The sail-away view our first night leaving Budapest was the most spectacular we have ever had. You need to watch the video later in the blog to see it. Beautiful! But wait, there’s MORE… You get three fine videos in this blog.
We were visiting Budapest to begin our Viking longboat cruise. We were starting a 14 day cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. As we departed Budapest we sailed under a couple bridges and cruised by the iconic Hungarian Parliament building, above, and its reflection in the Danube River. But first we had to explore Budapest, Hungary. Here is the route of our longboat trip. We will pass through three countries, cruise three rivers and pass through many locks on three rivers.
Our cruise began in Budapest and ended in Amsterdam. Part of this route is a man-made canal connecting the Danube and Rhine, allowing for more commercial shipping.
Famous Hungarians
The famous Rubik’s Cube was invented by Hungarian Ernő Rubik.
Hungary has given the world some surprisingly familiar names and inventions. László Bíró changed everyday life when he created the ballpoint pen. Ernő Rubik sparked a global puzzle craze with his Rubik’s Cube. On the silver screen, Béla Lugosi immortalized Dracula in 1931 and Zsa Zsa Gabor became a Hollywood icon. Her sister Eva Gabor starred in Green Acres. That is likely not her best role, but it the one I remember. And no list would be complete without Harry Houdini, famous for his daring escapes while being chained and locked up. Harry would challenge people to slug him in the stomach, proving his toughness. One theory about Harry’s death attributes the stomach punches as a contributing cause to his fatal ruptured appendix.
St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest
While in this church, there was organ music playing the entire time. The organ player is shown at the end of this 60 second video. Sit back, relax and go to church.
This church was only a block or so away from Harry Houdini’s birthplace home in Budapest.
“The Most Beautiful Café in the World”
You know you are about to enter a very special building when they have devil-demons as light holders. Throughout Europe on many buildings it is quite amazing the artistic detail that used to go into their ornate structures.
To call this a tea room is quite misleading. They offered steaks, seafood and many other complete meals.
While called a tea room, you of course could order a regular Kávékűlönlegessėgek or maybe some Forró csokládékünlegességek if it was a particularly cold and blustery day. Whatever you choose to order, it can always be followed by your favorite Fagylaltok.
The Ornate Budapest
I think it is debatable if these two are really atlantids or just artistic sculptures.
If you have read my prior posts, you already know these female figures acting as pillar supports are caryatids.
Hey… Twinsies
‘Fall Leaves’
For this photo I sat and waited, and waited for a breeze to blow some leaves off of a tree as I had seen just as I approached. Everywhere I was seeing signs of Fall. That worried me as there was a spot in Amsterdam I had in mind to photograph golden trees along a special spot in the river. For whatever reason, it turned out Amsterdam seemed to be weeks behind seasonally than the rest of Europe.
Vienna, Austria
Vienna was our second stop on the river cruise, but I’m squeezing it in here…. More trees in front of buildings motif.
I took quite a long walk to find the famous, Hundertwasserhaus residential apartment building. It is a very quirky architectural building completed in 1985. What an irritation to have a hundred people below your apartment every moment of every day, snapping photos and yacking it up making noise. For that reason, it is likely better as an apartment than a condo complex.
Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, the architect, built numerous such buildings in Vienna. How could a kid with such a name be expected to grow up normal?
Each resident is allowed to decorate their balcony and windows in any manner they wish.
The style of Hundertwasser is so popular, even the normal buildings feel they need to get with the program as much as possible.
Our Riverboat Home for the Next 14 Days
So what kind of a riverboat are we on? We are rollin’, rollin’ on the river via a Viking longboat. They are built long, to house as many passengers as possible and low so they may sail under the many bridges. In times of very high water, the boats cannot navigate under some bridges and all passengers must pack up their suitcases, get off the boat and go for a grumpy bus ride past the bridge obstacles.
A long string of longboats tied up along the Danube in Budapest. We will cruise the Danube, Main and the Rhine rivers and use 68 locks along the way.
The above photo shows the river boats stacked up 10×2. Sometimes we saw the boats stacked four deep. If your boat was not the first along the shore, you had to board and cross the other boats to get to yours. All of the Viking boats are build exactly the same so the doors and walkways lined up.
Viking longboats tied up along the Danube two deep.
Our room was at the back of the boat. While it was larger and had a wrap around balcony, you had the noise of the propellers that were quite loud. I found the churning of the waters by the props, mesmerizing. I took hundreds of abstract photos of the churning water.
A peek inside our room. It was plenty big and had a wrap around balcony off of the back.
Hungarian Parliament Building
Finally, we began the last part of our European tour, a 14 day river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. It was quite enjoyable and it felt better than an ocean cruise. Maybe that is because it was all new to me. But I did enjoy the smaller towns, daily local restaurants and exploring as much or little as you wanted. Then there was the amazement of going through over 40 river locks. We would ascend for the first 10 days and descend for the last four. In some locks we wold drop 81 feet.
Our cruise along the Danube takes us by the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building. The music is the ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’. Don’t get discouraged with the initially slow pace of the music. It will quickly change, for the better. However, I wonder what the composer Franz Liszt would think of this version. Why is it named No.2? Because he wrote 19 such rhapsodies, starting in 1847.
These are the very best sail-away views we have ever had. I had been to the Hungarian Parliament building each of the two prior nights taking photos from across the Danube, so I knew what to expect. The giant Parliament building must be one of the largest, most beautiful and symmetrical building anywhere. I was able to visit this iconic building because we arrived in Budapest early, allowing us to explore it on our own. This is one of the problems of ocean and riverboat cruising. A photographer cannot return at sunrise, sunset or the following night for better light, since the boat is long gone.
Many fishing vessels were docked along the Danube.
These small commercial fishing boats would catch trout and grayling.
Our first sunrise on our Danube river cruise, on our way to the first stop in Vienna, Austria. I like abstract photos. The water behind the boat, stirred up into a frenzy by the propellers, mesmerized me. I took over 1,000 photos of the bubbling water. Luckily for you… I have yet to develop any of them…