John and I were riding down to Indian Wells when I got a call from my older sister, Peggy. Her birthday is this summer and she decided as a celebration she wanted to take the Viking riverboat cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. Would John and I come. So even though we had a lot of other stuff already planned, of course I said yes.
We spend most of Thursday and Friday traveling to Budapest. There is nothing wrong with the flights just long and uncomfortable. Both planes are delayed and we end up getting to the boat around 7 PM. Peggy meets us at reception and there are big hugs all around. We get shown to our very nice suite and head down to dinner. Food is fine. The trout is pretty tasty. We sit downtable from four other people. We are the last people to be seated for dinner since our flight got in late. While earlier in the day I was super friendly with fellow passengers, at dinner we are pretty quiet. A little tired I think.
The obligatory food pictures –
After dinner we talk to the program director and the concierge about what we want to do. I think since we are usually independent travelers taking the morning city tour overview and then spending the afternoon doing our own thing will work best for us.
Right now the boat is situated on the Danube across from the palace and near the Parliamentary building. At night the bridges between Buda and Pest are lighted up and the whole scene is quite magical. We sit in the lounge for a while listening to the pianist play 70’s music and sip cognac. I think this trip is going to work out really well!
Other pictures from the day…
Our suite
View out the back
The lounge and the night view from the terrace
