Our final destination was Budapest, the capital of Hungary. As you saw in the previous post, we cruised down the Danube to reach it and passed the most impressive parliament building on the way. I regret to say we did not go there on this trip as it was not part of the tour itinerary. However, despite thinking this trip was to be our only dip into the cruise world, earlier this year we booked the follow-on trip which will take us from Vienna down to the Black Sea and then a side trip to Bucharest in 2025. Of course, this will be dependent on the terrible war situation as it could impact the Black Sea part. We live in hope that things will have changed in another year’s time….
In the meantime here are some more photos from the ship and nearby bridge.
We did do a bus tour too, and here are some highlights from that.
As you can see – and would expect for a capital city – many very grand and ornate buildings as well as memorials. We also visited a church which had some ancient frescos and a glass floor viewing area to the crypt below.
On our last day, we were free to leave the ship at our leisure. As we were moving to a hotel and could not check in until the afternoon, this freedom allowed us to make a morning excursion to the nearby indoor market, have a final lunch on board and then depart the Viking Vali for our next accomodation.
We had to buy paprika as it’s “the national spice” of Hungary, and I do like a good gulasch ! After that we took a quick walk over the bridge by the ship to see the old building on the far bank, set into the rock face. There was also a good viewing point showing a vista of the more modern outskirts of the city.
And just as we were about to leave this group of Ladas arrived on the bank – apparently you can take a tour in one of these!
We bid the Viking Vali goodbye and left for a couple of nights in the city. No longer having the luxury of a Viking tour bus we walked around quite a bit of the city, but again it was incredibly hot weather so we were looking for cool spots that were not too far away. Very close to our hotel there was the Great Synagogue in Dohany Street. We decided to visit. It was very humbling as it was the site of the “refuge” or ghetto, where the local Jewish community unable to leave during WW2 were required to live. Many never left alive as there was little food or clean water to go round. It is believed that 8-10,000 perished there and 2,000 are buried in the cemetery on site – unusual as it is not customary to have a cemetery next to a synagogue. So you have the contrast of the beautiful building and interior, and then memorials in the grounds. The tree has leaves with names and tattoo numbers of the dead. The plaque below the glass panel is a memorial to Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 699 Czech Jewish children just as WW2 started. Virtually all their parents died in Auschwitz.
I leave you with a few more Budapest vistas…
