July 11 – Budapest – Sailing on the River

This morning we left the Esprit to tour Budapest. The tour focused primarily on the Buda side of the Danube. Buda is elevated above the Danube, while Pest is fairly level. Our first, essentially the only, stop was the Royal Palace, which, as you have seen in a previous post, dominates the hill on the right bank of the Danube. We didn’t go into the palace itself.

Medieval residential area adjacent to the Royal Palace. Historically, this area was reserved for the nobility.
Cathedral at the Royal Palace, Front view
Rear of the Cathedral viewed from the Overlook
Royal Crypt
Royalty on Horseback. The testicles on the horse are shiny. University students rub them for luck before exams.

After the tour we boarded the Esprit and started our voyage upriver. Enroute to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, we passed small towns and ruins of castles on hills. These scenes repeated themselves all along the journey.

Riverside town
Castle Ruins
This was a humorous scene. The child was enjoying running from the wake created by the Esprit. The sadder side of this picture is that under normal conditions, this “beach” is underwater. The water usually is up to the tree line.