Cruising the Danube in Budapest

The previous post in this series is here..

Note this was July of 2024! Just getting to blog about it..

We flew from Zadar to Budapest on RyanAir..It was a short and sweet flight. Once at the Budapest Airport we took a Taxi straight to our hotel (The Danubius Astoria in City center) and after checking in, we came out to get another taxi to go to the docks. The check in at the hotel took a few extra minutes as there was a line. We had tickets(thanks to viator) for what we thought was a sunset cruise in the river Danube. Had to race there. So we got an Uber. Note that there is a lot of one way streets in Budapest and it reminded me of Chennai. Crossing the road and getting an Uber in the direction you are going will save you a good 10 minutes and money! We had just started exploring the city and learned this lesson the hard way. Turned out the sun set only after our cruise finished.. Still it was a nice evening spent seeing the city from the river. We would get to see the city the next morning anyways.

Here are the photos from the cruise. 

The viator site made a big deal about this tour coming with a "drink". There was champagne.. but we asked them for juice instead and they were not expecting that! 

it was alternating between capturing things on the side of the river, taking selfies or handing the phone to the couple from UK who shared the table with us to click photos of us.. spent two hours doing that!

We were already craving some Indian food and were told to check out a place by friends. Initially we thought we could walk to the Indian resaurant from the cruise but it was a long walk and we were not sure if we would make it in time. So we got an Uber. 

This restaurant called "Indigo, flavors of India" in Buda area, was really posh and the food and service was just fantastic. 

After we had our fill, we decided to take another Uber back to our hotel. It was time for a hot shower and get some much needed sleep!

Video highlight of the cruise

We did get a good nights rest and the next morning, had to find some breakfast (not included in the hotel) before going on another little adventure.

A half day to do random things in Zadar

The previous post in this series is here..

We had spent a nice evening walking around old town and had crashed at 9PM as jet lag hit us hard. We had walked a good 10 miles in the morning through the lag in Plitvice the previous day. 

Our plan was to go cross the bridge and see the new town or city center. Then come back and walk past the parks and churches in Old town before heading out. 

We had breakfast right outside our hotel in the attached restaurant and walked to the newer town. It was just like any other downtown with busy office goers, shoppers in the supermarkets and bakeries, students, tons of them.. after walking a few blocks up and down we came back to the old town and asked the visitor center folks for suggestions.

They said there were two new museums within walking distance. So we went to the Museum of Illusions.

We were the only guests and the ticket was pricey but we had time to kill. We thoroughly enjoyed the place.. a few of the exhibits we did not get at the time.. hindsight being 20/20 now we know how to get the "crawling on the wall" type photos. Another time.. Later we learned that the same museum is there in San Francisco! Zadar is a small place. We had spent an extra 1/2 day than required but it was good to get adjusted to local time zone and relax a bit.

there were tons of other photos.. but posting them here. this is a great place to spend a good 2 hours with family and kids. definitely recommend this as a great time pass! 

After this we decided "no more museums"..and walked through a neighborhood of old town that we had missed the previous day. There was a nice market there where San did some shopping. Those skirts and frocks have never seen daylight after they were bought. Apparently they looked nice at that moment but are not worth wearing in public! The lady at the shop did a good sales job I guess. 

We walked though the square and came back to our hotel.

There was a new Bagel place that had just opened across our hotel. They were out of bagels the previous night. So lunch was fresh bagels and they were really good! Apparently the owner relocated from New York and started a bagel chain in this part of the world. 

Video highlights..

Then we got an Uber to the airport and were off to our next stop..

25 years and counting - Day 1 at Zadar

June 24 saw us celebrate our 25th anniversary. Given the kids just want to come home to their beds and sleep, they wanted us to be gone to celebrate it somewhere far away.

San, the planner, did an amazing job of planning a one week trip with practically one day in each city in eastern Europe for the most part. Only thing I had to do was to give a list of places or Viator tours of interest in those locations. 

Our first City was Zadar. We took three flights to get there. SFO to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Dusseldorf, and finally Dusseldorf to Zadar on different airlines. We were tired by the time we got to Zadar airport. Got a Taxi and were dropped off at the old Town. This is literally a walled area that looks like the inside of a castle where no cars are allowed. 

It took us some time to find our hotel. It was a beautiful hotel right next to one of the gates to the walled area. We just got dropped at the wrong gate! 

The whole place was beautiful. Cobblestones that were smooth from years of feet walking on them.. it had been hit by the war but was rebuilt. We had leftover packed food and we just ate that in the hotel room after walking around our hotel. It was already late and most of the stores were closed. So we went to sleep early. 

The next morning we had to walk a mile to the group gathering point for our all day adventure. 

The roads were empty but beautiful. . .  

Our beautiful hotel.. (the room was decorated Honeymoon style).. The Palazzo venezia!

When San starts posing like this on day 1, I couldn't be happier! 

Video highlights..

Have 1000's of pics and videos from this trip, but never got around to blogging about it. As soon as I came back work caught up. Then my dad's condition took a turn for the worse as he swallowed kanji into his lungs. At one point doctors asked my mom to notify next of kin as they didn't think he would survive the night. We were all there in India and he made a miraculous comeback and is home now. That meant the blogs never made it. 

My goal is to clear those out of my camera and laptop by writing at least one little blog before bedtime everyday. . . 

To be continued..