2023 Buda to Bucha Day 03

By travelerdon on November 14, 2023

Oct 06, 2023, Cruise starts today…

Today we arise a bit early and get packed up for we will leave this apartment behind and start our River Cruise tonight on Emerald Cruise Lines. We walk to the end of the block and buy coffee and gluten free apple pie pastries to bring back the the apartment for breakfast. Man, I hope I never have to go gluten free! While somewhat interesting, the gluten free aspect of dough and pastry has a weird texture!

But it fills the tummies and satiates us for the morning. We call a cab and find it surprisingly easy. Only 5 minutes later the cab is here! The driver takes us and our luggage to the ship and we turn it in even though it is not time to check in! The ship is on the Buda side of the river which we have not explored much as of yet.

We have 8 or more hours before we need to be on the ship. They have gladly taken our luggage so that is taken care of! We walk away from the ship and head for the heart of Buda. We buy a 24 hour Travel Pass for the city and it lets us ride trains, buses and all transportation for the day! We jump on the first train that shows up to find it doesn’t go where we want to go! But hey, this is an adventure, right? So we start trying to read the train maps and with not much luck, we jump on the next train to find it is not the right one either! Elee is more bothered by this than I am and I convince her to follow my sense of direction.

With some chatting with locals in the area, we find that we need to pay close attention to the number of each train which is hard to read in the bright sunlight! But it soon becomes a bit easier and we find the correct train! We are looking to arrive at the “Funicular”, a vertical train up the side of a hill to the Buda Castle.

Once we finally get to the Funicular, we cue up for tickets. The cue is about a hundred people long! A savvy Vendor selling tickets to an enhanced golf cart ride up instead of the Funicular sells us on a golf cart ride that includes a Hop On Hop Off feature at all the stops! And we know that the Castle and Palace are on steep hillsides so we go for it. As fun as a Funicular is, we have ridden Funiculars in many places around the world. So we opt for the easier walking routes!

I even find my own personal car! Check it out! I never do find out what it is!

The Castle, Palace, Cathedrals and even the Fisherman’s Bastion are sights for sore camera lenses and we have a blast, especially because we don’t have to wear out our legs as much! We put in almost 14,000 steps yesterday and todays total will be near 10,000. A good goal for every day of the week! At the Fisherman’s Bastion, there is a restaurant inside the stone structures where we sit and split a Toasted Goat Cheese Burger and a couple glasses of wine and look out and down on the city! The sights from the top of the hill are breathtaking!

We get back on the ‘Castle Bus’ and ride down to the bottom. We then ride a train tram for a mile or so along the river. We get off when the tram starts to turn in and up the hill of the city. We need to travel 2-3 more miles along the river to get to our Ship. We start walking with neither of us looking forward to an hour plus hike. But public transportation here is prevalent and cheap. So we call out at a bus stop, “Do you speak English?” And a young guy says, “I do!” (people here are all friendly and helpful) So we describe our dilemma and where we need to go and he explains to us that we need to take the 107 Bus and it will take us right by our ship! I look over and see a blue bus pulling up to the stop (that has ‘107’ on the marquee) and say, “Like That one?” And he says, “Yes, that one!”

So we jog for 5 seconds and jump on the bus. Sure enough, the bus takes us within walking distance of our ship! Bless that young man’s heart! We make it to the ship and concierge shows us to our room. We take a couple hour nap and then attend an orientation meeting on the ship! We have logged almost 10,000 steps today and are glad to be “home” for the next 8 days!

After the orientation meeting where the Captain and Crew introduce themselves along with the Cruise Director, we go to the Dining Room for dinner where we choose the Chef’s Recommendations for the meal and are not disappointed. We start to get to know our table mates for the evening, a couple from south of London and a couple from Colorado. Some Art Deco decorations in the stairwell catch my camera’s attention!

The ship tours up and down the Danube through Budapest and we get to see the infamous Parliament Building that we saw last night and all of the river sights again. What a great place to visit! The ship stops and we start to take on water. No, relax, not what you are thinking! We are taking on drinking water! We walk around the decks and marvel at the sights. Then we go into the lounge and meet back up with our dinner mates from Colorado and chat for a bit. But now it’s back to our room to wind down (and get this Blog written!)