Ken and Tre's Danube Adventure - 2013

This blog describes Ken & Theresa Wright's 7-day river cruise on Viking along the Danube River from Budapest to Nurenburg, with a 3-day extension to Prague.

We left Norfolk on Saturday, August 17 in early afternoon, and arrived in Budapest on Sunday Aug 18 around midday.  The Budapest airport was about the same size as Norfolk's, only drabber, and we spent about an hour waiting for our bags to show, due to "technical difficulties".  Then we met our Viking host and climbed into a tour bus for the ride to the ship.  From the sights along the way, Budapest was nothing remarkable.

The ship (in reality more of a luxury barge pushed by an attached tug) was docked right in the center of the city.  Our cabin was the last one on the starboard (right) side, so we were right in front of the engine but it wasn't noisy at all.

Our ship, the MS Vienna

 We were docked right next to the "Chain Bridge", (I'll spare you the Hungarian name since I couldn't pronounce it - Hungarian is supposed to be a difficult language not closely related to other European ones) famous for being the only bridge across the Danube in Budapest for about 100 years.  Prior to this, during floods or freezing weather, the two towns on either side, Buda and Pest, were completely isolated, so they had separate identities.

The Chain Bridge

It was hot that day, and obviously had been hot and dry there for a while, since everything was brown.  Tre crashed.while Ken took a short walk around before crashing.  The views up and down the river were stunning.

View of Castle Hill on the Buda (west) side

The National Parliament building (under renovation) on the Pest (east) side

The next day (Aug 19) we disembarked early for a 4 hour bus and walking tour of Budapest.  We drove up to an overlook (the Citadel) with great views.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to the old castle, since this was a national holiday and it was blocked off for the festival.  But here's a drive-by:

We also drove over to the City Park area and walked around Heroes Square at the Millenium Monument, celebrating the 1000 year anniversary of Hungary (896-1896).  The statues are of famous Hungarian rulers, starting with St Stephan, who Christianized the country.

The Millenium Monument

Statues of the Magyar chieftains who invaded the area

There are also numerous thermal baths in the area, which people have used since at least the Roman times.  Didn't get a chance to try them, though!

And of course we had our obligatory stop at the city market for souvenir opportunities:

City market.  Our guide is the one with the stick!

While we were doing this, the boat had departed up river so it could stay on schedule.  We took an hour bus ride from the city up river to meet it, passing areas of Communist-era apartment buildings.

Along the way we also passed some Roman ruins.  The Romans were pretty much everywhere along this trip, except Nuremburg and Prague, since the Danube formed the northern border of the empire for hundreds of years, being fairly easily defended, and they built forts and towns all along the river.

Roman ruins near Budapest

That afternoon we cruised up the Danube, encountering many pleasant sights.

Unidentified town on the Slovakian side of the river

Ezstergom.  This an ancient capital of Hungary and the seat of the Catholic church there

About 10 PM we came to our first lock on the river - the first of about 15 or 20 we eventually navigated.  It was fascinating to watch the process and see the water level rise so quickly once the doors were closed.

August 20 - Vienna