Budapest

We arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon. Our hotel was again excellent with our room overlooking the Danube River. Again it was an 'upgrade' and must have been close to 5 stars. The weather was a little overcast with a shower or two but this did not deter us from having a quick look at what was meant to be the 'major' shopping strip for Budapest. Again we found prices of souvenirs ridiculously high!

That night we attended the optional river cruise dinner and enjoyed an excellent buffet style meal on the mighty Danube River. The weather had cleared so it was a lovely evening and we tried to get some spectacular photos of Budapest at night. With our limted cameras, this proved rather difficult. However it was a very pretty spot at night!


We took a City Bus Tour the next morning to the city's major square. We had a "local" guide who had a great sense of humour. Unfortunately history has not been kind to Hungary and wars in which it has been involved being unsuccessful almost every time. Therefore the city would erect monuments to leaders who had won a battle let alone a war. We were shown the sights of the city and its major buildings. We moved to the other side of of the river for a view of the city.


From here we went to look around the castle and its environs which dominate the southern bank of the Danube. Just to the right of the castle and on top of the hill is a place visited by most tourists to Budapest. There is a lovely church there as well as several interesting buildings to see. One is the building in the photo below which has been left in its then current state till today. It is the site of the last place of German resistance from the allies at the end of WWII. The marks you can see in the wall are bullet holes from that final battle.

The church below in the same area certainly contrasts to the photo above.



As the rest of the group set off on an optional tour for the afternoon, Trish and I had a good walk around the city. We soon discovered that under the skin of it all, Budapest is not too different to most other cities. However one point of difference is the funicular railway we saw in the photo above. However the photo to the left is of The West End Shopping Centre and for all intents and purposes it could have been from any modern city in the world!

Our meal that evening was an "included" meal which we ate at the hotel. We found the included meals which we had at the hotel we were staying in were never as good as meals we had in restaurants. This evening's meal at the hotel was no exception being OK at best.

The next day was a short drive (only a couple of hundred kilometres) to Vienna in Austria.