Wednesday 20th of September
Another grey day greets us this morning, we are sandwiched between river boats at our mooring, glimpses of the gloomy skies only visible if you look up between the connecting ships. We have to vacate our stateroom by 8.30am making an early breakfast essential, although ever thoughtful the ships culinary crew put out a limited late breakfast in the lounge for those late risers. With the recent early tours we have managed to be up and about early, today is no exception. We decide on the the full breakfast this morning at least a good double helping of eggs Benedict for me and just a single for miss Amanda, who is feeling a little better this morning but still has a persistent cough. Then back to our cabin to make our last minute preparations to depart. At 8.30am we say goodbye to our floating home for the last two weeks and decamp to the lounge with our portable possessions, while our suitcases are transferred to the loading dock outside the ship. There is not a lot we can do today, drizzly rain is falling outside, pedestrians on an adjacent bridge, visible from the lounge window are battling with umbrellas as they make their way across the rain spattered Danube. Our taxi is booked for 1.00pm to take us the short distance to Gresham Palace, we have anticipated that check in time will not be until later in the day anyway. Since all the ships resources are at our disposal fir the day, while we are onboard this seemed the best option.
We spend the time relaxing, Amanda reading and me on my blog, so much has happened that I need to put the words down before my brain scrambles the events of yesterday. The morning goes by quickly as fellow travellers stop to say goodbye and happy travels, before making their own way to their next destinations. Out of the 109 passengers, 73 are leaving the rest staying on to travel another seven days on to Bucharest. A new contingent will come onboard here to join them for that journey, but the ship will still not be at capacity of 130 passengers.
Eventually our taxi arrives, the driver waiting in the ships foyer. We follow the driver towards our exit route, we need to climb up and over the next ship berthed alongside us shoreside, then across a ramp and down to the lower deck of another ship before exiting through their doors onto the shore ramp interesting. The rain has stopped and the skies look a little clearer, our little yellow taxi is waiting, the taxi driver and waiting ships crew grab our suitcases and bundle them into the little yellow taxi and we are land locked in Budapest. The driver pulls out into the traffic running along the riverside, we are immediately in a traffic jam, as we look down to the river we see an amazing site, a fairly normal looking coach with passengers onboard is up to the wheel arches in water and is making its way down the river, looking for all the world like the driver took a wrong turn and ended up there by mistake. Our driver explained this is a river bus can go in water or land, As we inch our way forward our driver anxious to brush up on his English engages us in conversation, he is chatty, friendly even, but we have to concentrate as his heavily Hungarian accented English is hard to understand. The taxi is not metered but I do know the hotel is not far away but the traffic slows us down to a constant crawl. Our understanding is that the locals prefer their own currency, the Florint to Euro’s and that only tourist places take Euros, but this is appearing to be not so. Although Hungary is part of the Euro Zone, like the U.K. Before Brexit they maintained their own currency. Whilst in Vienna we managed to exchange $50.00 Euros for Florints receiving about 13,000 units of this currency. This is about 200 Florints to one Aussie dollar, are you confused, well it certainly makes life difficult as we try to relate the values to home. Back to the taxi we finally make it to the hotel and with the help of the bell hops unload our luggage. The taxi driver charges us 3000 Florints but will take Euros, since I do have the Florints I pay him in that currency, about $15.00 Aussie, reasonable I conclude. To be a millionaire here you just need $5000 Aussie dollars.
As we expected our room is not available, we decide to have lunch and are shown to a cosy restaurant where we order a local version of a hamburger, this is served, with a small dish of coleslaw, caramelised onions and mushrooms, French fries, tomato sauce and mayonnaise. The most unusual accompaniment is a piece of fried duck liver, Fois Gras, delicious yes, also very unusual to our perceptions. We might as well kick back with a glass of stunning Hungarian Chardonnay followed by ice cream. We have had a great relaxing lunch but by this time the clock has struck 3.00pm our rooms availability not yet announced, I go off to seek an explanation, our previously allotted room still not ready we are re allotted another one, this on the fifth, loft floor overlooking an internal courtyard. Not much of a view but we have had a river view for the past three weeks so we are non plussed. By the time we unpack and settle in the hour is late we watch a little world news, a devastating earthquake in Mexico and hurricane Maria in the Caribbean but no news from home. We catchup on home football the Crows having survived their first home final defeating GWS a good start to their premiership campaign. Then, the end of another day we recharge for tomorrow.