Our ship, the AMASonata, doesn’t leave Budapest until 9:15 tonight but we can get on board this afternoon. We decided to do some more walking around the city before the we take the shuttle over to the ship.
So, yes, like so many other cities around the world Budapest has their ‘eye’. A ferris wheel in the middle of the city. It wasn’t running when we were there but I bet it affords a great view of the area.
After walking for a while just admiring the city we stopped at St. Steven’s Basilica for a look see. St. Steven was the first king of Hungary, some 1000 years ago. He was later made a saint. The basilica was awesome with beautiful gilding throughout. There was one really odd thing there however. St. Steven’s hand (allegedly). It’s kept as a relic and is trotted out every once in a while for festivals. It’s hard to see in the picture because of the casing but up close its black and icky looking.
We took the 1:30 shuttle to the ship and had a light lunch there. The rooms weren’t available until 3PM but it was nice just to relax for a while.
This is a picture of our room, it has a split balcony. This is unique to this company. It gives you a balcony but you also have a little more space in your room to sit. The bathroom was roomy enough for us. I don’t know what the square footage is, it’s not a lot, but they did a good job laying things out. There was another ship docked up next to ours for a few hours and that's what you can see in the balcony picture.
The Captain and crew did a lengthy safety and use of the ship talk, seriously it was about an hour! Then we went to dinner.
Dinner is at 7PM each night, a little later than we would like but we’ll deal with it. There is only the one included dining room and then there is a ‘Chef’s Table’ restaurant for an additional charge but I believe dinner is at the same time.
So, Fred and I don’t drink but we don’t care if other people do of course. But here’s the thing on this ship, the wine and beer are free and unlimited. It gets LOUD! Hopefully people will tone it down as time goes on but we’ll see.
Tomorrow we’ll encounter our first lock (there are many on the Danube) and get into Bratislava in the afternoon. We just heard there was an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister in Slovakia. The company isn’t expecting any issues with our visit but we may see more security then normal. Their PM is a hard liner who supports Russia in most things. Hopefully, all will go well.
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