Author: marionvermazen

It was a lovely Spring day in Budapest. The temperature was in the 70s. We took full advantage of it and had a great day sightseeing. We visited St. Stevens Basilica. It is one of the most beautiful Cathedrals I have ever seen. 

St. Steven brought Christianity to Hungary. This reliquary contains his mummified right hand!

We also went to the top of the Basilica and enjoyed an expansive view of Budapest. 

The Big Bus hop on hop off package that we bought yesterday included options for a walking tour and a boat tour on the Danube. We took the walking tour this morning. Our guide, Thomas was entertaining and very knowledgeable. I think his tour alone was worth the cost of the ticket.  

Here he is telling us about one of the very few Soviet era monuments that is still in place. This one commemorate the Russian soldiers who died liberating Budapest from the Nazis. 

Do you recognize these two guys?

We took the boat tour tonight. These are the Houses of Parliament. 

After the boat tour we went to the Opus Jazz Club for dinner and a show. A Canadian singer, Melissa Lauren was singing with a quartet. 

It was a great day and a lovely last evening in Budapest. There are several interesting sounding things that we didn’t do here. We will have to come back. 

Duke and took the hop on hop off bus tour of Budapest today. Budapest is a beautiful city. The castle and parliament particularly stand out. 

We rode the funicular up to the castle and explored a bit. 

The Budapest Bridges over the Danube are also beautiful. 

The Big Bus Company has a night tour. The parliament, the castle, and the bridges were especially beautiful all lit up. 

In between all this we took a rest at our hotel and watched the live coverage on BBC of the terrorist attack in London. It makes you realize that something like this can happen to anyone anywhere. 

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by our nephew, Wes and had a great dinner. Thanks for the recommendation Wes!

There is not much to report today. We took the train from Bratislava to Budapest. We are now at the farthest east point we will be on this trip. 

We plan to be in Budapest for three days which will be a nice rest. We spent the afternoon napping and vegging out at our hotel. 

Tonight for dinner we found a very nice Hungarian restaurant. We started with bean goulash. Then Duke had steak and I had pork tenderloin. We finished with  a traditional cake desert. 

We spent today exploring Bratislava. Because today is Monday no museums are open.  That didn’t stop us from having fun. We climbed up to the castle that overlooks Bratislava. 

The view of the Danube from the top is great. 

Bratislava has some wonderful statues. 

Here is Hans Christian Andersen. 

We ate dinner in our hotel. 

Today we moved down the Danube to Bratislava the capital of Slovakia. It was only about an hour train ride from Vienna. It is another gray rainy day here so it was a good day to travel.  

The Bratislava train station is surprisingly small and dingy. Both Duke and I had the same reaction. To us it seems like you can still see the communist influence from thirty years ago.

 We are staying in a lovely hotel very near the historic town center called Hotel Marrol. 

We walked around the town center. 

And then stopped in a cafe for cake and coffee. 

For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Flamender not too far from our hotel. It was wonderful.