In my last post, R1907 – Happy in ‘Sad, I described our visit to the two ports of call in Serbia on this cruise, Belgrade and Novi Sad. Leaving the latter lovely port in the early afternoon, we continued our voyage upstream along tree-lined banks towards our next country and pair of ports – Kalocsa and Budapest in Hungary.
We reached our docking point for Kalocsa around lunchtime the next day – there was a 10 minute shuttle bus journey to take you into the small town. Kalocsa is most famous for paprika – hundreds of farms in the area grow the pepper plants in huge numbers, which are dried and crushed to produce the spice. The only tour on offer was to visit a paprika museum to find everything out about the spice and its production, we thought this was not for us and decided to give this one a miss.
Carol was unfortunately feeling tired and unwell from her head-cold, and wisely decided to stay on the boat and rest up ahead of our visit to Budapest the next day. I thought I would take the shuttle bus into the town to have a look around on my own. There were two shuttle busses available into the town, at 2pm and 2:30pm; and two returning at 4:30pm and 5pm. Suspecting that there may not be a lot to see and do in the town, I chose to depart on the later bus, and was somewhat surprised to find I was the only passenger onboard!
The journey to Kalocsa took me first along a long tree-lined country road, with huge flat fields either side stretching away into the distance. The bus then took me along some residential roads into the town itself, before dropping me in a large car and coach park. The houses I had passed were much better built and more familiar than those we had seen in Romania and Bulgaria, but one unusual feature I did notice on a few of them was that the gutter downpipe, instead of going straight down to the ground, bent and came right out over the front garden and into the street!
On the skyline was the twin towers of Assumption Cathedral, and I set off towards that as my first thing to visit. As I got closer I could see that the grounds around the Cathedral were all fenced off with construction work going on, and the doors of the Cathedral looked firmly shut, so I passed on by and set off down the main street instead. I passed the paprika museum, and several other buildings that were attractive and in much better order than many I had seen for example in Bulgaria. After a while I reached a pedestrian precinct, where there were a number of religious statues every so often. Walking up and down the streets I only found a limited number of things to interest me or my camera shutter finger, so long before the first of the return shuttle buses was due I made my way back to the car and coach park, to await its arrival.
After the delights of Novi Sad it was all rather an anticlimax, but I thought things were likely to change for the better once we reached the next port, Budapest, where were would stay for two and a half days – this is where the first of our four back-to-back cruises ends and the next begins.
It was just after 5am the following morning when I was up on the top deck to watch and take photographs as we sailed into Budapest. It was a lovely bright clear morning, and perhaps predictably to start with I was the only passenger up there, another did appear just before we docked. We passed some interesting modern buildings and under some low bridges as we approached, and soon some stunning looking older buildings came into view, and it was quickly apparent that Budapest was going to be everything that we hoped.
We docked alongside another riverboat (I expect that now we are are going to be sailing in much busier waters that this is going to be the norm), and I made my way back to our cabin to thaw out. We had a stunning view across the river from our cabin, which looked even more amazing once the sun began to rise and shine onto the lovely old buildings.
For the first time on this cruise we were booked on a shore tour, called The Charms of Budapest, so we made sure we were up and had breakfast in good time. On Brabant there are a pair of radio receivers sitting in a charging stand and two sets of earpieces which you are requested to take out on any tour with you, which the tour guides use to talk to you when you leave the coach. These in hand we made our way to the Panorama Bar to check in for the tour.
It was a bit of a cooks tour up onto our top deck, across onto the other riverboat’s top deck, then down the outside steps on that boat to reach the gangplank up onto the shore. Two coaches were parked up nearby, and we were soon on our way.
Budapest actually used to be two separate towns – Buda on one side of the river, and Pest on the other, they became one combined city in 1873. Our tour led us through some of the sights of Pest first, and later crossed the river to see some of Buda.
As we drove along the city streets our local guide pointed out many interesting buildings – our route took us along some of the widest and finest streets as we made our way towards our first stop, Heroes Square. One of the buildings we passed was the former secret police headquarters, and very cleverly a stencil has been added around the top of the building which causes the word terror to be cast by sunlight on the walls of the building as a reminder of its stark past.
Heroes Square is largest and most impressive square in the city, and has on either side two imposing and beautiful buildings – the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hall of Art. Having walked us to the centre of the square, our guide explained about the square and its monuments, before giving us some free time to view and photograph the area for ourselves.
Returning to our coach, we made our way through the streets of Pest back to the river, using one of the many bridges to cross into Buda. We drove for a while along the lower of two roadways running alongside the river, which gave us great views of the truly stunning Parliament Building on the Pest bank of the river. We then started to work our way up Castle Hill – Buda is much more hilly than Pest – towards Buda Castle. We were dropped close to the Castle for our second and final stop, which was to view Matthias Church which is inside the Castle.
Our local guide led us on quite a walk around to get to the Church, there was a much more direct route which she failed to point out to the more infirm passengers in our group. The outside of the Church was lovely with its multicoloured tiles on the roof and steeple. Having collected a group ticket our guide led us into the Church, and told us to sit in some of the pews while she told us about the history of the Church. Without giving us any time to look around or photograph the inside of the Church, she then told us we must leave so that we could go to the paid-for viewpoint outside. When asked why we were not given any time to look at the inside of the Church, she just said it was because we were delayed in traffic, and must be back by 12:30. As lunch was not until 1pm I am sure we could easily have been a few minutes late back without any problems. I did manage to snatch a few shots inside the Church as we walked out, but didn’t really have a chance to take in just how attractive and interesting it was.
Our guide then led us across to the viewpoint, which did afford great views across the river towards Pest.
Our guide then told us we had 20 minutes free time, including time to walk back to the coach which would take 10 to 15 minutes – so it wasn’t free time at all really. Plus we couldn’t reenter the Church as it was paid entry, so it was all very poorly managed. Our walk back to the coach was along the shorter route past some shops. The coach then took us back to the boat in plenty of time for our lunch.
After our lunch and a rest Carol and I decided to go and visit the market, which we were told about in the “port talk” and which was very close to where our boat was moored. The market was in a lovely old brick building, with stalls selling fruit & vegetables, meat etc on the ground floor; souvenirs and handicrafts on the first floor, and also an Aldi store in the basement. We both enjoyed a good look around all three floors – it is always interesting to see what is on offer for sale in different countries, even if we are not tempted to buy anything. We were particularly interested to compare the wares on offer in the Aldi compared to the store we use at home, which were more different than perhaps we expected. We also noticed that the same products were on the shelves in several different places around the store, whereas at home they would only be in one place.
This was the last day of the first of the four cruises we are doing back-to-back, so before the gala dinner there was a Captain’s farewell party, with a glass of “fizz” and hors d’oeuvres. During the party almost all the crew on board were presented to us as the Cruise Director told us their names and their duties onboard. The exceptions were the night receptionist, who we were told was asleep, and the chefs and kitchen staff, who were busy preparing our dinner. We were delighted to find that the dessert was Baked Alaska which was paraded properly around the dining room with sparklers – something that the dreaded “health & safety” seems to have stopped on the ocean ships. It was then that the chefs and kitchen staff were introduced to us. We both thought that the farewell party and dinner were both handled very well, and for the majority of passengers who were due to leave the boat the next day it will have made a lovely end to the cruise.
There was however one even better finale to their cruise, for just after 9pm we set sail for a mini-cruise up and down the river so that we could see all the fabulous floodlit buildings either side of the river. This was a truly magical experience which will linger long in our memories, especially seeing the Parliament building all lit up – I think it must be the most amazing and beautiful building I have seen anywhere.
After such an early start to the day I was more than ready for my bed by the time we made it back to our mooring point.
The following morning the weather was not nearly so good – it was very dull with light rain, so we decided to wait on board for a while to see if the rain would clear. After a while we decided to risk it, and explore some of the city on foot. The rain came and went, and we managed to walk a fair way and see more of the lovely buildings, although perhaps they did not look as special as they did in the blue sky and sunshine of the previous day.
By the time we made it back to the boat for our lunch the rain had really set in, so we decided to just rest up during the afternoon. It did give me a chance to sort the 500-odd photographs I had already taken in Budapest, and start to write this post that will include some of them.
We were relieved to find we did not have to repeat the life-jacket drill put on for all the new passengers who had embarked that afternoon – apparently there were just 21 passengers including Carol and myself staying on for this next cruise.
Later that evening they repeated the mini-cruise to see the floodlit buildings for the benefit of the new passengers. We were glad to have the chance to see it all again, and this time I could concentrate on just watching rather than taking lots of photographs.
The weather for our final morning in Budapest was cloudy and windy, but dry, so Carol and I went for another walkabout, this time mostly close to the river. We crossed over to Buda using the lovely old green bridge that is closest to where our boat is moored. At the other end of the bridge is the famous Gellert Hotel, and also a church and monastery built into the rocks of the hillside.
We walked along the bank of the river as far as the next bridge, a modern suspension one, which we used to return to the Pest side of the river. It was very windy walking close to the river, so we decided to strike inland and walk amongst the buildings were there would be more shelter. We chanced upon a lovely pedestrian precinct with some interesting shops, which led us nicely back towards our boat.
At 1:30pm we are due to set sail for our next port of call, Bratislava in Slovakia. Our adventures there will be the subject of my next post, but I cannot predict when that might get published. While the first of the four cruises was quite relaxed with plenty of free time, the remaining three are all quite intense, with one and sometimes two places visited every single day. I just don’t expect there will be enough time to sort the photographs, write the words, and compile and publish any more posts until after we get back home. I will make sure I keep careful notes of what we see where, and all my photos are GPS tagged, so hopefully I will be able to do a good job once we are back home and I get some free time then.
Postscript
In fact we were around 25 minutes late sailing from Budapest. Predictably I was up on the top deck to watch us sail past all those iconic and lovely buildings one more time.
Carol and both absolutely loved Budapest and it left us hungry for more time there – maybe we will be back one day on a city-break.