Hong Kong and Eastern Europe Day 7

September 2009

Day 7

Now we were part of a tour, the breakfast was included in the room rate and we enjoyed the new pace before heading off to enjoy our last full day in Budapest. Seeing that so much of the city is centered around the Danube river, both DH and I wanted to take a boat trip, but so much of the tourist orientated river cruises were quite pricey. So we stumbled across the local ferry service that runs to Margaret Island, and instead of getting off on the Island, just stayed on the boat for the 1 hr journey. We enjoyed taking in the sites from the different perspective of being on the river and enjoyed the people watching that came with it.

After the ride was over, we stopped at the Gerbeaud Cafe. A local Budapest institution, that was mentioned more than once in every fiction and non-fiction book I had read about the city prior to coming, I had added this as a specific to my to do list while in the city. Originally we were just going to go for coffee and cake (the most cost effective option, and if you get the cake of the day, quite inexpensive), but seeing we had underspent our Budapest funds, decided to enjoy lunch here instead, where we enjoyed the meat and cheese platter while enjoying the afternoon, the square and the people watching.

After lunch we took a stroll, once again, across the beautiful Chain Bridge, before taking the Funicular (cable car) to the top of the Castle District. We took a tour through the Castle Labyrinth system, before walking back across the Chain bridge to take a closer look at the Holocaust Garden at the Great Synagogue.

After a leisurely afternoon in a local beer cafe, we had dinner at our hotel, which included local dishes, the meat filled pancakes, Hungarian pork chops and veal paprika with dumplings.