Tuesday, November 5, 2019; Budapest, Hungary

Tuesday, November 5, 2019; Budapest, Hungary

We were awakened by the faint rumbling of commentary on the “Sundeck” that was immediately overhead at 11:30pm last night.  We got dressed and dashed upstairs to find the ship sailing right in front of the brilliantly illuminated Budapest Parliament Building.  

The ship then passed under the Chain Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge before turning around and tying up along side another Viking River Cruise ship just past the Chain Bridge.  This unfortunately meant that we would lose the morning curtain lottery because our balcony was within inches of our neighbor’s French Balcony. It was cold, foggy and raining on and off on our arrival to Budapest.  The bar staff passed out shot glasses of schnapps to help warm up people standing on the upper deck outside.  As soon as the ship passed the Chain Bridge the first time, a dense fog descended on the Danube and Budapest, spoiling any serious nighttime photography, and to add insult to injury, at the stroke of midnight, all of the lights illuminating Parliament and the bridges went out, leaving the river dark.  I guess we have to make some concessions to limiting global warming.

After breakfast, we boarded buses for our included Budapest tour.  Since we had been on the same tour in 2015, we were a little better aware of where we were in the city and enjoyed the tour better, not being totally overwhelmed with the newness of it all.  We have also found that different tour guides can present the same material in many different ways, adding different perspectives and interesting tidbits.  Our bus took us across the Elizabeth Bridge and along the riverfront across from the Parliament Building.  We then ascended Buda Hill to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and square, were we disembarked the buses and walked around the square, cathedral, and the Fishermen’s Bastion.  

We had about an hour of free time to explore the square and surrounding area.  We had rain on and off during the walking part of our tour, but the temperature was in the mid 50’s and there was no wind.  It was interesting to see men walking around the square pulling a large vacuum cleaner behind them to vacuum up wet leaves off the cobblestones, which can create a slipping hazard, not unlike slipping on a banana peel.  Apparently Budapest had encountered enough litigation to justify purchasing and manning a fleet of these leaf vacuums.  We thought one could come in handy at home for vacuuming up pine needles and madrona tree leaves around our barn.

The cathedral was quite crowded. Viking had a large group of Chinese passengers, complete with Mandarin speaking guides, at the church at exactly the same moment we were there.  It would have been better if Viking had staggered their tours by even just 20 minutes to spread out the crowd.  There were also passengers from other river cruise ships in the square at the same time.  If it hadn’t been raining, the crowd would probably have dispersed around the Fishermen’s Bastion and Cathedral square better.  There was still a moderate mist hanging in the air, degrading the photograph ability of the Parliament buildings across the Danube.  

One memorable story about the cathedral was that it had changed hands many times between the Ottomans and Hapsburgs. When it was in the hands of the Ottomans, it was a mosque.  As such, no representations of the human form are allowed, so all the frescos and stained glass had to be removed or changed.  However, in a small side room, there was a statue of the Virgin Mary in an alcove.  When the Ottomans were approaching, the Christians plastered up the alcove to preserve the statue from being destroyed by the Ottomans.  Then during a subsequent battle, the plaster wall collapsed, revealing the Virgin Mary to the Turks, who then fled in terror, abandoning the site.

We then reboarded the bus and drove through the tunnel under Buda Hill and across the Chain Bridge into Pest.  We drove down Andrassy Drive, Budapest’s Rodeo drive, lined with embassies, exclusive residences, and expensive shops.  Our guide pointed out some notable coffee houses, and other landmarks like the city park and zoo.  We drove around Hero’s square, which features 7 bronze horsemen representing the 7 clans of Magyars who settled in the area in the year 889.  They erected the monuments in 1889 to celebrate the 1000 year anniversary of their arrival from the Steppes of Asia.  There is a large pond nearby that was in the process of being converted into a giant public ice skating rink.  It typically will freeze over in late November, and remain that way until Spring.  We also drove by several thermal baths. Our guide explained that the Danube runs along a tectonic fault-line at Budapest, creating hundreds of natural hot springs.  

We then drove through the Jewish quarter, and past the Museum of Terrors, where the Nazis, and then later, KGB conducted torture and murder.  The last sight was a subtle but effective memorial along the Danube, consisting of 60 pairs of shoes on the banks of the Danube.  During the early part of WWII, Jewish people were lined up on the river bank and forced to take off their shoes.  They were then shot, and fell into the river, leaving their shoes on the bank.  So many horrible things happened throughout Europe, and it is hard to imagine the horrors of war living our sheltered lives in America.  Traveling through Europe helps to place our world in a broader perspective.  

Our bus got us back to the ship in time for lunch.  We had to eat quickly because we had signed up for an optional excursion in the afternoon to see a demonstration of Hungarian Horsemen.  This was 30km NE of Budapest, so we got to take a drive on the expressway and into the countryside.  The expressway was modern and well maintained.  Like in the Czech Republic, and Austria, the expressways are all tolled electronically.  

Lazar Lovaspark is quite a facility, set up to accommodate functions like weddings and receptions, in addition to serving its primary purpose of boarding and training horses for show and sport.  The family that owns the facility has won many world championships in racing teams of horses pulling wagons for speed and precision.  We were greeted with wine, schnapps and Hungarian cheese and bacon rolls.  Then we toured the stables where their magnificent horses are kept.  Then we were seated in a huge indoor arena, where we saw demonstrations of wagon teams of horses, ponies, oxen, and a demonstration of horseback archery, and dressage riding.  It was all very well done, and reminded us of some of the horsemenship shows at the Puyallup State Fair.  

The rains became torrential as our bus headed back into Budapest, and got stuck in some awful traffic.  It’s a good thing we didn’t have to drive through that.  Our ship’s new Customer Relations staffer, Petra, who had first greeted us when we came aboard the ship, had come along to experience the excursion since she was still in training.  She had literally set foot on the ship for the first time just 2 days before we did.  She told us about her last contract, which was with Disney, and she said she loved working for them and enjoying the sunshine of the Caribbean.  She shared insider pictures of her experiences working for Disney, including a picture of her cabin on the Disney ship, which looked like a college dorm room with bunk beds.  She also shared with us pictures of her homeland- Croatia.  It certainly has beautiful coastlines and islands.  We’ll be looking into some sort of trip to that part of the world now. 

We packed our suitcases and had our last dinner aboard the Viking Vilhjalm, which was perhaps a little sad because everyone was realizing that it was time to all go our separate ways.  We always meet so many interesting people on our cruises, and this was no exception.  

Tomorrow, we leave the Viking Vilhjalm for the Hilton Budapest Castle District, for a 3 day extension.  We have an excursion scheduled tomorrow at 10:30am to another town in the outskirts of Budapest called Szentendre, to explore more of life in the Hungarian countryside.  We’re hoping the rain will let up, but we did bring our rain gear, just in case.