Budapest - a city of light

Thursday, October 29

Woke up this morning to the beautiful sights of Budapest. We arrived last night and the Captain took the ship upriver for a night cruise. Budapest from the water is one of the most beautiful citys. The Pest hills, and the buildings are lighted up, and very close to the Danube. With the monuments, bridges, castles, churches and Parliment building, it is a sectaular sight.

We are docked near the Elizabeth Bridge. At the end of the bridge is the spa that Tanya and I visited the last time we were there. Some great memories there!

After breakfast and a brief talk about Hungary from a local guide, we boarded the coaches for a city tour. Unfortunately, the bus was overly warm and we could barely keep our eyes open, and we only looked at everything through the bus windows. We never stopped until we arrived at the base of the hill at Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion. We finally got out into the fresh air and got to walk around.

After visiting the church (as the Brir tourists say "The ABC -- another bloody church!) we climbed the stairs to the Fisherman's Bastion, where we had a marvelous view up and down the Danube. We had some free time for shopping as we made our way back to the bus.

After lunch, we ventured out again with a few fellow passengers to the big marketplace, housed in a huge, ancient iron building. The first floor is the most amazing farmer's market, with the most beautiful display of fruits and vegetables you've ever seen. The second floor is all souvenier shops. We found out after we returned to the ship that there was also a basement that was all fish markets. I'm glad we missed it, others said it was smelly and they saw lots of fish heads.

I followed Augie for a long hike down the Danube so he could find another Cache, and when he said he wanted to walk up the mountain to find another, I told him I would see him back at the ship and headed across the bridge to the other side of the river. He didn't return until almost dinnertime after climbing the hill to the monument.

We enjoyed our "last supper" on the ship and said goodbye to all our new friends. After we finish this last post, it's early to bed as we have a three am wakeup call tomorrow for our flight home.

As vacations go, this has been a relaxing one. The slow pace of a river boat cruise, coupled with the slow pace of moving 40 people from place to place, and all the down time as the ship moves from port to port (I read four books) makes this a trip that we won't need time to recuperate from when we get home.