Sept 28 - Explore Budapest

Fisherman's Bastian, 1902 memorial of the spot where
fisherman theoretically defended the city.

Matyas Church -- note colorful roof! Typical here.

After a late breakfast, we boarded a bus for a drive around Pest (the flat side of the city), highlighting the Parliament Building, which is quite lovely. Because it is Saturday, the traffic was not bad until about noon. Our guide pointed out that you should always look at all the floors of old buildings because the window designs were often different on each floor.

We crossed over the Danube River into the Buda side, which is much hillier and has about half the population of Pest. We drove up to the castle district and got to wander around there for about an hour. Very nice views and old buildings were our reward, and on our way back to the bus, I also spied a pair of earrings and a lovely small turquoise leather purse, neither of which I could live without. Back in Pest, we stopped at a square commemorating the 1000th (yes, 1000) anniversary of the locals domination -- they arrived here in 896, and had a big whoop-de-do in 1896.

Millennial Square

After lunch, one of the other guides led some of us into the nearby streets of Pest. In most of the city, there is no shopping available after 1pm Saturday until Monday morning. This was a more touristy area so most of the stores were open, including chain stores, not just souvenir stores. We walked past a very hip and trendy place for brunch called Gerbaud's and Jim determined that we needed to back Sunday and have a decadent dessert, which they are famous for. Once the guide departed, we walked down the pedestrian area for a couple blocks, found sort of a small inside art fair going on. There was some interesting jewelry, but mostly clothes aimed at folks a bit younger than we are. We also looked around in  an antique store that had an interesting ring, but I decided not to ask the price after looking at some of the other prices. Rings are an iffy purchase for me anyway, since my right hand ring finger joints have expanded with arthritis.

Instead of going directly back to the boat, we passed it and walked to a Holocaust Memorial along the waterfront, that features 60 pairs of abandoned shoes right at the water’s edge. It marks where Jews were marched to the waterfront, told to remove their shoes and shot. 

At dinner, we sat with two couples who were neighbors in Virginia, and both the women were deep into sumi-e painting.  In addition, a woman our age joined us. She is traveling with her aunt, who will be 94 in November, and loves to travel. The aunt was at the captain's table that evening because it was our welcome dinner and the aunt has been on 46 Grand Circle cruises!