October 2024
Tauck’s “Blue Danube” River Cruise
- I am attempting to write this blog post nearly 10 months after I took this trip. I need to do a better job of writing things down in real-time!
- We started in Budapest and river-cruised all the way to Regensburg, Germany. From there, we hopped on a bus to end the trip in Prague.
- Budapest was a delight — we loved it far more than we thought we would! Bratislava was also really great, despite the torrential all-day rain. We were most unimpressed by Vienna (maybe we caught it on a bad day…). Germany and the Czech Republic were delightful.
- I LOVED this trip. It was my first river cruise and yes, if you are under the age of 60, you will be a youngin’. But Tauck does everything right and everything well, so it was a spectacular experience.
- If you are prone to motion sickness, you should have no problem with a river cruise. Most of the time I couldn’t tell that we were moving — it was THAT smooth.
- But back to Budapest!
- We arrived in Hungary a few days early so we could deal with our jet lag and also explore the city a little bit ahead of the river cruise portion.
- Budapest is divided into two: Buda and Pest. And it’s pronounced “pesht”!
- The Pest side brought The Hungarian State Opera House, the Hungarian Parliament, the Central Market, and the beautiful Dohany Street Synagogue (the second largest in the world!)
- The Buda side brought the Castle District, Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion, and a delicious sprinkled chimney cake (a local treat which is basically dough in a spiral, resembling a chimney).
Getting ready to go!
Jeanne, always with her Sweet ‘n’ Low
hi, Germany. We flew Chicago to Frankfurt to Budapest.
I did not love our Lufthansa experience.
We finally arrived at our hotel after a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng day.
Forcing ourselves to get out and see the city, despite our fatigue.
I will always find the color.
Reason #1 why I love the Hungarians? They know Americans want ICE with their beverages!
Weird tribute to Michael Jackson.
The Chimney Cake is the local kitschy treat.
Jeanne being Jeanne.
Time to board the river cruise!
Our cruise director liked Star Wars.
Hi, Dad.
The next morning, we toured the Opera House on the Pest side.
Our tour guide looked like Lady Gaga.
Jeanne lost interest in the actual opera performance LOL
Looking over to the Buda side.
The Hungarian Parliament.
We had lunch on the ship — prepared in a wheel of cheese. I was thriving.
There was a market across from where we were docked.
Eggs are THE thing to buy in Budapest. And of course, I bought many.
Hand-carved Santas. I bought one in memory of my dad.