On our final day in Budapest, we made our way to our cruise ship, the Uniworld S.S. Maria Theresa. Maria Theresa was the Queen of Hungary from 1740 to 1780. She ascended to the throne when her father, fond of local mushrooms, ate some poison ones and died, leaving Maria Theresa with the throne at the age of 23. My advice, avoid the mushrooms!
We boarded the ship with Casey and Terri and hung out on deck sipping wine for an hour or so as we watched the world go by.
There was a 10k race going on right next to the dock. We were lucky to have made it to the ship before our taxi was restricted from getting there. It was fun watching the staff try to maneuver luggage from other taxis between the runners!
We couldn’t quite check in yet, so we took a walk over to the adjacent Margaret Island, which is basically the Central Park of Budapest. Shortly after walking onto the island you come across the Centennial Monument, celebrating the joining of Buda and Pest.
Unveiled in 1973, it was a completely different vibe back then, with all sorts of socialist symbols on the inside. Hey, look at that, a gear! What a great socialist invention!
We walked about a third of the way across the island to where we could see our ship across the Danube.
Beautiful flowers during our walk back. Nothing like Holland though!
The cruise ship got underway that evening so it could move to a different dock, and also so we could view Budapest all lit up from the water. They do an excellent job for nighttime viewing! This is the Hungarian Parliament building.
Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge actually look better at night!
Liberty Bridge is stunning with it’s green glow!
I had to shoot a little video since they were playing music on the upper deck.
Later that night we had a concert with pianist Balazs Bakos, a very talented local musician, who played some Hungarian classics. I took a short snippet of his performance.
The next morning there was an all day tour of Budapest, which would be a duplicate for us, so we slept in. They moved the ship while everybody was on the tour, so we woke up watching Parliament sail by. Below is the view from our bed.
It was actually nice to just relax for a day and watch the shoreline as we sailed up the Danube.
The next morning we were in Bratislava, the Capital of Slovakia. We had a walking tour to Bratislava Castle, and saw this unique structure on the local bridge, something our guide referred to as their UFO….and it’s actually called the “UFO Restaurant”! It’s the highest structure in Bratislava, and has an observation deck as well as the highly rated restaurant. I would have liked to visit, but we were unfortunately only in Bratislava for a few hours.
This is Saint Martin’s Cathedral, the largest and one of the oldest churches in Bratislava. Completed in 1452, it is known for being the coronation church for the Kingdom of Hungary from 1563 to 1830.
Adjacent to the church is this Jewish Holocaust Memorial. There seems to be a Holocaust memorial in every large city we visit.
You have to walk up these beautiful steps to get to Bratislava Castle.
Unfortunately you can’t go inside the castle, but our guide advised us that the interior is nothing like it was in it’s prime. In 1811, soldiers celebrating a victory of some sort started a small fire, which ignited the stored powder kegs, and the entire castle was blown up. Nice celebration guys!
After the explosion, the castle sat in ruins from 1811 until 1957, when restoration work finally commenced. Our guide advised that the work that was done to the interior is not impressive. Actually, the work to the exterior isn’t impressive either! It just looks like a modern building.
At least the view of the UFO Restaurant is still decent!
As we hiked down the hill we saw this statue of the “Bratislava Witch”. This sculpture from the 1980’s depicts a woman, Agáta Tóthová-Barlabášová (say that 3 times fast), who in 1602 made an herbal tea for a local business owner with stomach pains, which didn’t work. The wife of the man declared she was a witch, and she was tortured until she confessed to being a witch, and then burned alive. This happened hundreds of times to local women, a pattern repeated around the world during that time frame. The statue is cool, her demise not so much.
On our way back into the city center we walked through the old city walls that protected Bratislava. It’s nice that a least a section of this wall still exists.
We then strolled down this street towards the city center. Obviously a stunning site!
Remember Saint Martin’s church with the coronations? After a King was crowned, they followed a specific path for the parade, marked by these crowns on the ground. It’s a King’s teleprompter!
This is the central square of Bratislava, a beautiful spot!
Our guide pointed out that the yellow building in the above photo, the Old Town Hall, has a cannonball lodged into the side of the wall, from none other than Napoleon! I’m still researching that to see if it’s true….they do like their tall tales over here in Eastern Europe!
On our way back to the ship we ran into this funny piece of street art! Apparently if you rub his hat you will get good luck, or come back to Bratislava….one of those!
One last look at Bratislava Castle as we departed for our next adventure.
Coming up next, we visit Vienna (again), and do some cool Vienna shit!