Budapest Castle

The morning starts with an optional tour to the Budapest Jewish quarter. We took a tour of the Synagogue when we were here last year. We opted instead to do some more shopping. Donna’s bag is in Budapest, but may not be delivered before we leave. Mine is in Frankfurt, and will not make it before we leave this afternoon.

We went to the Westend shopping center. We took the streetcar over and back, which was a nice experience. Luggage can only be delivered to the bigger cities that have an airport, so Novi Sad, Belgrade or Bucharest. The program directors have bad experiences with lost luggage delivery in Novi Sad, so they don’t recommend trying to get luggage there.

There was a talk about authoritarianism in Hungary during Orban’s rule before lunch that we missed. We attended a similar talk last year.

After lunch on the ship, there was some free time, during which Donna’s bag arrived. We use packing cubes and switch one cube between bags, so I now have a few things from her bag, and she’s still missing a few things that are in my bag.

There were some busses to the Budapest Castle district mid-afternoon. We got dropped off at Calvin Square and walked three blocks up to the Fisherman’s Bastion which is the edge of the castle district overlooking the river. There was also an option to take a funicular up.

We visited the castle district last year but didn’t go inside Matthias Church because they limit the number of people inside and there was a long line. This year there wasn’t a line, so went inside.

Franz Joseph’s empress Elizabeth, also known as Sisi loved Budapest and spent time here. There is a statue of her in the church.

A choir came to sing while we toured.

There is a small museum upstairs in the church. It contains a replica of the Crown of St. Stephen, also called the Holy Crown of Hungary. The original crown is displayed in the Parliament Building.

We met the bus at Calvin Square on the way back down from the castle district. It contains a statue of the reformer John Calvin.

Then back to the ship for departure at 5:30. The captain sailed upriver to Margaret Island before continuing downriver. We got to see some of Budapest from the river.

We spent some time on top looking at the scenery as it passed by on the banks of the Danube river. We saw some birds. Notice that the water in the river is low, you can see quite a bit of the banks of the river behind the birds.

My bag was being sent to Budapest with arrival in the morning, we’ll have to see if it can catch me in Belgrade.