Sailing the Danube

Mary & Nancy in Szentendre

Parliament at night

Budapest at night

Harvesting the paprika

Riding 5 horses

Bob and Mary tasting hot chocolate

Boys relaxing on deck without adult supervision

Horse carriage ride

Monday, November 7, 2011

·         This morning during breakfast, the captain repositioned the ship to the Buda side of the Danube, and we boarded the bus to tour the town of Szentendre.  This thousand year old town is famous for the architecture which is saved from the 18^th century.  We walked the town for about 2 hours.  We drank a hot chocolate drink that if you stood your spoon in it, it would stand straight up.  Yum!! 

·         We returned to the boat, which was again repositioned back onto the Pest side of the Danube.  After lunch we hopped on one of the local trains and sent into the marketplace in Budapest.  We had a donut-like snack (local) that looked like elephant ears.  We walked back along the main street to the boat. 

The big kahona

Budapest Cow? (or is it Chicago)

The Shoes memorial

extra large eggplant

·         Before coming on board we walked past the boat to a memorial for the victims of the Natzis who threw the people off the banks of the river after they shot them.  All that was left was their shoes, and the memorial is nothing but bronzed shoes lining the river bank.  Very sad.

·         Back on board after dinner, we finally set sail from Budapest.  We bundled up and went onto the bridge and a scenic “Budapest by Night”, narrated by our program director.  It was spectacular—the weather was very clear (which is not always the case because of the high pollution).  We sailed all evening—and cruised to Kalocsa. 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Kalocsa

·         This morning we awoke to the ship being parked along the banks outside of Kalocsa.  After breakfast, Nancy, Rose & Mary boarded a bus and we had an optional tour -  Traditions of the Hungarian Countryside.  This included a visit to a local church where we enjoyed a 25-minute organ concert.  Next we visited a Paprika Museum, and a folk village house museum.  We then went to Bakodpuszra to enjoy the horse show.  We weren’t particularly impressed with the show, but the carriage ride (actually a ride in a covered farm wagon drawn by horses), a visit to the horse stalls and seeing the curly haired pigs was enjoyable.  We would not recommend this optional (expensive) tour to anyone.  We did learn about paprika and bought some sweet as well as hot paprika for souveniers.

·         The guys enjoyed their own (free) tour in town, and seemed quite happy to be without wife supervision!!

·         After a lunch on board of stuffed Hungarian peppers and ice cream (there is always ice cream at lunch and dinner), we napped as the ship sails toward Croatia.

·         At 5:00 we stopped in Mohacs for customs clearance, while the Inner Circle people enjoyed a cocktail reception in the dining room.  The Inner Circle people are those who have traveled with GCT or OAT more than 3 times.  We were surprised when the program director announced the most traveled couple with GCT/OAT as the Grays, and handed us a lovely gift.  They asked our best trips which was hard to say—but I picked Antarctica and Africa, and Bob followed it by saying that all the trips were good—none were bad!!   

Mary eating "elephant ears"

·         At the program review for the next day, the program directors made an announcement that because the Danube River is so low, we won’t be able to complete the trip entirely by water (ship).  On the 10^th day of our trip, we will be leaving the ship early and going by bus from Bulgaria to Bucharest.  We will stay in a hotel in Bucharest for the last 3 days of our trip.  You just have to be flexible with these things.  Most people were accepting, but there are always a few complainers.  This is what the traveling adventure is all about!!