Budapest - Well worth a visit

[port perran]

Mrs PP and I have just returned from a 4 day visit to Budapest. Fantastic city, full of historical interest and great architecture.  Plus the food and wine was fantastic.
We had read, in advance about Miniversum, a relatively new model railway venture. We were not disappointed. Having previously been to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, we were somewhat apprehensive about Miniversum (thinking it would be a poor imitation) but it was fantastice (even if it is HO). We spoke to a couple of the guys behind the venture and they were so interesting and happy to talk about the construction (it took 22 of them 15 months to plan and amazingly only 9 months to build). The whole thing is about the size of 3 tennis courts and is well worth a visit. It took us about 90 minutes to see and digest the whole thing . A few photos are attached :













The building is literally 100 yards from the Grand Opera House in Andrassy Ut (very easy to locate).

Later, whilst exploring the various Christmas Markets we came across this , just down the road from the Basillica  and in amongst all of the market stalls (with Mrs PP looking at the camera ) :

It is , as you can see below, a model railway set up in a giant balloon like structure in the square :

Fantastic stuff. So......if you get the chance, I thoroughly recommend Budapest. Great food, great restaurants and lovely wine (as well as a bit of model railway interest).

[weave]

Thank you Martin,

Fantastic. I want to go. Will be googling citibreaks later.

Hope you had a great trip.

Cheers weave 

[Bealman]

Sounds like a very interesting place. Great pics!  Thanks for posting! 

George

[NeMo]

Thanks for sharing @port perran.

Budapest, actually Hungary generally, is one of my favourite places. I got to know it slightly through doing geological fieldwork there, and working with a Hungarian scientist on writing up our palaeontological discoveries. Been back a few times since, including 1999 to see the eclipse from the shores of Lake Balaton. Last time was about six years ago, and that trip included hunting with peregrine falcons in fields of sunflowers! Didn't catch much, but was very scenic!

Hungarians pride themselves on being crazy and on being different to just about every other strand of humanity in Europe! Certainly their culture is very distinctive, and their food in particular is excellent, especially if you get it homemade. Unfortunately their cuisine hasn't travelled particularly widely, and even goulash, which everyone thinks they know, is completely different to the real thing.

It's not an expensive place to visit, and if you stay at 'pensions' (rather like B&Bs in England) and eat at the places the locals know (often quite unprepossessing to say the least) you can have a good time on relatively little. One of my fondest memories is drinking red wine out of rinsed-out Fanta bottles on a train. The place we'd been to had some sort of wine festival, and you simply turned up with an empty bottle, filled it up, and were all set for the rest of the day. Be careful with their local fire-water though: as the saying goes, "drink a palinka, wake up with a stinker!".

Cheers, NeMo

[Newportnobby]

Thanks for those great pics, Martin.
I've only been to Budapest once and it was on business so I didn't get to do any sight seeing :'(

[Railwaygun]

Is the Children's Railway still running??
Did you go on it??

https://www.roughguides.com/article/all-change-the-railway-in-budapest-thats-run-by-children/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3325053/Railway-Budapest-run-10-14-year-old-kids.html

[Chris in Prague]

Although I have not been to Budapest for quite a few years, now, I used to go there often both on business and for holidays and agree that the Hungarians (not being Slavs or Latins, yet alone Anglo-Saxons) are very different with great cuisine (easily the best in the region) and excellent wine. It's very good value with the fall in the Forint, too (Hungary has economic and political problems). Pity about the beer though. The Childrens' (ex-Pioneers') Railway was still running back in the 1990s. Prague is more beautiful and has better beer and also has a vast model railway (and N Gauge, I think, too -- my landlord has been there) which, alas, I've yet to visit although it's a direct 25 minute Metro ride from me! Maybe, in January . . .

[REGP]

Thanks for the photos PP

I have fond memories of the only time I visited Budapest which happened to be in the Communist era.

They wouldn't let us go on any train journeys except on the Children's railway but there was a small museum about their underground where we were made very welcome, I wonder if it's still there?

We also stumbled across a cafe of sorts where no one spoke English but again we were made welcome.

Ray

[port perran]

Is the Children's Railway still running??
Did you go on it??

https://www.roughguides.com/article/all-change-the-railway-in-budapest-thats-run-by-children/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3325053/Railway-Budapest-run-10-14-year-old-kids.html

I believe that it is still running but unfortunately we didn't go on it which was a shame really.
Great City though and the people are very friendly.
The model railway in the balloon (see original post) stays out all day/night. It's a sad fact that if it were in this country it would (I'm sure) be trashed.

[cornish yorkie]

    Thanks for posting
      regards Derek.

[jthjth]

The children's railway was running last summer when I went. It is well worth a ride. For clarity, it is not a railway for children, but rather one run by children. The driver is an adult, and there is a passive adult guard and a supervising adult signaller. However the routine signalling, guarding, ticket inspection, ticket selling etc is done by children from (from the look of it) the ages of about 10 to 17. It is rather uplifting to see what youngsters can achieve when given the chance.

The railway is narrow gauge, around three coaches pulled by a diesel. The line runs for around 10km through the wooded hills that ovelook Budapest. There is public transport access at both ends. One end is reached by what they call the cog wheel railway, which is a rack and pinion railway integrated into the local transport system. This is interesting in itself.

The underground system is also interesting. One line is the first mainline European underground line, and runs through beautiful period stations. There are two Soviet style lines and a new fully automatic line. The oldest is the fastest!

As others have said, Budapest is well worth a visit.

[LAandNQFan]

Just trying to work it out - if 22 men take 24 months to plan and build a railway covering 8,400 sq.ft, that means I should have finished my railway last Christmas!     Thanks for that, PP!
I enjoyed teaching in Hungary as the Communist bloc was crumbling.  We stayed in Debrecen in the east of Hungary, and our first night's sleep was continually broken by trains hooting through the night at the ungated crossing nearby.  In the morning, when we said to our hosts that we had had a disturbed night, they jubilantly said "Yes, isn't it wonderful!"  The trains were heading north-east, taking Russian soldiers and tanks back home.

[Crepello]

I've been with Great Rail Journeys (no connection); it really is a nice city. Saw a Floyd '86' on the way too! Our tour guide took us to a ''ruined pub''--quite an experience; Health & Safety would never allow in UK!

[Malc]

There is a large railway museum in Budapest which has two turntables and associated stabling. Not a round house as the turntables are outside. Been a couple of times. We went in 2010 and I have posted some pictures in my gallery.
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=52;u=497