Days 16 & 17, 10-11th April. Budapest to Belgium

Day 16-

We woke to a beautiful clear sky today and warmer weather, in fact today we went from 5C to 23C! We had free time in the morning after docking in the beautiful, historic city of Budapest. Buda being the rich side of the Danube river and Pest "Pesche" being the poor cousins apparently, although it all looked pretty impressive to me! The two sides of the city actually werent amalgamated until 1873.
The city has a population of 10 million in a land mass the same size as Tasmania!

Graeme was feeling pretty yuck with his cold bug catching up, so after breakfast, he went back to sleep for a bit, then we headed out for a wander in the streets to look in the shops. Their currency is the Forint, but most places also took euros which was good as you dont want money you cant use anywhere else, left over.

We bought a few little things then headed back to the ship for lunch then an organised city tour for a few hours int he coach, then looking at the great views from the castle and hills.

Petra our tour director is from Hungary, so she organised for traditional musicians and dancers to come onboard and entertain us. Was really good, with lots of whirling and leg slapping! Then we had a lovely farewell dinner tonight with Margy from Christchurch and her friend Anne, who is English but lived in NZ and now Perth. Shared some stories and discussed how much we all enjoyed river cruising.

After dinner the captain took the ship our for a cruise along the Danube, to show us Budapest all lit up- it was pretty impressive and Petra had great music going to add to the atmosphere. Everyone stood up on the sundeck outside as its much warmer today and very pleasant outside. A lovely way to finish the river cruise.
















Day 17-

Up today and packed, ready to leave the ship. Discovered that my favourite suitcase has a massive break in the bottom- must have got chucked around somewhere and its my fav suitcase too! (I collect them, so have an attachment lol). We didnt have time to go buy another, so we just got the case wrapped really well at the airport, so it wont split apart!. Will go look for one in Brussels once we arrive there as we have the rest of the day there before we start the coach tour proper tomorrow.

Lots of goodbyes to the other passengers and we were taken to the Budapest airport by the company, which is great. Checked in no problems- its a lovely smallish airport - very clean and tidy. Its only 2 hours to Belgium, which is good.

Flight was fine, luckily only 2 hours, as it was a small plane which was chocka. Not sure why the flights were so expensive though as there were no tv's or food & drink? Anyhow, got there safe which is the most important thing! There was no immigration as we are in an EU country still, so made the transfer pick up Insight offer. Nice tour director Nathalie who is from the Netherlands.
Into Belgium and a great hotel in the centre of town, a quick break- enough time to go find a suitcase (decided to bypass the Prada shop I was told about!) and got one, then back to the hotel and out for a local tour then dinner.

Went to see the apparently? very famous 'Mannekin Pis', meaning the little boy wee'ing! Looked like a dwarf vampire and as the guide said- you wonder why its famous haha! Very, very crowded with people visiting the statue and standing on the street eating waffles everywhere- also yummy looking Belgium beer shops all over , each beer has its own glass they serve it in to give different experiences and tastes- its all very vibrant. They speak Flemish and French here, depending on which part of the country you are from and there are a lot of very dark skinned Belgium's, who I think originated from the Belgium Congo.

We went and looked at a very ornate square with buildings which have a lot of gilded edges. Then off to the welcome dinner in a restaurant. There are only 32 on this tour which is great. A different mix really from previous- quite a few americans, 10 from Macau and Hong Kong and a few Aussies and us I think. Havent met them all yet but everyone is very plesant and polite which is great.

Had a nice dinner with everyone, one poor lady travelling on her own, got hot, tired etc and started to go very clammy and faint, but we got her sorted after a bit and she came right.

We wandered back to the bus where Jan ('Yarn') our Dutch driver was waiting to whizz us back to the hotel and super comfy beds at the Sofitel. Funny thing- they have 2 escalators going up into their foyer and they were both going in the same direction. Couldn't work it out until we saw someone walk up and it stops- reverses the way it is going for them! Must have a sensor pad on it when you walk up!