Passage To Eastern Europe Viking River Cruise
Thursday, November 10, 2022 - Budapest, Hungary
The day's statistics:
- Weather: partly cloudy, mid-50s
- Steps: 15,739 Linda; 17,384 Steve
Of course the first thing we did when we woke up was shower and get ready for the day.
While I don't usually make too many comments about the bathroom facilities (I recall making a comment about the
unusual shower at the Qosmo in Brasov), one here was warranted.
There were two items of the bathtub that were nearly unacceptable. First, the tub tapered and there was hardly any
flat bottom surface to stand on to shower. Perhaps the Europeans bath a lot, but showering, even for Linda's smaller
feet, was a little challenging. The second difficulty was that there was a step down getting out of the tub. In
other words, the bottom of the tub was higher than the floor outside the tub. I'm sure after a number of showers
one could get used to this, but for a first shower, it created a "whoa" moment. For both of us.
The breakfast was another buffet, with a lot of different foods to satisfy any palate: breads, meats, fruit, cheese,
and a large tea station.
We both got plates of food - Linda missed her egg benedict.
The hashbrown discs were REALLY good.
After breakfast we headed back to our room. In the main floor lobby where the elevators are
called / beckened was this partially-3D mural (?) / work of art.
We returned to our room to brush, freshen up, grab our jackets, and the camera.
A morning-of-our-last-full-day selfie of just me.
Some traffic on the river.
Our scheduled meeting time was 8:30 at the Viking hospitality desk.
Here we are, more than four thousand miles from home, and we run into Jim and Susie from Newark, DE
(20 miles from where we live).
We boarded the bus for our one hour or so drive to the next destination, Sentendria, an artists' town (absolutely
nothing like the Naive community visited prior).
Our driver was Joseph (yo-sef), and our guide was Silvia (shkil-vee-ah).
Silvia told us a joke: A taxi driver picked up a tourist from the airport. While driving to the tourist's hotel, he
asked "How long did it take to build that?" The driver said "That took about five years." The tourist said "Where I'm
from, we would have built that in three." A little further on the tourist asked "How long did it take to build that?"
The driver replied "About three years." The tourist said "Where I'm from, we would have built that in two." A little
further on the tourist asked "How long did it take to build that?" The driver replied "I don't know, but it wasn't
there this morning." Much laughter ensued.
Some sights on the way to Sentendria.
On the side of the hill is this Statue of Liberty replica.
Crossing the Danube again, heading out of town (looking in a different direction that last time).
We passed some Roman ruins.
Farmland.
We 've entered the artist community.
Here is an outdoor sculpture garden.
Our bus pulled into an old drive-in movie theater parking lot - the map of the town was on the screen.
We got off the bus and nearby were some flowers still in bloom.
There were two guides with our one bus today. And they were both name Silvia. The entire group split into two
so they would be more manageable.
We started our walk into town.
We came upon an old communist era car.
There are seven - SEVEN - churches in this relatively small[er] town. There are more pictures of this church than
any of the others because it is 1) first, and B) one of the only ones we were THAT close to.
The blue and white fabric. Wax is put on one part to protect it, the rest is dyed, then the wax is melted off.
The story is that the devil challenged a young girl in town. She had to bring as many roses as she could.
However, roses were out of season. So the girl painted them on her apron - a lot of them. So the devil
lost the challenge. Now, necklaces are worn with roses on them to keep the devil away.
We walked down a road to the Danube.
This post is a flood levee wall post. They are spaced every 10 meters (30+ feet) or so, and if needed, concrete
barriers are dropped in between them to help stop any flooding.
From this vantage point, five of the churches are visible.
We returned to the streets of town and continued on.
Some porcelain. The leopard is about $1,750.
Hanging open umbrellas.
Sort of the "town center".
Moving on.
We were headed to the red-fronted building on the right. In the distance is the Danube, and you can see one of
the flood barrier posts afar too.
The red-fronted building mentioned above is the Margret Kovács Museum.
The Margit Kovács Museum showcases the work of, well, Margit Kovács (MK). But the real question is
"Why?". MK was the best known, and most-sought ceramics artist in the 1960s and 70s.
At one time payment for her work was based not on subject or difficulty, but rather height - the taller the more
expensive. "I'd like a flat sheet of paper-like item, please."
Here are the highlights, including some religious based creations as well.
There are a couple pairs where the first shot is regular, and the second is a closer-up - to highlight a detail.
MK with her life-long companion, fellow traveller, and colleague - her mother, who died in 1974.
Saint Michael.
The Annunciation.
The Last Supper.
Saint George and the Dragon.
Adam and Eve in Paradise.
Adam and Eve.
These pieces are in a section called "An exhibition for the hands".
The pieces are replicas of Margit's best known pieces, but for those with a visual impairment.
On a wall in the stairwell going to the first floor was this work - it is about eight feet tall. It is titled
"May God Grant Wine, Wheat, and Peace".
Bowl with vulture.
These three pieces are "connected" through a strand of yarn.
Picking the apples. Another large work.
Contata Profana.
Another large piece - about 2.5 by 4 meters (8 by 14 feet) - called "Model for the Mural in Fót titled Games".
Rather than remove the text and type it, here is the piece and the supporting text.
Royal engagement.
The lone piece Margit created of her mother.
We finished in the museum and continued our venture in town.
There were a few concrete squares that had imprints of leaves and flowers in them. They were subtle.
We stopped at Szamos, a nice little pastry shop, and were treated to a slice of cake and coffee.
These slices were about $2.50 (or less) each, and cost more "to go" than to eat in.
Linda had a slice of Eszterházy torta (Eszterhaázy cake), and I had a slice of Sacher
torta (Sacher cake).
Two of our travel companions, Heather and her mom Dottie.
After our snack, we had some free time to explore the town some more. We were asked to be back on the bus for a
12:15 departure.
We decided to visit the church on top of the hill first.
There was what appeared to be a school class playing on the grounds when we arrived. They departed shortly after.
Looking out over the town. This panaramic is not as impressive here because these's just a bunch of rooftops...
The Danube is barely visible on the far left side.
Before leaving the area, we grabbed a selfie.
We decided to visit another church to see if we can find the statue of Pope John Paul II.
In the first image, behind the gate on the left halfway down the steps was some outdoor seating at a
restaurant (not pictured).
We continued on, and eventually found the church we were seeking, with the statue of the Pope. It was the
[Saint] Peter and [Saint] Paul Church.
On / in the bulletin board near the entryway was this artifact. It was a very interesting look glass piece. I don't
normally do this (primarily because the quality degrades), but the third is an extreme crop showing the detail and
to try to show what is inside the glass - it looks like it could be a piece of bone, cloth, or... nothing special
(the slight relfection makes it a little hard to tell exactly what it is, and our guide had no idea either).
In one alley while walking away from the church were a couple busts.
After the second church visit, it was time to head back to the bus.
We could have walked through town, backtracking our route, or go to the river and follow that. We chose the
latter, though we had to walk through town a little to get to a street that went to the river.
There were a number of stores selling items, most had products on racks on the street. At one particular one,
Linda was interested in a leather purse, a little bigger than the one she had because her new slightly bigger
phone didn't fit in the current one as well. The salesman's store was through a walkway and a courtyard (she
wound up NOT buying one because the one in black was much larger than the one in red that was at the street).
Here's that courtyard.
We arrived at the river and started down the pedestrian walkway. From this perspective, six of the seven churches
are visible. I didn't capture a panaramic of that, but here is a repeat of one of them, and our last church
picture in this town.
In a parking lot near the river was this Ferarri - the only exotic spotted outside Bucarest.
We had a casual stroll back to the bus, boarded, and headed back to the city.
Adjacent to the parking lot was this other Communist Era relic.
Some war barracks converted to apartments.
With the US conversion, the price of this gas was actually not that bad at about $4.75 per gallon at the time
of this writing. Still higher than what we were paying back home at the time (less than $4.00 per gallon).
There is an uninhabited island in the middle of the Danube, though it does have a nice park.
An interesting bridge, and support.
A couple of churches in one shot.
Another attempt to get a deent picture of the Jewish Shoe Memorial. There is a girl in a green jacket and yellow
hat that is trying to get a decent shot too.
We arrived at the hotel, and rather than go to our room, headed out to find a place to have lunch.
We didn't have too much time for a lunch break as we arrived back at the hotel at 2:00, and our next excursion was
at 3:00. We weren't rushed, but we also didn't have the luxury to have a sit-down meal (not that there's anything
wrong with that). So we walked down two block, and over two blocks, and stopped at Café de Paris.
We shared a sausage langos (langos is a hand-stretched fried dough with various "toppings"). The middle of our
dough was a little thin and became extra crispy when it was fried. No big deal though. Also, there was a crushed
red pepper sort of topping that Linda put on her's - not knowing that the peppers were REALLY hot. So she scraped
most of them off. It was still an enjoyable meal. We ate at an outdoor high top table.
We didn't inhale lunch, but after we ate, we headed right back to the hotel for our next excursion that was scheduled
to depart at 3:00.
The time came for our final excursion of this vacation.
The bus deaparted at 3:00, and the 24 of us had a 45 minute drive to Gödöllő Royal Palace &
Gardens - the largest boroque palace in eastern Europe. We had to drive through the city to get there, and we were
going in essentially the complete opposite direction than Sentendria. So we got to see more of the city.
It isn't obvious or clear from this direction, but I would be money that when we were approaching this guy, he
had, not a child but, a cat - yes, cat - in the backpack carrier. Not that there's anything wrong with it.
We drove past Hero Square again.
A waterfront restaurant.
One of the oldest, most famous bath houses in Budapest.
Continuing on.
We arrived in front of the Gödöllő Royal Palace and the bus dropped us off.
This is the palace of King Francis Joseph I and Queen Elizabeth (of Hungary, not England).
Across the street from the palace was small carnival of some sort (the merry-go-round is most
prominent, but there looks to be other rides around the left side / front of the church).
We had a hundred meter (1,000 foot) walk or so to the palace.
The grounds are rather extensive.
We went inside and began our tour.
The elegant staircases.
An original wrought iron chandelier.
Looking out the window at the top of the staircase at the grounds.
The tea room, with a warming oven / heating unit in the corner.
More sights.
A bracelet - it is really about 4 to 5 cm (1.75 to 2 inches) tall.
I waited as long as I reasonably could for these two to get out of the photo, but they were reading.
And the group was moving on and I didn't want to lose track of the dialog with the objects. This is
the queen's wedding gown. Some other period wear as well.
Some original furniture.
An original chandelier.
Some maps showing the original Hungarian territory.
There was a chapel within the palace. There was a window and the lights were off so it was dark.
More artifacts and sights, including some closer-ups.
Our tour brought us to a small concert hall. One item of note about this room is that there was an upper
balcony area that housed a small orchestra, and the orchestra area had doors that could be closed too.
At a kiosk at the entrance, Linda picked up a scavenger hunt fill-in-the-blanks sort of sheet. In some of the
rooms there were numbered boxes that correlated to questions on a sheet. Each answer had a circled letter.
Putting the circled letters into the answer at the end revealed a prize. While this was geared toward younger
kids, Linda had fun filling it out anyway. The answer was "butter cookie". Turning in her sheet at the gift
shop got her a reward of a butter cookie. Sticker.
We finished seeing most of the rooms. We passed through the gift shop, proceeded downstairs, and stopped in
the cafe. We were treated to a slice of cake and a cup of coffee. (Sorry, no picture.) We had until 4:55 to
rest, shop, and or explore.
After finishing our snack, I decided to step outside into the gardens and take some photos while Linda continue
to talk to Mariam.
Here are the shots I took of the palace, gardens, flowers, and a statue of Maria Theresa.
I didn't walk out as far as it might look. Or I did. I guess it all depends on ones perspective...
On our way out, I tried to get a nice evening shot of the front of the palace.
The winter wonderland across the street was now lit up as well.
We boarded the bus and returned to the hotel. The sun had already set, and night photography is hard enough,
no less trying to take pictures on a moving bus. So I don't have many: a couple ARE in focus (I think we were
stopped at a light), but most are not exactly in focus but they do make the point.
Our last excursion had come to an end, and anything we do from here on out is all up to us.
All less-than-twelve-hours of whatever we want.
We didn't want to have too heavy of a dinner again, since we ate a slightly later lunch and had
that cake earlier. Twice. So we decided to walk to a supermarket to pick up some light fare.
I thought it would be neat to grab some evening shots and see some sights in the floodlight splendor,
like the Golubac Fortress nearly a week ago. And I can't believe I just wrote that sentence - that it
was a week between that fortress and this evening.
Anyway, we would like to have visited Hero Square while not on a moving bus, but it was just way -
by a matter of 15 to 20 blocks (15 to 20 blocks) - too far away.
These are near or within view of the hotel - while they are much clearer / sharper due to the lack of
window and relfections, there is more foreground clutter.
This place is still in business. I meant to post this on FB with the caption "where are we?" But never got around
to it. It is plainly obvious now where we are...
We're not sure - not that it even matters - if this is a permanent or seasonal ferris wheel. But since we last visited
three years ago and that was a little earlier in the year (by two weeks and two days), it might be permanent.
About a block further down from the supermarket, and one over, was the Saint Stephen Cathedral. We were about
fifteen minutes too late to go inside.
While manipulating the pictures for the entire trip - and especially this cathedral, I made an observation. The
full size images, at 6,720 x 3,776 pixels, that are in focus, have a LOT of detail. When those same images are
shrunk to 1,600 x 900 pixels for viewing on a browser or smartphone, quite a bit of that detail is lost.
Here I left this one image in all its full-size glory so that the detail, even at night, can be enjoyed.
We had to walk to the end of the next block in order to capture the entire cathedral in one shot. Had we kept walking
in that same direction, we could have stepped into a golden arches to get a picture of their menu.
Our stop at the supermarket yielded some cheese, of course a bottle of wine, and what we thought was a chocolate
croissant that turned out to be a berry jelly sort of filing. No pic as my shutter finger was getting tired...
Or I just forgot - it was a long day, after all.
Being our last night, with an early - very early - wake up, we just watched a movie after we finished our packing.
Why the menu on the TV was so hard to see I don't understand. I walked right up to the screen to take this shot and
even then it is a little hard to see (especially the "off" to the right of "Subtitle" [yes, there really is an "off"
tot he right of "Subtitle"- you can image what it is like from the bed).
We made sure we had as little as possible not packed since our luggage had to be out at 4:30 and our shuttle was
at 5:00. So we wanted to be able to sleep as late as we could.
We heard a story wherein our guide was visiting Texas and was asked to prepare a meal of goulash (goo-yash) for a
large group. When they were served, they were surprised that they got what they weren't expecting. It turns out that
they really wanted perkash.
Fun fact:
- Goulash is a soup; Perkash is similar to goulash, but has a stew consistency.