Budapest

Well our last full day on the ship.  We woke up early this morning and after breakfast went up to the sun deck where we enjoyed our arrival into Budapest, the Hungarian capital.  We had a grandiose entry as we cruised by all the beautiful buildings and monuments-- which we found from our ship some of the best pictures were taken. Hungary still has not adopted the Euro and has its own local currency which is the Hungarian Forint. 

Around 9:45 we left for our city tour which was part walking and part by coach.  It is such an interesting as it has a beautiful opera house, the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe outside of Russia, over 140 art museums, and many choices of different foods.

Up on the hill is the Fisherman's Bastion which is situated on the Buda bank of the Danube.

Mattias Church is a Roman Catholic Church  in front of the Fisherman's Bastion

 

Bronze statue of St. Stephen who was the first king of Hungary

 

 

 

Our group together up on the Castle overlooking the city. Harry, who is holding the sign (known as the lollipop) helped our guide out today keeping the group together. 

 

 

 

Time out for goulash and Hungarian beer in the market area.  Lunch is very popular

in Budapest and the market was very crowded. Some of the other popular things to buy in the market was paprika, rubic's cube, and the Tokaj wine which is a famous Hungarian dessert wine.

 

 

 

How about this paprika?

 

 

 Budapest's Heroes' Square stands in honor and memory of the great leaders in Hungary's history.

 

The Four Seasons Gresham Palace lobby.  This Four Seasons used to be all private apartments and is very traditional and quite historical.  It is located at the end of the famous Chain Bridge and has beautiful views of the Danube River and hills of Buda.

 

 Everybody had free time to spend their last day doing what they wanted.  Many of us still had to pack, some were getting addresses of friends they had met on their river cruise, some wanted to stay in the lounge and enjoy that last glass of wine, some, walked along the promenade of the Danube River stopping to see all the river boats that were parked there and some went to the pool to get in that last lap before they went home.

 

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 This evening we had a great Hungarian folkloric show in the lounge.  It was filled with lively music and dancing and everybody participated.  They were all in their beautiful embroidered dresses and jackets.

 

One of the fun things they did was balance a bottle on your head. It was amazing the way they were able to do this but it worked.

 

 Everybody enjoying the show in the lounge before dinner.

 

 

We all went to dinner and had some Hungarian dishes.  We had to say goodbye to our waiters which was hard because we would have loved to bring them home.  Krasen and Mehdi were so wonderful to our group every night. After dinner we all went up to the sundeck and treated to the most amazing evening  THE ILLUMINATIONS CRUISE!!!
 

 

 

The most amazing concept as everything is lit up with lights.

Here you can see the famous Chain Bridge

 

 

Here is the most breathtaking picture of them all-- the Parliament Building.  This really could not be described or photographed as beautiful as it was!

 

This truly was the highlight of our 7 day cruise and they saved it for the last night!!!!