Our one and only ” must do” here was to find Elfinbein, wizard duvet-makers, as mentioned on Trip Advisor.
It was a 35 mins walk in the drizzle but we found them and realised, that compared to Prague, this is a proper city. That’s to say it’s large enough not to feel swamped by tourists……we saw none on our walk.
Like their namesakes Elfinbein are located in a subterranean world. You ring a bell and descend very narrow wooden stairs to a cellar to be greeted by Tomasz in perfect english. He and his parents make comforters, pillows, and now, down slippers. The down is of 3 qualities and is unimaginably soft and compressable. It’s stuffed into the duvets etc by hand and sewn with old Singer sewing machines. Trip Advisor has brought them free advertising and many more customers so one gets the feeling they are now making a much better living from this tiny factory than they used to.
Despite the low production levels and high quality materials their prices are very reasonable-unless you buy the royal range of pure white, 100% down. We bought 2duvets, a light weight and a medium which can be tied together for winter if necessary. Plus 2 pillows. They will be delivered to Fordingbridge next week-for free.
By the time we left it was raining steadily. We decided to get on a hop on hop off bus and try the restaurant recommended by Daniel for lunch. We found it easily from his directions and it’s the real deal- delicate Magyar cooking at very reasonable prices. Bob was a happy bunny all round! We’ve booked to go back tomorrow night and the waiter made a note that I would be having roast pumpkin soup as they’d sold out today.
Some street sightsHand made brushes . Heroes’ Square
The cityscape is far more grandiose than Prague, befitting the once joint capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Public buildings are huge and mostly only date from the 19 th century when the city was rebuilt on Parisian and Viennese lines so it does not have the older, smaller more human-scale buildings of Prague. It also seems a good deal shabbier round the edges! But it feels real, not just existing as a tourist destination.
We jumped back on the bus after lunch and did the whole circuit…..we’re hoping for better weather tmorrow to visit Buda, across rhe river, and explore the castle district. It was too wet to take any pictures this afternoon.