Parliament and Shoes

After our fantastic night approach to Budapest, this morning was at leisure so we walked to an ATM to get Hungarian money, which is like monopoly money to us.  We got 100,000 forints that are equilivant to about $275 USD.

Once we had forint, we strolled along the pedestrian shopping area. Karen and Carla found a cute store with Hungarian products and lots of cute things so they had to buy a few.   Carla was interested in a lovely embroidered table cloth but it was a little small for her card table and a little pricy. BTW, today it was cloudy with light rain off and on, whereas last night it was nearly crystal clear.




After our short walk about, we were back on board for lunch then off for our tour of the beautiful Parliament building that resembled a church inside.







As you can see the rooms were splendid.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior of the huge dome and the crown jewels but pictures probably would not have done justice to it.  With all the pure gold throughout, we had a guard with us at all times.


On our way back to our ship, we stopped to look at the WWII memorial along the river front. Here the Germans hearded Jews to the bank of the Danube, shot them and threw them in the river. But first they removed their valuable shoes. What an atrocity.


Tonight it was time to pack up as we leave the Viking Lif tomorrow. This was a fantastic cruise and we hated to see it come to an end. We are staying here in Budapest until Friday to enjoy the wonderful cities of Buda and Pest before heading to Venice.

Our last dinner aboard ship with the best waiter ever - and his teammate photo bombing us.


After the drapes were opened and we finished dinner, what a gorgeous sunset.


Our 14-day river cruise included stops in 16 cities and 5 countries. From Amsterdam we went upstream from sea level to 1332-ft to the continental divide and travelled 1800-miles through some very scenic country. After reaching the divide, we cruised downstream to Budapest which sits at 325-ft above sea level.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Around, Around and Around We Go!

Slowly arriving in Cannes

“The Most Beautiful Spring Garden in the World”