430 Steps Down, 430 Steps Back Up

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We had a really good 'authentic' Hungarian dinner last night with an even better bottle of wine.  Who knew that Hungary has a really good wine region?

Embarkation Day.

This morning we did not have any excursions planned so we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and were able to slowly pack our bags.  Checkout time was 10:00 am. We left our bags outside of our room so that Viking could collect them to take to our boat.  FYI, that actually worked despite my doubts!  So we had until 2:00pm to explore on our own.  We decided to walk down the hill.  Just for your information, the Buda side of Budapest is built on the side of a very steep hill.  We took a series of paths and staircases.  It was quite the adventure.  But of course that came at a cost later.  What goes down must go back up!

When we hit the Danube we walked the bank to the Chain Bridge.  This is the most famous bridge across the river.  And just like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, everyone must cross it once.  It is a nice structure but come on, it is just a bridge!  But like all the other tourists we crossed it too!

We walked back towards the Parliament Building along the river to visit a war memorial.  This one is unique.  It is a 'shoe memorial'.  The story goes that the Germans/Hungarians were executing Jews here.  They would make them take off their shoes (shoes were valuable items by this time), tie 2 people together, shoot one of them and then push them into the river.  One bullet two Jews dead!  And the river would dispose of the bodies.  Quite efficient!  While standing there you get a really odd sensation when when you think about what one human being can do to another human being!

We had decided to take the Viking Bus from our hotel to our boat. So we retraced our route back to our hotel.  Just for fun I decided to count how man steps.  430 steps later we were back at our hotel lobby waiting for our shuttle to transport us back across the river.  Now remember we had walked past our boat twice before we started back.  No one has ever accused us of being smart!

We are now in our room aboard the Gefjon.  It is a cozy little room with an outside balcony.  It is time to go to the bar to celebrate!

The Chain Bridge

Our boat is the middle one. The Gefjon!


The Shoe Memorial...Unbelievable what we humans can do to each other!!!

About 200 more to go!


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