Friday was our transition day, moving from traveling and sightseeing on our own to joining our river cruise that will take us from Budapest to Amsterdam over the next 2 weeks. We packed up and moved our bags to the hotel lobby and arranged for our afternoon taxis to take us to the hotel in Pest where we would meet up with our cruise company, Avalon Waterways.
In what we thought was our final visit to our Buda hill neighborhood, Jerry, Kathe, and I walked over to Matthias Church. We had been admiring it from outside for days, and now was the time to see it up close.
And its interior lived up to the grandiosity of its exterior.
After this treat of a visit, it was time to move across the river and hook up with our river cruise. Avalon was registering two different tours on two boats, and the lobby of the InterContinental was full of people and bags and excited, anticipatory buzz. Everything was handled smoothly and efficiently, and soon we were transported to our ship, the Avalon Impression.
The onboard check-in process couldn't have been much smoother. What looked like the entire crew was lined up to welcome us aboard. We were given glasses of juice and ushered into the lounge. Shortly, we were called to get our room keys and be led by our trusty steward, Jerry (really?), to our home for the next 2 weeks.
After our obligatory safety drill--which was a bit limited by the fact that it had started to rain and who wanted to greet a new boatful of people by making them stand outside to practice with their life vests?--we got champagne and canapés in the lounge and were introduced to key crew members.
Very shortly after dinner was served, we set sail from our upstream dock. We initially moved further up the Danube and came down the other side of Margaret Island. This was done to great effect, since by the time we got to the city center, the city monuments were lit up and quite glorious. Many of us stood out on the top deck to watch this glorious setting, in spite of the fact that it had started to drizzle seriously. It was just too good to miss, even if I did look a bit like a drowned rat by the time I got back inside.
After this cruise into town, we docked right near the Great Market Hall, a good location for further explorations the following day.
On Saturday morning, we headed out on a city tour. The bus drove by some things we had already seen on our walks, but also took us to new territory. We drove the full length of Andrassy Ut, all the way to the city park. We got to see the zoo and a large festival that was dedicated to ox sausage, with the long-horned ox on display as well. We spent some time walking Heroes Square and hearing more about the history of Hungary.
We then drove to the Buda Castle area. Our understanding was that we would visit the Royal Palace, and we were looking forward to that. However, a large wine festival was going on on the grounds of the palace, and we couldn't gain access to the area without buying a pass to the festival. Given that we were part of a bus tour at this point, that wasn't really an option. The tour group headed to Matthias Church, which, of course, we had just seen. So we took a stroll through the hill's very nice residential neighborhood. We got some nice views to the Buda hills and wandered amongst people out with strollers or their dogs. There are some nice lanes and buildings, with broad walking areas and park benches everywhere. This is considered a very good area in which to live.
We headed back to our new home, the Impression, where we had the afternoon free to explore our Pest neighborhood.
(Thank you, Chuck, for this nice picture of the Impression.)
The captain joined our table at dinner, and we got some insights into river cruising and heard some stories about his life. (He spends the winters in the Canary Islands. Rough, huh?)
We had a busy first full day on our cruise adventure and were eager to head on up the Danube.
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