February 4th 2009 - The Levesque´s Budapest trip

Budapest was great fun for Alicia, Linda and myself. We stayed in a beautiful Hilton Hotel on the Buda side of the Danube River. The Hilton was in the old town, on a big hill literally across the street from two of the biggest attractions in Budapest (the Mattias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion). It was nice at night to get a view of the entire city under us from the Fishermen's Bastion. The hotel was very comfortable and the people in the reception were extremely knowledgeable and helpful.


The overlook from the Fishermen's Bastion (Alicia is asleep in the stroller under us)

Part of the Fishermen's Bastion (front) and the Mattias Church (behind) + some of the many steps princess Alicia got carried up every night.

Overall the trip was fun filled and super active. We walked over 80 km (50 miles) in 4 1/2 days! Our feet were incredibly sore but we were able to see everything. Despite all of the walking, we really did just take it easy. We would walk a little and hop into a cafe for a bottle (Alicia), beer (not Alicia) or some hot chocolate. Other times we would stop in at a church, a temperate bath swimming area, a shop, restaurant, or some other tourist attraction.

Alicia really enjoyed being pushed throughout the entire city. She loved when we pushed the stroller on the cobblestone roads in the old town. Alicia must of thought it was like getting a baby massage. The whole time she was bundled up nice and warm and would sit or lay in her stroller, sometimes sleeping and sometimes awake just enjoying the sights, sounds and the breeze. Whenever we would stop Alicia loved being taken out of the stroller and thrown up in the air by Daddy and hugged and kissed by Mommy.


Alicia bundled up nice and cozy in her stroller

Alicia was talking a lot and crying a little bit more than usual. It was actually nice to have her tell us what she wants. We think she is getting her top teeth in, but we have been wrong about teeth before. One other thing we started to notice was that Alicia has started tapping her open hand down in front of her. We think she is trying to feel around a little bit. It is awesome that she is starting to use her arms and hands a little more.

It was rather odd but we did not see many babies in Budapest. It helped make Alicia seem like a rock star. Old people would come up and look into the stroller and smile, young adults would give us that "awwwww shucks look" when they peered into the stroller. While people in Budapest were nice to Alicia, the city itself was not very baby friendly. Almost every shop, cafe, bar or restaurant had tall but extremely thin double doors that had to both be opened before we could get Alicia and the stroller in. The norm was for only one of the doors to be unlocked, so any time we went in somewhere it was a huge production. The other baby problem with the city was that there were no ramps only stairs. Linda and I had to carry Alicia up so many steps throughout this trip. Every night for example the last part of the voyage home to Hilton was to take Alicia up 60 steps. Needless to say we were exhausted at the end of the day.

We plan to write about each of the main activities in other blogg, so stay tuned.