Day 10: Budapest in Prague and the Danube Travel Log

We were supposed to be docked at Budapest today but instead docked at Komoran because of low water levels at Budapest. So we took a bus at 8:30, which arrived at 10. We went to Heroes Square first, and it was a mad house because Viking bussed two shipfuls of guests in at the same time - just the post-bus ride bathroom line took 20 minutes. Even though we went through the same routine in Regensberg, after two days of small groups in Vienna, it became quite irritating. We had been to Heroes Square on our honeymoon so there wasn’t anything new to see, except the water level on the Danube - it was a huge contrast from when we were on our honeymoon. We could see so much more of the bank now.

The Buda district was under construction, so we didn’t get to go up there, which is really a loss for the guests because it would have been beautiful - but I was secretly glad because this way we got to see the inner city church instead of going back to the same place. The church was definitely not as impressive as the Buda district would have been, but it was new to us. It has an underground chapel with a display of remnants of Roman settlement there.

We were bussed away from the city center, to get lunch at Hemingway restaurant (food was so-so) and then were bussed back to the Grand Market at 2.30. Yes, a lot of time was wasted on bussing around. A couple we have befriended (I think it was the wife who did not like her husband’s ‘aimless wandering’) tagged along with us for the afternoon. We went to the Opera house for a tour there. I did not know that it was half an hour walk each way from the Grand Market - but they are the third youngest couple on the ship (we were the second youngest, and the youngest were a new couple that’d only been together for a few months - we weren’t sure why they were on the cruise) and in better physical shape than us, so the hike wasn’t a problem. The opera house is smaller than Vienna’s but the decorations were much more ornate. When the tour ended, they had singers who performed scenes on the foyer, so that was a surprise. The tour itself was an hour long, 20 minutes longer than Vienna’s; I think the extra time was for the free time we had in the auditorium; it was taking pictures in the boxes and on the parquet.... It was nice to set our own pace.

When we got back to the Grand Market, it was already 4:30, so we had half an hour to look for souvenirs there before we got bussed back to Komaran, just in time for farewell dinner.

Last updated September 18, 2022