECTACULAR.  Plus we paid for the all-you-can-drink package, and you know us … we made sure to get our money’s worth.

On Monday, there were two major highlights.  First, we had breakfast at The New York Cafe which claims to be the most beautiful cafe in the world.  It was, in fact, stunning, but we learned that due to years of mismanagement [Read: communism], the restaurant and hotel had to be completely restored.  It may have an old-world feeling, but the cafe is actually as new as 2006.  Still, it was a beautiful landmark to check off our list.  Second, we visited the inside of the Parliament building.  While our guided tour was nothing special, seeing the interior of the building was amazing. It is quite possibly one of the most magnificent buildings we have seen.    The city may be poor and dirty, but the Hungarian government is (or at least was) opulent to say the least.

The Grand Staircase in Parliament

Parliament from the outside

Common Room in Parliament

View from Parliament

House of Lords in Parliament

This weekend, we were lucky to play host to Jessi, who was traveling for work in Stuttgart and decided to tag on a few extra days to come and play.  We picked her up in Zurich on Friday morning (obviously equipped with embarrassing signs) and headed back to Basel.

We spent the entire day walking around and showing her our favorite places.  Some of the highlights included: lunch at Markthalle, climbing the cathedral tower at Munster Kirche, and visiting the Jean Tinguely museum.  And because a trip to Switzerland wouldn’t be complete without copious amounts of cheese, we headed out for fondue that evening.  Around 12:30, Sarah called it quits for the evening, but the Milne siblings were full speed ahead.  They went out to another bar where Chris ended up singing karaoke to Wonderwall and then they rounded out the evening with a yummy Doner kebab.

On Saturday, we got a late start but headed to Lucern for the day.  When we arrived, we immediately heard music and having no firm plans for the day, decided to follow the source.  In Switzerland (and especially in Basel), there are carnival groups, known as clique, who perform music (drums and horns specifically) in groups during Faschnacht.  We weren’t really sure of the occasion in Lucerne, but we enjoyed watching different groups perform – there was a fantastic combination of traditional Swiss/German drinking songs and modern music.  Here is just one video we took from the performers.

While in Lucerne, we also went to a chocolate tasting at Max Chocolatier (a small, local shop).  Here we learned about different types of chocolates, how chocolates are made, and most importantly … we got to eat a lot of chocolate.  It was all very delicious!  In the afternoon, we tried to go up to Mount Pilatus to get a better view of the alps, but our timing was quite unfortunate.  We arrived at the gondola station at 4:05 pm and learned that the last lift up was at 4.  Sigh.  We will just have to get Jessi up to the Alps on her next trip.

On Sunday, we decided to host Sunday Funday in Basel.  We kicked off the day with a big American-style brunch buffet, and afterward, we headed to a park to enjoy some sunshine and a few adult beverages.  When it started to get a little chilly, we headed back to our place for activities (salad bowl, drunk telephone, foosball, etc.)  and some homemade Kasespaetzle.  It was truly a treat having Jessi here, and we couldn’t have imagined a more perfect weekend.

Much like the weather back in the States, it has been unusually warm and sunny here in Switzerland, so on Saturday, we put our Mustang Movers to good use (thanks for the birthday present KimSquared and MM+PG) by taking at 7.5-mile bike ride out to Augusta Raurica.

Dating back to 44 B.C., Augusta Raurica is an archeological site of Roman ruins just outside of Basel.  There we explored the amphitheatre, the foundations of a temple, an underground well, and a few other ruins.  While the site was very cool – it was interesting that there were modern (and occupied) houses only a stone’s throw away (look closely at the pictures below and you can see what we are talking about).  Typically, one of our favorite parts about visiting ancient establishments is being thrust back into time and imagining what live was like some 2000 years ago.  Unfortunately, having modern structures surrounding the area subdued those feelings.  All things considered, it was an awesome day and definitely worth a trip if you find yourself in or around Basel.

Even though our legs were pretty sore from the bike ride, we realized that because of our future travel plans, Sunday was quite possibly our last opportunity for skiing this season. Consequently, we got up early and headed to Hoch-Ybrig.

Hoch-Ybrig turned out to be an awesome spot – lots of long, open runs and only 2 hours from Basel.  One of the highlights of this trip was Chris breaking his speed goal.  He uses an app called Ski Tracker which tracks the elevation of the mountain, the length of the runs, and (his personal favorite) speed.  This past Sunday, Chris got up to the max speed of …. 60.1 MPH!  Sarah’s only accomplishment was not falling – which for her is just as epic, though obviously less impressive.  We definitely ended an already fantastic ski season on a high note.

Another skiing adventure to report, and this week, we focus on the lessons we learned:

1. Our assumption that rain in Basel equates to snow in the mountains was very wrong. We did do a little research before heading out and the slopes were advertised as ‘good but wet piste conditions.’  When we arrived in Sörenberg after a 2-hour train ride, however, we found that this actually meant patches of dirt and slabs of ice.  We were obviously very disappointed.  Luckily, it started snowing around lunch time and the conditions improved greatly in the afternoon hours.
2. “There’s something for everyone” means it’s a kids place. This wasn’t actually bad. There were lots of kids learning to ski in a safe environment – very adorable.  Additionally, Sörenberg is home to a well-known disabled skiing program.  Neither of us had any idea the technology and resources that are available to skiers who are physically disabled.  While Sörenberg wasn’t our favorite, we were happy to support such a fantastic mountain.
3. Don’t fall of the t-lift – especially not the long ones.  One of the reasons that we didn’t love Sörenberg was because of all the t-lifts.  If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, here’s a quick picture I stole from the internet.  Towards the end of the day, we were taking a very long t-lift (almost 1900-meters) to the top, and Sarah being the clutz that she is, fell off and took Chris down with her.  Shockingly, it was the only time she fell that day.  Unfortunately, we were a ways away from the actual slopes and thus had the climb up a hill on skis.  It sucked.  A lot.
4. We finally learned how to cross-country ski up a hill. Why you ask?  See lesson 3.  It wasn’t because we wanted to learn – we learned out of sheer necessity.
5. If number 3 is not avoidable, don’t break your Travel Pass when falling.  In Switzerland, you load your lift tickets onto your transportation passes (because skiing is obviously a form of transportation here).  When Sarah fell off the t-lift, she regrettably snapped her pass in half.  Consequently, it wouldn’t work at any of the turn-styles, the train conductors were less than pleased on the way home, and she had to pay 30 CHF to replace it.  Sigh.
6. Nothing can stop Chris Milne from wearing Hawaiin shirts.  But honestly, why would you want to?  Hawaiin shirts are amazing and … HE’S ON VACATION!
   

   

   

   Here’s a quick video of vacation man coming down the mountain.  Yes, Sarah did beat him to the bottom, but only because he went down twice to her once.  Shame.