Breakfast on the ship was the worst meal. It’s a cross of American and European foods. The bacon was not cooked enough, there were lox but no bagels or cream cheese and there were scrambled and over cooked soft boiled eggs. At least there was plenty of good fresh fruit.
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| I think it's the Royal Palace |
We had to catch a tour bus at 8 for a city tour. We started on the Pest side. We saw the Parliament buildings, Fisherman’s Bastion, Heroes Square, Chain Bridge, Opera House, St. Stephens Basilica, Synagogue, Mattias Church, the Royal Palace and many other old buildings that are now various museums. The Pest side is also known for its many Bath Houses and many have a type of medical facility as part since the mineral baths are said to be of healing nature. We drove down the expensive shopping district. We spent a lot of time on both sides of the Danube. On the Buda side we had a walking tour of Castle Hill where Mattias Church is. It is a really beautiful church both inside and out. They herded us back to the bus at 11:30 so we would be back to the ship for lunch. For lunch I had a salad of peas, ham and eggs, fried perch with spinach pasta and fresh veggies and a Hungarian pancake for dessert. It’s a thick crepe with finely chopped nuts inside the fold with chocolate and whipped cream on top. Terry and Angela were at our table again.
After lunch the 4 of us took a bus to what we called the green bridge that we walked across to an old building that was converted to an impressive shopping mall. The bottom floor was all food related. A farmer’s market of sorts with fresh meats, sausages, spices, etc. The second floor was more clothing, leather, souvenir type places. We found some nice gifts to take home and we each bought a beautiful hand painted egg Christmas ornament. It was getting rainy out and we didn’t want to be late for the ship so we took a taxi back. We thought we had an honest driver, but in the end we felt he over charged us and would not take a mixture of currencies. Once we got back and unloaded, it was time for afternoon tea and cakes. The tea choices were good and the cakes were a variety of tiny bite size cakes. Afterwards was the Gate1 Travel reception of wine and pretzel snacks. Our Gate1 rep, Mick (Miklos) spoke excellent English and I was really impressed. We met Ron and Nancy from CA (isn’t that strange) who invited us to sit with them and visit.
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On deck at night with Chain Bridge
behind Kerry |
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| Another night view |
The ship set sail at 4 for Bratislava, Slovakia during one of our snack times. Dinner was at 7. It was a small antipasti of salami, cheese, prosciutto and alfalfa sprouts. They use them a lot. The soup was cream of potato and I had the absolutely perfect venison roast with gravy, sweet purple cabbage, cranberry pear and a gooey potato dumpling. For dessert I chose the yogurt terrine with berry sauce. Very light and quite tasty. Tonight we had a new couple join us, Alan and Etsuko Fast who live in Florida also. The 6 of us hit it off so well and really enjoyed dining together.
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| Heroes Square |
After dinner it was time to head to the cabin, shower, journal, write postcards and get a good night’s sleep.
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