Thursday, June 18, 2015 Budapest

We awoke at 5 and peeked out the window. It was sunny and the terrain was mostly flat with occasional hills in the mid-distance. We went back to sleep and awoke again at 7 and found the same conditions. We had breakfast with our usual pals and then went up to the sundeck to watch as we sailed into Budapest.

Here, our captain parks beside another Viking ship while its captain and a spectator look on.

The sundeck has an herb garden and a putting green.

Close quarters when parked side by side.

Our tour left almost immediately. We toured for about an hour on the bus through the downtown of Pest, and then had a walking tour of the hillside palaces and monuments across the river on the hills of Buda.

After a late lunch with our usual friends and the Ecuadoran couple we walked down one of the main shopping streets to a huge indoor market. The main floor was mostly food and an upper rampart was mostly souvenirs. Every second stall in the food area had a huge selection of paprika and dried peppers.

We walked back along the river, but it was not as scenic and attractive as we had hoped. There was lots of traffic beside a narrow sidewalk that was often in rough shape.

We had dinner with our usuals and an East Indian couple that had been in the US for 40 years. At 9 some Hungarian performers put on a show of singing, dancing, and violin music. The violin player was amazing. At about 10 we cast off for a cruise to take in Budapest by night. Very pretty.

It was a very nice day today. Sunny and 75 F 25 C.