GOODBYE BUDAPEST, HELLO GYMIR!

NOTE: if you’re reading this post on your phone, please clink on the title above to get the photos and narration.

This is the itinerary of the Grand European Voyage on the Viking Gymir

As the sun rises at our window, we say GOOD MORNING BUDAPEST, and goodbye for now. We have had amazing weather on this trip…so far.We left our hotel in Budapest just after 10:00, after the streets were cleared from the first event of the Budapest marathon. We were able to check out quickly and the taxi driver got to our hotel and helped with our luggage.

Our stay in the hotel was 137,879 HUF which is about $185 per night. Viking charged its participants in the pre- tour at $500 per person per night for their hotels. No thank you. We loved our charming Boutique Hotel Victoria. Taxi rides were also very reasonable.

We had the location of the meet up point for the bus marked on our map and we just waited a few minutes until we got on our luxurious bus with six other passengers and left at 11:00 , driving through the narrow roads of the Hungarian countryside to the hamlet of Nyergesújfalu, or as one of the crew members said, “ the middle of nowhere!”.

By 2:00, we were having lunch on the Aquavit Terrace.

Welcome to the Gymir!

We are very happy that we selected a cabin with a veranda, which greatly extends the feeling of having extra space. The cabins themselves are very well laid out, but they are quite small. The drawers are very convenient. It will take time to get organized. We’re still suffering from jet lag.

We started meeting people and enjoyed the company of two Canadian couples at dinner. I had salmon and Beatrice had rib eye steak, two main staples. I opted not to have chicken paprika because I had it the night before at the Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest.

It is now Sunday and is much cooler. There was rain on our veranda. . We chatted with a couple and their son and daughter-in-law from New Orleans after the morning briefing , and joined them for lunch. Most of the people went on afternoon tour to see Budapest’s major attractions today , but it meant getting on the bus, driving an hour and a half back to Budapest, then returning to Komáron, two hours away, where the ship is now docked. We now have a steady internet connection- hooray! . The only site we didn’t see that was on the tour is Hero’s Square, and we did not want to spend 3 1/2 hours on the bus to see one landmark. We are enjoying this free time on our own. We were able to organize our room, watch a film, get our internet up and running and discuss plans for Vienna with one of the crew members.

Tomorrow is a sailing day. We arrive Monday night in Vienna, where we will see a Strauss/ Mozart concert. Tuesday we will be very busy in Vienna. Good news: my hip and knee are not bothering me. Fingers crossed this continues.

A popular spot: decaf cappuccino and cookies 24/7!