Prague and Central Europe 2017: To Budapest

Packed up and drove towards Budapest. Not that impressed with Bratislava. They have a beautiful old town area but seem to in between trying to live in the past and in the same breath trying to embrace the modern economies. The ancient buildings in the old town are remarkably detailed but the authorities seem to be approving new modern buildings being built in the places where the old buildings are either too dilapidated to repair or have collapsed completely. Most of the other towns we have visited have replaced old buildings with buildings of the same type, making a complete makeover more believable. Still very historic and worth a visit, maybe we’ve been spoilt on our travels?

On to Budapest. An easy drive of about 2.5 hours through some of the most fertile and productive country we’ve seen. Thousands of acres of all sorts of crops, principally wheat but heaps of others looking very healthy. Arrived in Budapest about 11 and got to the motel and even though we couldn’t book in we were able to park the car and we walked down towards the river.

There are streets and streets of historic buildings, most are in a serious state of disrepair but…scaffold and repair crews are everywhere. There is an obvious attempt to have the owners of these buildings repair the historic features and restore them to their past glory. There is evidence of the results of these efforts all over town and in a few years this place will be extraordinary. There seems to be plenty of money coming in to the economy through tourism, there are cruise boats 3 deep along the river, would have to be 15 or 20 boats (most are a couple of hundred metres long) lined the banks near the city centre.

Found a 1 hour river cruise; got a bargain, for 9 Euro each we did the cruise today and can also do an evening cruise. They have a hot dog stand at the jetty so I suggested we do a cruise tomorrow night, grab a hot dog and we will have done a dinner cruise. Not sure Pam saw it like I imagined it?

The cruise went for about 1.5 hours (keeping Hungary time?) so walked to the motel to check in and put our gear in the room. Very hot day today and the rooms are not air conditioned. Didn’t stay long, walked up town, down town and around town, got some beer and water and went back to the motel to drop off supplies then found a pub for some tea. Not a late night tonight (or any night I suppose!!). We’ve made plans for our two day visit to Budapest….stay tuned!!