Our Viking Romantic Danube cruise was originally planned for August of 2018 to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. The Danube, however, quite unromantically decided not to cooperate, running short of water and causing Viking to reschedule some of the trip on tour buses instead of on the river. We were able to reschedule to April of 2019, and the Danube obliged by filling up nicely for our trip. Our flight from Atlanta, scheduled to leave at 3:30 Saturday afternoon, April 20, was delayed for two hours. We finally took off at about 5:30. Our original arrival time in Paris was 6:00 a.m., with a 3-hour layover before a flight to Budapest. With the flight from Atlanta two hours behind schedule, we had to hustle through a strange airport (up and down escalators) to find the departure gate for our connecting flight. We made it, and finally arrived in Budapest around noon Budapest time -- although our bodies were still convinced it was only 6 a.m., with precious little sleep having been possible on either flight.
This is a picture of Tom -- or a zombie doing his Tom impression -- just finished with a light lunch soon after we boarded the ship.
Sunday afternoon was a short walking tour of Pest (pronounced pesht), the half of Budapest (pronounced BOO-da-pesht) on the more-commercial east side of the river. We would do a longer tour of Buda, the older -- and less touristy -- half of the city on the west side of the river, the next day before heading upriver towards Vienna in the afternoon. Here are a couple of pictures I took in Pest. The brain wasn't functioning very quickly or creatively, or I might have got a few more shots.
The ship was moored close to the Chain Bridge, one of several bridges connecting Buda with Pest. Until the mid-19th century, pontoon bridges were the only connecting roadways between the two halves of the city. In winter the pontoons were taken up, and the only way across the river was by ferry (in good weather) or by foot if the river was frozen over. If the river unfroze while you were on the other side, you were stuck there until it froze over again. The Chain Bridge was the first permanent bridge built across the Danube in Budapest. It was destroyed in World War II, but was quickly rebuilt after the war. All the bridges in Budapest carry heavy foot traffic as well as vehicles.
Next to the ship was Zrinyi, a pedestrian walkway up to St Istvan's Plaza and Basilica. Zrinyi features many shops and restaurants, the Central European University, and Gresham's Palace, Budapest's finest and most expensive hotel.
Sunday evening our ship took a short cruise up and down the river between the two halves of the city. Budapest really lights up its buildings and bridges. Here are a few nighttime shots that came out okay.
We happily retired to our room on the ship quite early and slept well. We had a suite with a sitting-room and a bedroom, with a nice bathroom and spacious shower just off the bedroom.. The sitting room had a sliding-glass door to a small veranda. The bedroom had a full-length sliding-glass door that could be opened also, but with a rail to keep one from inadvertently going for a swim.
