April 12 - Tour of Budapest

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.

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.

On deck at night with Chain Bridge
behind Kerry

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.

Heroes Square

After dinner it was time to head to the cabin, shower, journal, write postcards and get a good night’s sleep.

April 11 – Trek to Szentendre and Boarding the Amadeus

What a day! Things didn’t go exactly according to plan, but then we’re used to that. Since we were up at 2 AM and didn’t get back to bed until after 3, we didn’t wake up as early as planned. Breakfast was served from 7 to 10 and we got up at 8:50. Kerry did a quick shower and we had plenty of time to enjoy our scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. I had a banana and we enjoyed the hot tea. They have a person to make your eggs any way you’d like so that was nice.

Kerry starting her shopping

We packed up and checked out but stored our luggage at the hotel for the day. We asked directions to Szentendre and were on our way. We finally found the bus stop as he said straight thru the park but there were two parks and we weren’t on the same page. We could take the metro 19 or 41 to the HEV (train). Well, as usual we had to make some adjustments since we took the metro from a different park and overshot our stop, but we did eventually get on the right train going the right direction to Szentendre, which is a lovely artsy village of cobblestone streets along the Danube about 20 miles from Budapest. We thoroughly enjoyed a walk along the river and through the streets of the village where we perused many shops as well as leave behind out fair share of euros and florints. Kerry bought some beautiful amber jewelry and we got the cutest little hedgehog toothpick holders. We visited a marzipan museum where of course they sold marzipan and we had to do some serious candy shopping there. We made out way to the top of the hill in the center of town to an old church with wonderful views of the rooftops of the town. By then it was time to make our way back to the train and reverse our trip so we could pick up our luggage in time to board the Amadeus and get checked into our room.

Szentendre from hilltop

The hardest part of the day was boarding the ship. We pulled our luggage the short distance to the ship but the traffic to cross over to the gangplank was not letting up. Finally with some help from a crew member we crossed one lane and then the cars stopped in the other. The other passengers were all watching from the lounge and everyone had to comment on the fact that they didn’t think we’d ever get across. And so began our week of notoriety.



Hungarian Folk  Dancers

View from our cabin window

At 6:30 we attended the champagne toast to begin the trip and headed to dinner at 7. At dinner we sat at what we called our old table as it was in the same spot as the 6 of us had sat for every meal on our last trip. We met the nicest couple, Angela and Terry from South Africa and became quite close during our week of travel and meals together. Dinner was excellent. I chose the unusual shrimp cocktail, the soup which was a tomato broth with 2 cheesy balls in it and tortellini in a light white sauce and pork tenderloin with mixed veggies and risotto. Dessert was a delicious Hungarian Tiramisu. As on our last trip the wine kept coming for as long as you wanted.

Along street in Szentendre

At 9 was a Hungarian folklore shore and then Kerry and I went on the deck to take some pictures as the boat was going on a night cruise and we were too tired to plan to stay up for all of it. I showered and then took some photos from our cabin window.

It was a great day, with great weather and great new friends!

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.