I've been gone a long time, but now I'm back home with pictures to bore you for hours and hours. After Miss Mousie's (The adorable Grandchild) visit, life became a long grey grind, while we worked like crazy to get everything done so that we could launch ourselves to Europe for a boat tour via rivers and canals across Europe.
First up: Budapest- home of fiery paprika , lovely architecture, crazy horsemen, gypsy musicians, plum Brandy and great beer. Now THAT'S culture!! With the Commies gone, what's not to like?!? Of course, when I took this picture, I'd been up for 2 1/2 days and was completely enraptured by just being there.
Some things never change-
We get to our boat on the beautiful blue Danube (which, most of the time is just river colored). Ah tranquility! I can just hear the strains of a Strauss waltz..... But what's this?!?!...... Amplified rock music?... Some DJ on a bull horn yammering away in Magyar?... Everybody cheering? The words were unfamiliar, but the scene replays like "Groundhog Day". We're at the finishline of the Budapest Marathon! I know they follow me around the country (and I them); but I had no idea they followed me around the world! Karma. Just can't escape it. Don't try, You'll just make the gods mad!
The marathon eventually ended and we were left alone in the lounge of the Viking Pride, looking at the Chain Bridge, heretofore only known to us on postcards. This is exciting! We were also to find it is a very restful way to travel. You unpack and settle in for 2 weeks, you don't have to worry about repacking the next day. You can wash out your socks and underwear and hang them in your room and not worry about when they will get dry. You can just lie there and watch life float by like an international Huck Finn.
Here we are blissfully docked beneath the Chain Bridge in Pest, looking across to the much older city of Buda
Today-- food, drink and sleep.
Tomorrow--ADVENTURE!!
On the plaza which celebrates Hungarian history. These statues represent the 7 tribes which came together to form the Hungarian nation. They were short strong implacable people who rode like the wind.
St. Stephen -not the same St. Stephen in western Christianity. This one was an early king of Hungary (maybe even the first one) who was also granted sainthood by Rome. It is one of the most popular names ever in Hungary. Many many things are St. Stephens.
For instance:-------
St Stephens (of course) Church in Buda
This entry is getting too unwieldy to move pictures around. So farewell to the lovely Buda and Pest on the Danube. We'll come back again any time at all! Next up Horesmen and Gypsy Musicians.
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