April 10 - More Flying and Budapest Arrival

The bridge we walked across.  Kerry is at the pole on
the right.

We landed in Frankfurt, Germany at11:25 AM after a rather nasty egg breakfast.  We transferred to our gate to Budapest in plenty of time, but had a 45 minutes delay because no one could get the door open to the gate to load the plane.  Duh!  There was a wait for the luggage but it was all there.  Then we made our way into Budapest by bus, then a train and when we got off a lady told us it wasn't far to walk across the bridge to our hotel.  Well, it was kinda far when you're dragging your suitcase and it's windy out.  We did get a great view of the Danube from on the bridge, but the wind was so powerful you couldn't hold the camera still.

We stayed at the Best Western Orion on the Buda side.  Actually we walked right past the small street the hotel was on and realized it about a block away and came back.  It was an excellent location, just one street back off the river and pretty much directly where our ship, the Amadeus Classic, would be docked the next day.  The hotel was small but very nice with the typical tiny elevator that only held the both of us and our suitcases, and that was tight.  Our room was nice, but no real view. 

Where we strolled in Buda

The plan was to do a bit of touring today but it was late afternoon by the time we got to the hotel and we were pretty tired.  Luckily a great restaurant that was written up in Frommer's was right next door so we didn't have far to walk for dinner.  However, their credit card machine was out of order and they would only accept Euros or Florints and so Kerry went back to the hotel to get some Euros we had gotten before leaving home.  What a delicious meal!  We shared an appetizer of pate, proscuitto, etc.  Kerry had a lamb stew with pasta side and I had duck steak with butternut squash.  Yummy!

Needless to say, we didn't last long after dinner.  I showered and journaled and was in bed by 9.