Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Budapest, Hungary

Viking River Cruise, Day 14:  Budapest, Hungary (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

Our very last full day on our very grand European river cruise was spent in Budapest, Hungary, the Good Friday before Easter Sunday.  As you'll shortly see, we awakened to a rainy day...for the duration.  But thankfully for Astrid and me, after disembarking the next day following breakfast, we had four more full days on our own to hope for sun.  But that's getting ahead of myself.

Budapest:  The capital of Hungary, affectionately called "the little Paris of Central Europe" and the "Pearl of the Danube."  With almost 1.7 million people, it's the largest city of the country.

It so happens we were docked right next to the Chain Bridge on the Pest side of the Danube.
The city used to be 3 cities:  Buda and Obuda on the right bank and Pest on the left/East bank.
Now the Danube separates the merged cities, with the Buda and Pest sides of the river.
Across the river from us, on the Buda side, was the Royal Palace (Buda Castle), in plain view (top image).

Like most other days, we hopped on coaches after breakfast to start a city tour.

I wasn't kidding about the rain!

First stop was Heroes' Square, with its Millenium Memorial from 1900, on the Pest side of the city.

It's one of Budapest's major squares because of 2 art museums nearby:  

the Kunsthalle and the Museum of Fine Art.

Back on the bus, we drove to the Buda side of the city...the old-city side...in Buda's Castle District,

and first saw the bullet-damaged former Ministry of War.

Most of the bullet holes are from WWII but some are from the 1956 Soviet Uprising.

The building remains empty as a reminder...?  Lest we forget!

Once out of the bus again, we were on a mission to see 2 major sights/sites,

and, while walking, passed everything Budapest!

In fact, if you don't go to them, they come to you!  

It's a way of life...and we are tourists, their guests, of course.

The Matthias Church was our first main site to visit, originally built in 1015.

Look at those colored roof tiles!  And that short entrance door!

And, oh, yes, we still had snow.

But inside...  O.M.G.  

I call this the "Tattooed Church."  Seriously.

Almost every square inch is painted!

See what I mean?!

Remember, this was Good Friday.

Was this over-flow seating being set up for Easter Sunday?

It so happens the church is in front of the Fisherman's Bastion at the heart of the Buda Castle District...

...so, just a few steps away, we were at our second main site of the day.

Fisherman's Bastion is basically a terrace with towers and staircases, built in 1902.

It's a viewing terrace...with incredible views of the city on both sides of the river.

In later posts I'll be show-n-telling more of these sights.  This is the appetizer...even on a rainy day!

Because it was nearby, Astrid and I walked over to the Royal Palace/Buda Castle, from 1265.

We had already seen the river-front view (bottom image above).  This was the back side.

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

All before getting on the buses and heading back to the boat for lunch.

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And because it was raining, and we knew we had 4 more full days to sight-see, we stayed on the boat for the remainder of the day.  Besides, we needed to rest up before the Hungarian Folkloric Show that evening after dinner, right there on the boat:

And what a show it was!

Lots of talent and humor!

If I counted right, there were 10 of them, all musicians.

Don't you know they must have fun performing for us old geezers!

I wonder what they say afterwards?  HA!

Thus ended the last full, official day of our Viking Grand European River Cruise.  We had breakfast onboard the next morning, Saturday, before heading off on our own.  

Wish me luck, now, as I try to organize those last 4 days in Budapest, on our own schedule. 

See you soon....

For Bill and Ange

On my Shutterchance photoblog (where Astrid and I met virtually back in 2007, remember?) will be the following collage tomorrow, in honor of Bill and Ange's 4-day visit with us from England this past weekend:

It's a nice little overview of what we did/saw.  All thumbs up!
[click any collage to enlarge]

Bill is one of The Three Stooges on Shutterchance, along with Chris and Chad (who come to visit in September, sans wives).  Chris is the one with whom we've stayed the last 2 years in Bath, England.  As you see, our little blogging community has reaped many wonderful benefits.

So, on Friday morning Astrid and I drove to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to pick up our guests.  And because seeing Amsterdam was on their list of wishes, we decided to "do" it that day.

Even the airport is a photo op, you know!

We were especially happy that I AMSTERDAM was waiting for us as we departed the terminal.

From the airport we drove to the AJAX soccer arena to park

and then headed to city center via the Metro...first to eat lunch before, anything else,

at De Drie Graefjes (The Three Counts) near the Dam and the Royal Palace.

We all had uitsmijters...to start off some Dutch "introductions."

Then we took a one-hour boat tour around city center to get an overview.

Just what the doctor ordered...before continuing on foot.

There's so much to see in Amsterdam!  How do you pick-n-choose when you have only a couple hours?

We chose to zig-zag our way to see the Rijksmueum, as well as the Van Gogh and Concert Hall nearby...

before ending up at the one Wagamama I know like the back of my hand...

and then headed back to the arena to get the car and drive home to Gorinchem.

That was Friday, the warmest and sunniest day of the year to date!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On Saturday, after breakfast, we had another agenda but not nearly as taxing as Amsterdam.  Good!

Our first stop was the Wijnhandel van Ouwerkerk wine shop in nearby Arkel.

It, too, is a photo op and one all photographer visitors will have to see when they come.

(We took Robin when she was with us last October, remember?)

From there we drove to Buren, less than 20 miles away, with ties to Dutch royalty.

The Prins van Oranje windmill, from 1716, was open to visitors so Bill got to see the inner workings.

(Ange is afraid of heights...just like Peggy when she and Bob visited us 2 years ago!)

Our main destination of the day was Wijk bij Duurstede to see the castle and drive-thru windmill.

By now some of you old-timers here will probably recognize these places!

We ate lunch at De Engel, our favorite café there, which never disappoints.

First the windmill, lunch at the café, the castle...and then home via the back roads.

That evening for supper Astrid made her famous spinach and apple tarts.  LUCKY US!

Afterwards we watched "Casablanca" on the couch...my first time from beginning to end!

It happens to be one of Bill's favorite movies and we had just bought it for €1 at our Open Harbor Day!

Another wonderful, sunny, full day.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Sunday was our last full day together, so we decided to stay relatively close to home, driving along our side of the Merwede river before crossing over to see the castle and sister city we can see from our citadel wall.

On the way we stopped by the stork village to see the "spring love."

Bill and Ange said later it was probably the highlight of the trip for them.

Have you ever seen storks?  They're a protected species in the Netherlands!

(I threw in the old Fiat and 3-wheeled motorcycle for fun.)

The Loevestein Castle is a medieval castle from 1357.

We can actually see it from across the river when we take walks here at home!  Seriously.

It was a good place to eat a light lunch of asparagus soup.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Then we explored...and had fun.  It's an interactive castle!

And as you see, it was another sunny day...but cooler than the first 2 days.  Perfect.

Then we drove to Woudrichem, Gorinchem's sister city across the river, and 2 miles from the castle.

One thing Bill mentioned over and over again:  water is everywhere!  It's so true.  

No matter where you go in the Netherlands, there will definitely be water nearby!
Water and dikes.

By that point we were ready to go back home to rest an hour before supper 

at our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.

We ordered 4 different pannenkoeken:

shoarma with pineapple and cheese

chicken ragout with curry

farmer's tomato, ham, onion, pepper, and cheese

goat's cheese, honey, bacon and grapes

We each ate a quarter and passed the plates for the next quarter.

OMG.

That evening we ate the last of Astrid's apple tart and watched "The Adjustment Bureau."

Another full day!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On Monday morning, we stayed at home and took a walk around our citadel city where we live, here in Gorinchem.  

Last but not least...we wanted to show off where we live.

We LOVE our city.  We LOVE where we live.

And we're thankful whenever we have the time (vacation days for Astrid!) to entertain visitors.

We ate erwtensoep (pea soup) with roggerbrood (rye bread) and brie for lunch, 

before leaving for the airport.

We were so determined to give them a real taste of Dutch life.

And we did!  What a great visit! Thank you, Bill and Ange.

All thumbs up!

Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Bratislava, Slovakia

Viking River Cruise, Day 13:  Bratislava, Slovakia (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

Are we really coming to the end of this cruise?!  Yes, we are.  And after just one day/stop in Austria (Vienna, last post), we now have one day/stop in Slovakia.  Formerly part of Czechoslovakia, it has been independent since 1993. Bratislava is its capital...and did we ever fall in love with it, in spite of being there for only 3 hours!

 You know the drill by now.  

Snap pictures from the boat, get on the bus and snap some more.

In the distance we could see the Bratislava Castle to which we were heading.

It has stood on one of the Little Carpathian hills since the 9th century.

And on a good day you can see Austria and Hungary from it.

See the snow?  It was still very cold.

John (top right) from Australia really got his education about "cold."

And maybe the young lad and lady in shorts also?

From the castle we went down the hill to the main square of the city for a walking tour,

starting with the St. Michael Gate, built ca. 1300.

It's the city's only gate that's been preserved from its medieval past.

The old town hall, from the 13th century, is nearby on the square.

It's one of the oldest stone buildings still standing in the city.

And while we saw other architecture to whet our appetite...

...it was all this crazy stuff that captivated us!

There are 4 "quirky statues" for which the city is known.

This one is Cumil (the Watcher)...and the most popular.

The French army soldier is also there (bottom right),

as is Schoener Naci (Beautiful Ignaz), an elegant symbol of the city life of the early 20th century.

The one we didn't see, except in the shop window, was Paparazzi with his camera.

Gotta love the competition, right?

After all, we tourists are the ones who keep such towns afloat financially, sad to say.

In spite of much delapidation, there was beauty.

 Gable stones.

Niches.

Statues.  Etc.

And more etcetera.  Impressions.

And because we had seen the steeple, we walked to find St. Martin's Cathedral from 1452.

We weren't able to enter because it was jam-packed with standing-room only at a late-morning service.

This was the Thursday before Easter, so we're assuming it was a Maundy Thursday service?

How can you not just eat them all up!

Don't you wonder what they'll grow up to be?

Every city has them...signs, bikes, trash.  We're all the same!

And transportation for your own tastes.

It was time to go back to our ship on the Danube, near the New Bridge from 1967.

"It is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge to have one pylon and one cable-stayed plane."  (Wiki)

All of that in the course of 3 hours.  No wonder we were hungry for lunch!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Next and last stop?  Budapest!  

But first...I'll be taking a 4-day break from image processing to help entertain dear friends from England who'll be visiting us tomorrow, Friday, till Monday afternoon:  Bill and wife Ange.  Bill is one of our photographer friends from our Shutterchance blog, where Astrid and I met virtually back in 2007.  It still amazes me that we've gained so many friends...through photography and our blogs...and have met so many of them!

Who knows.  Maybe one day we'll meet YOU!?!  :)