As we got into Hungary the traffic seemed to increase, and we would pass long lines of trucks stuck in the right lane, often stopped. We would eventually pass the beginning of the line, and each truck would accelerate back up to speed and we would continue. Several times both lanes would stop, and we would sit for 20 or 30 minutes until the traffic would start up again.
The bottom line was it was almost 4:oopm, or 8 hours since leaving that we finally started to pull into Budapest. Budapest is a combined city, with the old Buda on the east side of the Danube River, often higher and hillier that the west side. Pest (pronounced “Pesht”, is on the flatter west side of the river and was settled later. After they built the bridges (7 in total) the towns were combined into Budapest.
Speaking of bridges, while Prague was virtually untouched by the ‘late unpleasantness of the 1940’s’, Budapest was devastated. About 60% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed and the Germans dropped all of the bridges to try to slow down the Russians advancing from the West across Pest. The bridges and many of the building were lovingly restored after the war however.
Here we are about to cross the Danube into Pest. It was rainy and dour, but the city is much more open than the narrow streets of Prague.
Passing under one of the restored bridges.
A view across the river to the Buda “Castle” There was an actual castle until the Turks reduced it in 1541. The high-water point for Ottoman conquest was the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and 1683. The Turks ruled Buda and Pest for 145 years. It was rebuilt as a grand mansion, although you can see some of the walls around the base.
This is the Victory Statue erected after WWII.
This was the first bridge built over the Danube, the Chain Bridge. You can see another river cruise boat heading upriver. See Kate’s pictures for a night view of the bridge all lit up. We got checked in to our room (214) and collected our stuff and went up to the lounge to wait for the mandatory safety briefing.
This was a very civilized Emergency Drill and Safety Briefing. All the passengers fit into the Lounge, and the crew went over everything while we settled in with drinks, etc.
After briefing it was time for dinner. There was just one sitting with tables for six. They have a selection of steak, chicken, etc. but they have a featured selection what the chef recommends. I opted for that and had Fish Soup (thin tomato based but very good), Hungarian Goulash (of course but it was very good, much better that the lunch version) and a sponge cake and walnut ice cream.
Now it’s about 6:20am and breakfast is at 7:00 so I will close this out. Today is our second day in Budapest, we leave at 5:30pm to head upriver to Vienna.