About this experience
Exploring Budapest, you will immerse yourself in a tale of complicated love during a beautiful era. The plot is well known: the young emperor was supposed to marry a well-bred princess, but suddenly, passionately, and forever fell in love with her younger sister...
Love Story
Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph Habsburg loved his wife Elizabeth (Sissi) very much. Elizabeth, in turn, loved Budapest, and the city responded to her - and only her - with mutual affection. Much in Budapest reminds of the empress, and cozy cafes called "csukraszda" with tables for two and fresh roses in tiny vases, or elegant embankments where it's so nice to stroll in the evening, with the Royal Palace on the Buda side and the magnificent Parliament glowing with golden lights on the Pest side. And the bridges that firmly connect both banks!
What to Expect
The story of the imperial love is told in Vienna and in Gödöllő, but in Budapest, it acquires vivid details and memorable nuances. Here is Matthias Church - they were crowned here as King and Queen of Hungary. Here is the Western Railway Station - where the emperor and empress arrived on visits from Vienna. Here is Elizabeth Boulevard, lined with magnificent buildings before the celebration of the Millennium. The city's history is intertwined with the love story; but it's a triangle - and one of the three did not succeed in love...
We will visit Buda Castle and admire Pest from above. At the Royal Palace, I will tell a story from the 15th century about King Matthias and the beautiful Ilonka. We will enjoy the empress's favorite pastries at Ruszwurm café. We will ride a tram along the embankment and see the monument to Empress Elizabeth, the bridges of the imperial couple, pedestrian streets, squares, restaurants. We will visit Erzsébetváros, Elizabeth's city, and the Church of St. Elizabeth on Rose Square.
