We took the metro down to Vorosmarty Ter, where an Easter market was happening for dinner. We found the public transport is free for seniors! So we are taking advantage!
There, we found these 2 singing and playing this instrument
A little walking around and we found 1 of the little sculptures, hidden around the city. Tomorrow we will hunt for a few more!
Views around the city, this woman I know we saw 10 years ago, on the same corner!
Our last official tour in Budapest, we joined the noon tour of the beautiful Parliament building.
Inside, it is even more spectacular
While we are sightseeing in Budapest. PM Netanyahu of Israel is visiting with PM Orban on Hungary. We see flags and blue lights on the chain bridges
In a poignant memorial, the 2 Prime Ministers placed flowers at the memorial of the Shoes on the Danube
1000s off Hungarian Jews, almost 600,000, we’re killed by the Hungarian Nazi party on WW II, many lines up on the river bank, told to remove their shoes, which were considered more valuable than the people, and shot. The memorial shoes all sizes including children’s shoes, and is a horrifying reminder of the cruelty of the Fascist regime.
PM Orban has agreed to remove Hungary from the ICC, the international Criminal Court, which has put an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for his response to the October 7 massacre. The ICC neglects the fact that the killings of 1000s of Israelis was an unprovoked, brutal, vicious, invasion of Israel by Hamas. It is good to see nations standing by Israel after this horrible attack on its people.
Our day on our own in Budapest, we wanted to do this palace, so we booked our own tour (@ 1/3 the cost of the Viking excursion) worth Get your guide. It was a favorite of the Austra-Hungarian Queen Elizabeth, with of Emperor Franz Joseph, known as Sisi. We have visited her palace in Vienna, Austria, Schöenbrun.
We learned it was much more than that, a Palace of an aristrocratic family before Sisi and Franz Joseph owned it, the Andrassy family, who were prominant in the development of the Austria Hungarian dynasty and a famous Budapest family.
We cruised in at dawn, and disembarked our cruise by 9 for a city tour of Budapest. First we traveled to the Buda party and the Mathias Cathedral and the Fisherman’s Bastion with the fabulous view of Pest
Mathias church
After a drive we arrived at the market for lunch and shopping
Our opted for the Hungarian Dinner and folk music show for dinner tonight. Food was delicious, music was lively and the dancers were having a great time
Our last day on the Danube, we have a rural Hingary tour. We visited the cathedral in Kalosca for a beautiful organ concert.
After that incredible instrument and concert in that beautiful church, we visited a horse farm! And had a very entertaining show there, as well as a wagon ride! Each bus was escorted into the arena by a rider! The showd off their skills riding and cracking their whips ( which never touch the horses, just make noise!)
On our drive to and from the village and farm, we saw several stork nests
An enjoyable day with quite a contrast on entertainment! We loved it!
This is our first visit to continental Croatia altho we have visited Zagreb, the capital, Istria and the Dalmatian coast 2 times. This area is the bread basket of the country.
We stopped at a farm stay place for a sample of rural living.
Driving thru the villages
We also visited a small church and had a concert from a local musician
We toured the old fortified city center of Osijek
The white city, called so because of the color is the fort on the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, was capital of Yugoslavia during its time. We had an interesting guide who lived thru Tito and explained a lot about life during those years. We are learning a lot about the Balkan nations now.
The students here are protesting the corruption of the government. We saw the signs and some odd the student protestors near the university buildings
The fortress in the large Kalemegdan Park is very near our ship dock. There is a monument The Victor there overlooking the tivers
We visited the walking streets of the old city
The large orthodox church is fairly new, having started construction before Tito, but “put on ice” during those years behind fencing, it was not begun again until years after his death and not finished until a few years ago. is design is after the z Jakia Sophia in Istanbul. Much of the money and donations were from the Russian orthodox church
The inside is filled with gold mosaics and quite spectacular
On tomorrow to Croatia, still part of the Balkan nations.
We were sailing up the Danube thru 2 sets of locks, 1 during the the night and the last right at dawn.
The weather is still rainy, misty, and foggy but the route thru the national parks. 1 on the Romanian side and 1 on the Serbian side of the Danube was still beautiful.
We dropped off a few who were skiing an optional hike to a Vista ( hopefully they could see something if the clouds lift a bit), we sailed on thru this stretch of the river to Golubac, Serbia to visit the Fortress there.
It is Balkan night, and several crew are wearing the costumes of their native countries
When we left Romania, we only crossed the Danube and docked in Ruse, Bulgaria overnight. In the morning we joined an all day tour to a world heritage village, Arabanasi, where we visited a 500 year old orthodox church. Unfortunately we couldn’t photograph the inside frescos which covered the walls.
We also visited a house museum there, typical of the village.
We then go to a wonderful overlook of the town Veliko Tarnovo
We docked in Vidin the next day but the rainy weather kept us from seeing much of the scenery. We traveled over an hour by bus in fog, but saw very little of a Rocky fortress Belogradchik. Emmett walked up a bit, despite the rain but the view is the rocks was obscured by the clouds
Back on ship, a Bulgarian folk dance youth ensemble performed for us.
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