Travels with Breck: Budapest Tuesday 8/19

Today was the first real day of our adventure since the marathon trip over kind of wiped out Saturday and Sunday. The flight wasn't too bad but being up from Saturday morning until Sunday night certainly makes for a LONG day. On the flight over I watched 2 movies and played numerous games on the back of the seat in front of me. The number of movies we had to choose from was impressive. And the gave us free beer and 2 meals. The in the London airport we stopped for a pastry and a diet coke. Then they fed us again on the plane to Budapest. It seemed like we were eating every couple of hours.

We got on the ship about 3 and got settled in. Cocktails at 5:30 along with an orientation talk. Then dinner at 7. The food was very good BUT dinner was almost a 2 hour marathon! And as tired as Lori and Jerry and I were it was trying to say the least. Then we went out and took some pictures. Budapest lights up a lot of their bridges and buildings. It is really beautiful at night.

Then today we went on a tour of Budapest. It is an interesting place - lots of history. In 1896 they had a celebration marking the 1000 year anniversary of their founding! Do you think we will celebrate 2492? I guess I will not be here to find out!

Here are some pictures from today. Seems we don't have Internet right now but I will post this when we do.

This was the royal palace but it in now just an empty building - it was destroyed during WWII and they redid the outside but have done nothing with the inside.

This is the indoor market. It is huge and is where lots of Hungarians do a lot of their shopping. The first floor was mostly food -produce, meats, paprika - never seen so many sausages in one place!

This ia a statue of St. Stephen - he was the first king of Hungary. He is holding a crown and a cross symbolizing that the two were equal in the government.