Getting on the ship!

Sunday Oct 23

Spent the morning walking around Pest again. Sobering visit to the Shoe Memorial. Before the Nazi’s shot the Jews and dumped them into the Danube, they had them remove their shoes because those could be sold. A filmmaker built this memorial on the banks of the Danube on the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust. Sixty pair of shoes (men, women and Children’s) are bronzed and affixed to the bank.

Then a walk to Parliment Point. 

The Hungarian flag had the Hammer and Sickle image in the center during the Soviet occupation. In 1956 Hungary was liberated and they removed that image, which is why some of the flags have the hole in the middle. 

Parliament building by night from the Buda side. 

We’re on board! Veranda Suite. Judging by the first lunch and dinner, the food is excellent. There are 180 “Vikings” on board and we are single-handedly bringing the median age of the passengers down. We’ve seen walker and hurry-canes but no oxygen tanks so far. The 4 of us are feeling quite “spry”.

Safety drill. We’re glad it wasn’t an actual emergency. We also found that they didn’t have any jackets in neutrals or Earth tones….

Tour of Budapest by night. This is Heroes Square. The Archangel Gabriel at the top. Tomb of the unknown soldier in the foreground. This was built for the Millennium Expo and was the entrance to the exhibition. When they were digging to build this, they hit a hot spring which is still the source for the thermal baths. (We are not going to see the pretty famous baths, which is fine with me because travel videos make them look like an Olympic size hot tub filled with old(er even than us!) men. Eeew.)

This castle was modeled after a castle in Transylvania which was once part of Hungary. Originally built of wood for the Expo, the citizens loved it so much that they got the government to rebuild it out of more permanent materials. It is said to look like a fairy tale inside. The water surrounding is an ice rink in the winter. 

View of the Parliment building from the Buda side at night. 

We did not have time to visit the House of Terror which is said to be one of the best museums. During the occupation this was the HQ of the Secret Police. A piece of the Berlin Wall sits out front. It’s lit in the colors of the Hungarian flag. 

These statues depict soldiers from WWI. You can see the portrait of Woodrow Wilson in the center, who was the President who (with Congressional approval) declared war against Germany. 

We stopped at this restaurant for a glass of champagne and to take the pictures of the city across the Danube. 

Internet is very spotty on the ship so I basically need to load these pictures in the middle of the night. We packed a lot in so far and haven’t even set sail yet! We’re off at 8 am tomorrow (Monday).