Budapest

We arrived in Budapest about 5:00 PM. Our baggage arrived, but I realized that my phone was missing, it had dropped out of my pocket by my seat. We caught the shuttle to the River Adagio arriving just in time for dinner. 

Hungarian Parliament

This morning everyone took the city tour of Budapest, seeing the Parliament building built in 1896 to commemorate a millennium of Hungary. The construction involved around 100,000 people and took 40 million bricks, 40 kilos of gold, and half a million precious stones and jewels used for decoration. 

Shoes on the Danube

Nearby is the Shoes on the Danube memorial remembering the Jews massacred by the fascist Hungarian militia in 1944. Then they visited Hero’s Square with its Millenium Column, with the equestrian statues of the ninth century Magyar leaders who conquered this region. 

Magyar leaders in Hero's Square

I had to return to the airport to recover my phone, on my return, I walked to the top Géllert Hill to see the Citadel with its Statue of Liberty, celebrating the 1944 defeat of the Nazis. In the 1990s it was renamed the Statue of Freedom. In the afternoon, we went to the marketplace designed by Eiffel. Not being a shopper, I headed off to see St. Steven’s Basilica. The Basilica is dedicated to King István, the first monarch of Hungary, who brought Christianity to the country. 

Statue of Freedom

We ended the day with the Captain’s Dinner.

A video of this trip is available on Youtube