From Prague to Budapest

Monday, 27 July: After a 6 a.m. wake-up and the usual buffet breakfast, we boarded the bus at 8:00 for the long drive to Budapest. We made a rest (and ice cream) stop just outside Brno before turning south and crossing into Slovakia. Slovakia was part of Hungary until 1918 when the new state of Czechoslovakia was formed. Even though the two countries were one until 1993, it took over an hour to cross the border from the Czech Republic into Slovakia.

We arrived in Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, just before 2 p.m. and had a large and delicious lunch at a first class hotel directly across the street from the ornate Grassalkovich Palace, which serves as the Parliament Building. After lunch, I slipped out to the hotel desk to get samples of Slovokian money. The currency in Slovakia is the koruna, and the exchange rate was about 32 to the dollar. I then went outside and took a couple pictures just to prove we had been there. As our bus crossed the Danube, we had a great view back at the city, including its best known landmark, the Bratislava Castle, high on a hill overlooking the river.

Grassalkovich Palace

Michael Tower

Bratislava Castle

Next stop: Budapest. The modern city is made up of what once were three separate cities. Pest, on the flat east side of the Danube, was largely a commercial center when united with Buda in 1872. Buda, on the hilly west side of the river, was established on Castle Hill for defensive reasons. It successfully resisted the Tatar invasion of 1241 and was then the Hungarian capital until captured by the Turks in 1541. In 1686 it was liberated from Ottoman rule by the Austrians and was the center of Austrian administration until Hungary became autonomous in 1867. Obuda, just north of Buda, probably had its origins in the old Roman settlement of Aquincum (described later). Budapest was a relatively small city until the mid-19th century and still seems quite compact and intimate. The city was severely damaged in World War II and again in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, but it has been carefully restored.

The bus got to Budapest around 5 p.m. and we checked into the Intercontinental Hotel. We had asked for an "upgrade" to a room overlooking the Danube, for which we had agreed to pay $125 extra ($25 a night). We got three very pleasant surprises. First, the view exceeded anything we even dreamed of. The hotel was on the Pest side right along the Danube, and we had a 12-foot wide window facing the hills of Buda. The Royal Palace was directly across the river from the hotel, and Mathias Church, framed by the Chain Bridge, was just to the right. Our window slanted to the right so it faced Mathias Church. These landmarks were illuminated at night, of course. The second surprise was that, by paying cash, the upgrade cost only $70 ($14 a night). We suspect that our $70 never found its way into the coffers of the Intercontinental Hotel chain. The third surprise was that our upgraded room was an "executive room" with a king-size bed. We could lie in bed with the drapes open and enjoy the view from there. And that is just what we did. 

View from our room at the Intercontinental Hotel

At 6 p.m. we all met with Katie for a glass of wine and the usual orientation walk. We were each given a meal voucher for $18 in lieu of the dinner that was to have been included. That turned out to be a good deal since we eventually got four meals for our two vouchers. The currency in Hungary is the forint with an exchange rate of 215 to the dollar. After cashing some traveler checks, we went to the hotel's Grill Restaurant, intending to get something very light after the huge meal we had in Bratislava. Somehow we wound up taking the "Italian Night" (all-you-can-eat) pasta buffet. The pastas had Italian names, but the ingredients were very different (crepes filled with chili; lasagna without any pasta). I didn't find anything I liked (but still managed to eat too much!). The restaurant was crowded, and the service was non-existent. We sat with the Kimmins brothers and Elaine. As the restaurant cleared out and a waiter finally appeared, he took only one $18 voucher for our two meals that should have totaled about $32. Naturally we tipped him 15% ($5) of the larger amount. Since we hadn't received any service, we probably wouldn't have given him much otherwise.

About 10 p.m. the others walked back to our room with us to see the view. We kept the drapes open when they left and went to bed. We discovered later that the illumination is turned off at midnight, and the view disappears. But we were never up that late anyway.