Danube Waltz Viking River Cruise
Day 8: Saturday, October 26, 2019 - Budapest, Hungary
Breakfast didn't change much. OK, at all. Linda had the egg benedict - what a surprise!
I had a made-to-order omelette with mushrooms, pepper, and onions, with a side of toast, sausage, and potatoes.
The buffet included this Hungarian lecso (I didn't know what it was, and didn't try it - but in hindsight, should have :-( as it was just a Hungarian vegetable stew with peppers, tomatoes, and paprika.)
Didn't note who we ate with this day.
For those that didn't know, Budapest (pronounced boo-da-pesht) is actually two cities - Buda and Pest - divided by the Danube.
This is this day's approximation of where we walked today. There's a lot...
- The top-most red line to the right of the river, starts our guided walk from the ship, all the way around in almost two circles, and to the purplish line.
- The purplish line is the brief tram ride we took.
- The short red line is the walk from the tram to the bath house.
- The blue line is the walk from the bath house to the market hall.
- The red line is the walk from the market hall back to the ship.
- The green line is the walk from the ship to the ATM and back again.
Today's first excursion was called "Budapest Castle Hill City Hike", and our local guide for our group of 11 was Vicky. Yet another personable comic.
For example, she said something like "Then the Germans visited and forgot to leave for 45 years."
We learned that the average income is about 1,500 Euros per month (though the conutry's currency is the Forint...).
We started off in a parking lot just off the ship, with this building nearby.
We walked a little in town.
A couple images, including a composite, of what we were told is the most beautiful hotel in the world (or something like that). Madonna stayed here once, too.
The Las Vegas Casino. In Budapest. BUDAPEST.
A street on our way to the Chain Bridge.
Made our way across the famous Chain Bridge. It was rather overcast and a little foggy. Again.
And... the tunnel. Yes, that's what they call it - the tunnel.
In a plaza on the other side of the bridge, was this sculpture of a zero. It's called the "Zero kilometre stone", and is a
3 metre high limestone, and signified the origin mile marker (kilometer marker) for all the roads leading to Budapest.
We continued and took the funicular up to the top.
This was on the wall near the funicular.
These flowers were on the side of the hill next to the funicular.
Here are some images of the Chain Bridge (that's our ship to the left of the bridge [and yes, that's another
Viking ship to the right]) and the city from the funicular.
After getting to the top, we continued our walk and had some more sights and views.
The gate from both sides, though from the back, we went down some stairs.
Some other sites within the gates and outside the building.
A statue, and the plaque at the base of it.
We didn't get a clear answer as to why each figure is different.
A fountain in a courtyard, and a building off the courtyard.
We continued to make our way toward the back of the hill.
We eventually made our way to the top and back of the hill, and saw the other side of the city.
After viewing the back side of the hill, we started walking back through town. The area where we started was a wealthier area.
We were told the lumps were to help keep snow off the roofs.
This massive door - has its own door.
Our walk continued toward Holy Trinity Square and St. Matthias Church. A couple statues near the church.
The first shots of the church are from a distance, then on approach, then from the
plaza area alongside the church. The roof seems to have some Aztec / Mexican / Spanish sort of influence.
We eventually made our way inside. And it was spectacular. And of course the pictures don't really do it justice.
There was a side alter in a small room with a black Madonna, another statue, and a nice ceiling.
Heading out, in a vestibule was this revised relief and the original.
There seemed to be something up with the woman in the cape when we went into the church.
And it seemed to have escalated a little by the time we left the cathedral.
We proceeded back down the hill toward the funecular.
We crossed the plaza in front of the funecular, and the zero sculpture, and to a tram. For EU residents over 65,
there is no need to pay for the tram. The tram took us to near one of the thermal bath houses.
Our visit to the thermal bathhouse was primarily for the free bathroom (you typically have to pay €1 to use
a bathroom). Some pics of the inside, including artwork.
After the thermal bath house visit, we headed back out and toward a bridge to head back over the river.
Here is a church in a hill.
And Lady Liberty holding up the olive branch.
We walked back across the Liberty bridge over the river, and to the Market Hall.
The Market Hall is a three floor flea market type setting, enclosed in a warehouse, with semi-permanent booths.
It was very busy.
They also sold food. We would have gladly eaten here if we weren't eating on the ship.
After a little bit of free time at the Market Mall, we gathered at a meeting place. Vicky bought everyone a "Orias
Pottyos Tarorudi" bar. It was a cottage cheese chocolate bar - and tasted much better than it sounds.
We were also given a piece of hard candy called Negro that we think is licorice, but we haven't tried it yet so we're not sure.
We then headed to the train platform to travel back to the area of the ship. After waiting for about 15-20 minutes,
Vicky felt there was something wrong and suggested we walk back. All one-and-a-half miles of it, mostly on cobblestones.
It wasn't the distance that was challenging, but the terrain that was. On the way back, we saw a stopped tram with
passengers getting out and getting onto a bus. So Vicky was correct.
Here are some pics from the trek back to the boat.
It was time for lunch - our last lunch on the ship :-(.
Linda had cream of brocolli, Monte Cristo sandwich, and plum slices with butter crumble.
I had the market fare including the salmon crostini, pörkölt goulash (we were told
it's pronounced goo-yash, not goo-losh), and chocolate chip sundae.
We ate with Will and Rebecca, and Nigel and Jane.
Our next excursion was call "Hungarian Icons". This excursion's guide was Peter. There were 16 of us.
Our first destination was the Harry Houdini Museum, which was rather small.
The host was informative and we got some pictures of artifacts from Houdini's performances. Here are some of his props,
such as shackles and picking tools.
Some pictures, posters, and advertising.
We were also treated to a brief magic show. And our host did a trick for us as well.
And we learned how to do the trick. If you're lucky, I might perform it for you too.
Before we made our way to the distillery, we had enough time to visit a lookout. When we arrived, a "guard"
(watch person?) told us we weren't allowed to take pictures [of the city] because they were filming a movie scene at
the lookout. Peter argued with her in their native langage for a few moments saying (we were told) "You can't
block people from the view." We were still able to get some decent pics of the city from above. And I stepped
back 20 or so feet, put on my zoom lens, and took pictures of the film crew and actors. I didn't recognize anyone,
and no one was really recognizable anyway.
At this little overlook park, there was a street performer. He would sit still for some time - like a statue - then eventually move.
We drove through the city a little, and headed toward the Unicum distillery.
This building is called "The Whale".
And the University of Arts building.
We spent a few minutes in the Unicum distillery's small museum that had an original sealed bottle of Unicum, some old advertisements, and MANY little bottles. These little bottles, all 170,000+ of them, were little liquor bottles from around the world that were collected by someone in the marketing department.
You may notice some medical crosses on the bottles. The company labeled it as such in order to "smuggle" the liquor to soldiers during the war.
This is a display of some of the 40+ spices in the drink. The whole recipe is actually a secret, and only a couple family
members know what it is. Further, when ordering the ingredients, they would be ordered from and by different people,
and extra ingredients would be ordered to throw off anyone trying to figure out what the true ingredients are.
We then went downstairs into the cellar for a tasting. There are foods and beverages for everyone - some people like
Cognac, but not Linda and I. The same held true for the Unicum. There were three varieties: original; one mixed with
plum wine; and reserve, which had a more prominent citrus flavor. We didn't like either the first or last, but Linda
apparently liked the second. They were all bitter and didn't taste very good. YMMV.
The bus took us back to the ship. Before we went onboard, we headed out for a quick stroll in search of an ATM.
While we did prepay our gratuities, we felt our servers and room attendant deserved a little more, and we were
almost out of cash.
We spotted this fantastic auto (it's a Ferarri, in case you don't know your cars), another ferris wheel, and some
decorated pumpkins.
The ATM only offered Forints (Hungary's currency), but we wanted to get Euros as they are used by the majority of the EU.
We got our normally schedule port talk, but this time it included a thank you toast from the crew, and more instructions
about disembarking the next day and what to do with our baggage, rather than what tours we might be taking. Our bags had
to be out by 6:00 AM. Since that wasn't going to happen in the morning, we would pack and put our bags out this night
(after dinner).
We sat with Bill and Christy during the port talk.
We were done in the lounge and headed to the restaraunt for our final dinner on the ship :-(.
Linda had the salad, traditional chicken paprikash, and somloi.
I had paraszt tàl, traditional chicken paprikash, and zserbó.
We ate with Connie, Steve, Roger, Peggy, Mike, and Diane.
We chatted with our travel companions until almost 9:00 before getting back to our cabin to pack.
As we needed to have our bags outside our cabin by 6:00AM, as stated above, we packed strategically and put them out this night. We put what little bit we needed into our carry-on, so we were covered. And time for sleep.