Can't Get There From Here

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We had a great dinner last night aboard the boat sitting with an American couple.  I will leave that discussion alone.  Let's just say that we were not unpleased when it was time for us to have to leave for our evening tour!

We jumped onto a bus and headed across the river to Buda.  The bus was not exactly packed for our 'Budapest by Night' tour.  There were 18 of us on a bus that could hold 50 or more.  Our tour guide was a recent grad from a hospitality and tourism program at the local university.  It was his first ever tour.  His usual job with Viking was meeting people at the airport to get them to the boat or to their hotel.  He was a whole lot nervous but admittedly not bad.  His knowledge of History left a little bit to be desired.  I am pretty sure that they did not teach History in the program or he missed those classes!  The tour was good though as we got to tour the courtyard outside of the Presidential and Prime Minister's offices that today we were unable to.  More about that to come.  We even got treated to a sparkling wine at a 'high end' restaurant on our way back.  Funny how we were confined to their patio area and not allowed inside the premises!  Our tour concluded by a stop to take pictures of the Parliament Buildings in all their glory.

This morning we headed out on a 'Castle Hill Hike'.  We were aware of what we would be facing as this is the area that we climbed around yesterday on our own.  Our guide was good.  She is 2 weeks away from writing her final exams to become a lawyer.  However, this tour did not go as smooth as planned.  We hiked to the top to the area of the Presidential and Prime Ministers offices again so that we could tour the area.  To our guide's surprise, we were met with a locked gate.  A delegation of officials from Turkey,  including their President, were visiting Budapest.  Our guide had not been informed of this before hand so was a little bit ticked off about it.  Plan B went into effect.  We retraced our steps back down about 2/3 of the way that we had climbed and took another series of steps back up on the other side only to be greeted by another closure.  This one had armed guards.  Plan C kicked in.  We were forced to retreat about a 1/3 of the way again before finding another way up.  Success!  We were finally able to visit Matthias Catholic Church at the top of Castle Hill.  As most people know,  I am not overly fond of sitting in a church, but after that ordeal I was quite okay with the concept of sitting in a pew for a while!  This is a beautiful old structure that originated as a Catholic Church, became a Mosque during the Ottoman occupation, and then returned to being a catholic one when the Turks were booted from Hungary.  Quite the history.

PS

Nationality breakdown on the Gefjon:  34 Aussies, 10 Canadians, 145 Americans.  (This should be interesting!!!)

The Hunt Fountain...The Trevi Fountain of Hungary

One last look at the Parliament Building

Matthias Church

Ceramic Tile Roof

One of Many Amazing Stain Glass Windows

King St. Stephen...The Original King of Hungary

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