Budapest - Monday July 13

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I'm a bit late publishing this entry - we were without internet for a couple of days - I’ll start by talking about dinner on Sunday night in Budapest. We decided on a restaurant just off Vaci utca (the main shopping and tourist street of Budapest) that was suggested in our guidebook. It turned out to be a great choice. A violinist and xylophonist were playing outside on the patio where we ate a very nice traditional Hungarian meal. Nothing exceptional but good basic food (seems typical of Hungarian cuisine) and nice wine. The musicians were very good and it made for a relaxing and enjoyable evening.
We started today with a trip to the train station to get our tickets to go to Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday. It was a good thing we went early! We took a number and waited about two hours to get served!!! That took the best part of the morning. In the afternoon we visited St Stephen’s Church - a few pics show just how magnificent it is as well as the parliament buildings that were modeled after the British parliament with some adjustments. We then took a cruise on the Danube. It was very interesting to see the sites from the water and to get a different perspective than you could on foot. It is easy to see why the river and riverbanks of Buda and Pest will be soon designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
We ended the day with dinner at a small jewish cafe called Spinoza that was closer to our hotel (about 15 mins walk from the main tourist area). I had wild Norwegian salmon which was a real treat even if it was cooked too much. From there we walked home exhausted and ready to get rested for our 5 am rise to head to the train station in the morning.

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