Eastern Danube, Day 11: Exploring Budapest

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Today is our last full day in Budapest, and we used it to return to some of the places we had seen on our bus tour yesterday. We went north toward the Parliament and walked by a memorial along the river consisting of bronze shoes remembering the Jewish Hungarians that were lost in the Holocaust. We then continued to the Parliament building. Kenna had tried very hard to get tickets to tour the building, but was unable to book any. Still, the building is gorgeous from the outside and we got a good look at it.

We took the Metro to the city park and wandered through a castle there, stopping for a quick lunch at an outdoor beer garden. We continued through the House of Music and past the Ethnological Museum on the way back to the Metro.

We rode the Metro to the vicinity of the Hungarian National Museum. When we arrived, we saw that the temporary exhibition was “American Dream”. We began with this exhibition, which wasn’t quite what we initially thought: it described Hungarian migration to the United States.

We went through the permanent exhibits in somewhat reverse chronological order, beginning with the 1703 to 1990, followed by the founding of Hungary (roughly 1000) to 1703, and finally the pre-history, from 400000 BC to 804 AD. We got some insight into how Hungary, with its unique language and culture, ended up in the middle of Europe surrounded by Slavic, Romance, and Germanic nations.

Returning to the hotel, we had the idea to go find a club sandwich (somewhat of a tradition for us) for dinner. I found a nearby restaurant with outdoor seating where Kenna and I were able to share a sandwich and drinks, and from which to watch the passers-by. We returned to the hotel via some souvenir shops, and then packed for tomorrow’s voyage home.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to the Eastern Danube. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.