G & J away from home

Tuesday, 5 May

Onboard

Up a little after 5am to go for my walk around the Sky Deck and this morning I got up there to find we were cruising along in the fog.  After my 14 laps I trotted downstairs to grab the camera.  I'm thinking of taking the camera up with me every morning instead of making all these extra trips up and down the stairs - and because when I got to the Sky Deck this morning we had just passed under a lovely arched bridge that was disappearing very artistically into the fog.

Good morning, Danube

This is an after my walk and before my shower selfie so let's ignore the crazy hair.  Apparently we're also ignoring the sign on the window!

Selfie

Uh-huh

Today's schedule involves replacing breakfast (my favourite meal onboard) with light breakfast at the usual time and then a brunch from 9.30 - 12.  We dock in Budapest about 11.30 and at 1pm we're off for a city tour around Budapest.

Coffee served steaming hot

A Tour from the River

Best tour ever - and we haven't even left the ship yet!

The captain sailed the ship right through some of the most scenic parts of Budapest while (Budapest-native) cruise director Istvan gave a commentary as we went along.  This area along the banks of the Danube is part of the Unesco World Heritage site in Budapest and the Unesco listing comments: "It is one of the world's outstanding urban landscapes and illustrates the great periods in the history of the Hungarian capital."

No argument from me.  The place is spectacular.  I really don't have enough superlatives to deal with how great it is, except to say this is somewhere I think we would go to the effort of coming back to, to spend more time in.

Old and new

Liberty Bridge is my favourite of the bridges we passed under and it is an iron bridge that was built in the mid-1890s in the style of a chain bridge, although it's not really one.

Liberty Bridge

Here's a close up of the towers taken as we sailed under the bridge.  This certainly is a wonderful way of seeing bridges.

Liberty Bridge pylon close-up

And more from the Liberty Bridge, a photo for my lamps and lights collection.  This is going to be pretty hard to top.

Lights & Lamps: On Liberty Bridge

I don't have a very clear photo of the Liberty Statue on Gellert Hill overlooking the city as it was a long way away but here is the best of the dozens I took.

Originally commemorating the Soviet liberation of Hungary at the end of WWII, the inscription was amendment in 1989 to commemorate "... all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary".

Liberty statue on Gellert Hill

Here's a photo of a bit of the Buda Castle (or Royal Palace) complex, parts of which were completed as early as 1265.

Buda Castle

Another great bridge; the Chain Bridge.  Designed in 1839 by English architect William Tierney Clark and opened in 1849 it was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Hungary.

Tierney Clark's Chain Bridge

The awesome Hungarian Parliament building was started in 1885 and is Gothic Revival style.

Hungarian Parliament Building

The Hungarian Parliament Building and Gary

I have a lot of other photos but I have to stop somewhere and so did the ship, letting out a huge blast on the horn before doing a U-turn in the river and heading back to our dock.


Onboard

The towel sculpture with (Gary's) glasses

Graeme had always wanted to play a game of chess on a large-sized set and so we rendezvoused to whip through a game before heading out on our optional excursion in the afternoon.

The chess match

It was a very one-sided game!
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