“The Paris of the East”

I read this declaration in a travel guide and it’s true.
I felt it the minute we drove into the center of the city.

A river runs through it

The architecture is grand and imposing

The Seine or the Danube?
The tree-lined Chemps-Elysées or Andràssy Street?

Fisherman’s Basion, Castle Hill Complex.

Opera performance

I’m having problems placing pictures today, so the photos will be out of sequence with the text. My apologies!

Back to reality! We had things to do, places to go.

First priority: how to get on the ship tomorrow!

We needed to know how to get on the bus to join the ship, since it is docked in a village forty miles from here because of the low water.

An astute Viking agent mentioned on the phone last week that there was a Viking service desk at the Hotel Intercontinental, so we taxied over to find out what to do. We had gotten misinformation earlier in the day with an email from Viking, giving us the phone number to call the ship; when I called, the representative there said we would have to pay for our own fare since we did not use the Viking hotel. This didn’t seem right. Thank goodness for Maria, the agent on the phone last week.

We got to the hotel and found a very long Viking service desk with competent people! What a relief! We spoke to a charming fellow who marked the location on the map and gave us the times the buses would be driving to the village where our ship, the Gymir, will be waiting for us. Sound complicated ? Yes. Traveling is not for sissies

We had a tour of the Hungarian State Opera House at 1:30, so we strolled over, stopping at several places along the way. We checked out a grocery store and enjoyed seeing what people eat. I’ve never seen Hello Kitty cereal before!

We stopped for a decaf cappuccino – the sisters’ coffee of choice – at the elegant café Callas, across from the opera house ( thanks to neighbor Rich for giving me the card) and got involved in a chat with a delightful English man and his wife, who also bought tickets for the tour.

The tour was fantastic! We even were given a short performance at the end with selections from Opera’s Greatest Hits, including “ La Bohème” and “Rigoletto.” Delightful! See photos above and below.

After the tour, we taxied home to rest my weary bone-on-bone hip joint and catch up on some long- neglected sleep.

A couple of hours later, we taxied over to the Fisherman’s Bastian area of the Castle Hill complex for views of the city. We did some souvenir shopping and ended the evening with a delicious chicken paprika with dumplings dish accompanied with a refreshing cucumber salad. My drink of choice was a Kir Royale; the sister had a Coke zero. The photo will be below because I can’t figure out how to put it here!

I was surpringly pain free so we strolled the Danube and saw more views before heading back to pack and get ready for life on the ship.

Fisherman’s Bastion

Chain bridge by night

Dinner at the top of Fisherman’s Bastion

Time for breakfast! We will join the ship today. Fingers crossed!