Our last full day on the ship and we sailed into Budapest just before breakfast, and what a beautiful sight it was.
Budapest is the Hungarian capital and is on both sides on the Danube. One side is ancient Buda with its magnificent hill setting topped by an enormous palace complex which is now the National Gallery and nearby is the magnificent Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion. We visited the church and Bastion on our morning bus/walking tour and were suitably impressed. The whole complex/fort type town ws very pretty but we didn't have too much time to linger. The only down side was the very poorly maintained cobblestones. At times they were quite difficult to walk over.
Rest of our tour was on the Pest side which has grandiose public buildings and Parisian-style boulevards. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Budapest has emerged as one of the most desirable destinations of Eastern Europe. We were surprised at how beautiful the city is and how Paris like the buildings are, although they are built much closer together. The most spectacular is the Parliament House which is huge (more like a grand castle/palace) and ornate, and they have just finished cleaning it so its very beautiful. A lot of the buildings are black from the exhaust fumes and acid raid so seeing one cleaned to its rightful colour was a real treat.
After our tour it was back to the ship for our last lunch and then we were off on a tour of the countryside and the little village of St Andrews. Unfortunately must have eaten too much so slept all the way to St Andrews. Was very disappointed as it wasn't what we were expecting. Yes it was a quaint village but every building has been turned into a souvenier shop. Most of the shops had the beautiful embroidered tablecloths etc but nothing that I was interested in so I didn't do any damage to the credit card.
Started to feel a bit off, a bit too much sun I think and our bus trip back was a nightmare for me as I had an hour of trying not to throw up. Managed to get back to the ship before I let loose and there I stayed for the night. Was sorry I missed to last dinner and a chance to say goodbye to every one but at least whatever bug I got it waited till the last day.
Day 2
Woke up feeling quiet lethargic and lots of aches and pains but no vomiting so that was a bonus. We had to be out of our cabins by 8.30 so we packed the bags - I really don't understand why I couldn't fit everything as I haven't really bought anything. Anyway we made it to the hotel and thankfully they had a room ready so we could dump everything. Our first job was to find a laundromat which we accomplished within a couple of streets, unfortunately they were not open today but thats the first job tomorrow as neither of us has anything clean.
We spent the moring walking around and getting our bearings and after a lunch stop of goulash soup I needed a little rest. Post rest we had a bit of a hike to find our Segway tour. I was a bit anxious about being able to do the Segway as I have really bad balance and not feeling 100% really wasn't too enthused.
We had a 5 minute practice and I wasn't too bad except going up and down gutters, I found them a bit freaky. Alan of course just took off like a hoon. We eventually all set off, 2 Irish chaps, and a young Russian mum and her early teens son (who was a pain in the butt and they were obviously rich as he has his own Segway). We set off around the monuments with a guide and had an absolute blast, the further we went the more confidence I got and was soon flying along quite happily and even managing the gutters and people. I only had one little accident where I stopped too suddenly and stepped off the back and right onto a car, this of course happened right outside the 4 seasons hotel and the doorman was very quick to come and inspect the very expensive car I hit. Luckily there was no damage to the car, the segway or me. We covered a lot of the same territory we did the previous day but didn't matter as we were just having a ball hooning around on the segways. They are usually speed locked but becuase of the Russians being so good on them they took the locks off so we really got some speed up. Definitely will be doing them in any city we can, the most fun in 2 hours we have had.
Finished the day with dinner in a building dating to 1725 which has been a continuous restaurant, minus times of war, since then. The meal was a delicious selection of hungarian food starting with a chicken crepe with a wonderful sauce, I then had porkmedallions with bacon and veges in a coloured pepper sauce, Alan had steak hungarian style (minus the goose liver) and dessert was a hazelnut cream crepe with dark chocolate sauce. We did share entree and desert and even then we were stuffed.
Now very tired and off to bed
Budapest is the Hungarian capital and is on both sides on the Danube. One side is ancient Buda with its magnificent hill setting topped by an enormous palace complex which is now the National Gallery and nearby is the magnificent Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion. We visited the church and Bastion on our morning bus/walking tour and were suitably impressed. The whole complex/fort type town ws very pretty but we didn't have too much time to linger. The only down side was the very poorly maintained cobblestones. At times they were quite difficult to walk over.
Rest of our tour was on the Pest side which has grandiose public buildings and Parisian-style boulevards. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Budapest has emerged as one of the most desirable destinations of Eastern Europe. We were surprised at how beautiful the city is and how Paris like the buildings are, although they are built much closer together. The most spectacular is the Parliament House which is huge (more like a grand castle/palace) and ornate, and they have just finished cleaning it so its very beautiful. A lot of the buildings are black from the exhaust fumes and acid raid so seeing one cleaned to its rightful colour was a real treat.
After our tour it was back to the ship for our last lunch and then we were off on a tour of the countryside and the little village of St Andrews. Unfortunately must have eaten too much so slept all the way to St Andrews. Was very disappointed as it wasn't what we were expecting. Yes it was a quaint village but every building has been turned into a souvenier shop. Most of the shops had the beautiful embroidered tablecloths etc but nothing that I was interested in so I didn't do any damage to the credit card.
Started to feel a bit off, a bit too much sun I think and our bus trip back was a nightmare for me as I had an hour of trying not to throw up. Managed to get back to the ship before I let loose and there I stayed for the night. Was sorry I missed to last dinner and a chance to say goodbye to every one but at least whatever bug I got it waited till the last day.
Day 2
Woke up feeling quiet lethargic and lots of aches and pains but no vomiting so that was a bonus. We had to be out of our cabins by 8.30 so we packed the bags - I really don't understand why I couldn't fit everything as I haven't really bought anything. Anyway we made it to the hotel and thankfully they had a room ready so we could dump everything. Our first job was to find a laundromat which we accomplished within a couple of streets, unfortunately they were not open today but thats the first job tomorrow as neither of us has anything clean.
We spent the moring walking around and getting our bearings and after a lunch stop of goulash soup I needed a little rest. Post rest we had a bit of a hike to find our Segway tour. I was a bit anxious about being able to do the Segway as I have really bad balance and not feeling 100% really wasn't too enthused.
We had a 5 minute practice and I wasn't too bad except going up and down gutters, I found them a bit freaky. Alan of course just took off like a hoon. We eventually all set off, 2 Irish chaps, and a young Russian mum and her early teens son (who was a pain in the butt and they were obviously rich as he has his own Segway). We set off around the monuments with a guide and had an absolute blast, the further we went the more confidence I got and was soon flying along quite happily and even managing the gutters and people. I only had one little accident where I stopped too suddenly and stepped off the back and right onto a car, this of course happened right outside the 4 seasons hotel and the doorman was very quick to come and inspect the very expensive car I hit. Luckily there was no damage to the car, the segway or me. We covered a lot of the same territory we did the previous day but didn't matter as we were just having a ball hooning around on the segways. They are usually speed locked but becuase of the Russians being so good on them they took the locks off so we really got some speed up. Definitely will be doing them in any city we can, the most fun in 2 hours we have had.
Finished the day with dinner in a building dating to 1725 which has been a continuous restaurant, minus times of war, since then. The meal was a delicious selection of hungarian food starting with a chicken crepe with a wonderful sauce, I then had porkmedallions with bacon and veges in a coloured pepper sauce, Alan had steak hungarian style (minus the goose liver) and dessert was a hazelnut cream crepe with dark chocolate sauce. We did share entree and desert and even then we were stuffed.
Now very tired and off to bed
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