CENTRAL EUROPE 2011

Day 12 

 September 13 - Tuesday  

 Budapest

Today we slept a little later as we had time before the train left for Budapest.  The hotel had an included breakfast. It was very nice and had a fair number of people eating.  We sat with the same lady that we ate with last night.  We walked across the street and caught the train at 12:30.  We arrived in Budapest at 4:45. When we arrived at the train station, we bought out tickets for Vienna.  We had not been able to buy them online before we left.  We found an ATM machine to get the local currency – florints.  The rate is: $100 US  = 18749 florints ….really feel rich with a pocket full of 10000 bills.

 

My wife negotiated with the cab driver about the price to take us to our apartment.  We learned our lesson in Prague. We had a large beautiful apartment in the Marriott Executive Apartment located right at the Elizabeth bridge. It was bright and very comfortable.  We only encountered two problems.  One was with the location of the door stops on the floor.  One was right in front of the kitchen sink, and we tripped over it constantly.  The other was to the bedroom door.  It wouldn’t allow the door to open against the wall so it blocked the entrance to the left side of the bed.  We had to close the door in order to get into bed on that side.   Also the closet was in the bathroom and was extremely small with a door on the side which was only about 10 inches wide.  In spite these of two annoying things, it was a very spacious and lovely apartment.

 

After we got settled we walked several blocks on a very busy street that crosses the Elizabeth Bridge to buy our morning groceries.  We bought real milk this time and not buttermilk as we did in Prague.

    

Of course the language here is Hungarian but so far we have found a lot of people who speak English.

Several months ago we had made reservations at the Spoon Restaurant which is a boat not too far from us near the Chain Bridge.  Our table was on the top deck next to the Danube River.  We shared a Goose Liver starter.  I had a delicious cold cream of apricot soup and my wife had fish soup.  For our main course, I had goulashwith cheese potato cakes and my wife had chicken breast over risotto.  We enjoyed a wonderful Hungarian wine with our dinner. We turned down dessert and walked back along the river to our hotel. It is a beautiful night and the buildings litup across the river are very spectacular.  We could see Matthias church (one of recent models).  I can’t wait to see it in person, probably tomorrow.

Budapest is very similar to Prague in that the city is on both sides of the river with the castle and church high up on the hill across from the side of our hotel.  The left side is called Buda and the right is Pest.  We were staying in Pest.  

Next Day

Day 1 - Berlin

Day 2 - Berlin

Day 3 - Berlin

Day 4 - Berlin

Day 5 - Berlin - Potsdam

Day 6 - Dresden

Day 7 - Dresden

Day 8 - Prague

Day 9 - Prague - Kutna Hora

Day 10 - Prague

Day 11 - Brno

Day 12 - Budapest

Day 13 - Budapest

Day 14 - Budapest

Day 15 - Vienna

Day 16 - Vienna

Day 17 - Vienna - Melk Abbey

Day 18 - Vienna

Day 19 - Salzburg

Day 20 - Salzburg

Day 21 - Salzburg

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