Cruising the Danube in Budapest

The previous post in this series is here..

Note this was July of 2024! Just getting to blog about it..

We flew from Zadar to Budapest on RyanAir..It was a short and sweet flight. Once at the Budapest Airport we took a Taxi straight to our hotel (The Danubius Astoria in City center) and after checking in, we came out to get another taxi to go to the docks. The check in at the hotel took a few extra minutes as there was a line. We had tickets(thanks to viator) for what we thought was a sunset cruise in the river Danube. Had to race there. So we got an Uber. Note that there is a lot of one way streets in Budapest and it reminded me of Chennai. Crossing the road and getting an Uber in the direction you are going will save you a good 10 minutes and money! We had just started exploring the city and learned this lesson the hard way. Turned out the sun set only after our cruise finished.. Still it was a nice evening spent seeing the city from the river. We would get to see the city the next morning anyways.

Here are the photos from the cruise. 

The viator site made a big deal about this tour coming with a "drink". There was champagne.. but we asked them for juice instead and they were not expecting that! 

it was alternating between capturing things on the side of the river, taking selfies or handing the phone to the couple from UK who shared the table with us to click photos of us.. spent two hours doing that!

We were already craving some Indian food and were told to check out a place by friends. Initially we thought we could walk to the Indian resaurant from the cruise but it was a long walk and we were not sure if we would make it in time. So we got an Uber. 

This restaurant called "Indigo, flavors of India" in Buda area, was really posh and the food and service was just fantastic. 

After we had our fill, we decided to take another Uber back to our hotel. It was time for a hot shower and get some much needed sleep!

Video highlight of the cruise

We did get a good nights rest and the next morning, had to find some breakfast (not included in the hotel) before going on another little adventure.

A half day to do random things in Zadar

The previous post in this series is here..

We had spent a nice evening walking around old town and had crashed at 9PM as jet lag hit us hard. We had walked a good 10 miles in the morning through the lag in Plitvice the previous day. 

Our plan was to go cross the bridge and see the new town or city center. Then come back and walk past the parks and churches in Old town before heading out. 

We had breakfast right outside our hotel in the attached restaurant and walked to the newer town. It was just like any other downtown with busy office goers, shoppers in the supermarkets and bakeries, students, tons of them.. after walking a few blocks up and down we came back to the old town and asked the visitor center folks for suggestions.

They said there were two new museums within walking distance. So we went to the Museum of Illusions.

We were the only guests and the ticket was pricey but we had time to kill. We thoroughly enjoyed the place.. a few of the exhibits we did not get at the time.. hindsight being 20/20 now we know how to get the "crawling on the wall" type photos. Another time.. Later we learned that the same museum is there in San Francisco! Zadar is a small place. We had spent an extra 1/2 day than required but it was good to get adjusted to local time zone and relax a bit.

there were tons of other photos.. but posting them here. this is a great place to spend a good 2 hours with family and kids. definitely recommend this as a great time pass! 

After this we decided "no more museums"..and walked through a neighborhood of old town that we had missed the previous day. There was a nice market there where San did some shopping. Those skirts and frocks have never seen daylight after they were bought. Apparently they looked nice at that moment but are not worth wearing in public! The lady at the shop did a good sales job I guess. 

We walked though the square and came back to our hotel.

There was a new Bagel place that had just opened across our hotel. They were out of bagels the previous night. So lunch was fresh bagels and they were really good! Apparently the owner relocated from New York and started a bagel chain in this part of the world. 

Video highlights..

Then we got an Uber to the airport and were off to our next stop..

Charm of old town Zadar and the Sea Organ

The previous post in this series is here..

After a long day at Plitvice we were dropped off outside the old town gate. It was again a mile walk along the wall. This time we decide to walk on top of the wall and see the boats and other sites. 

Went quickly back to our hotel and changed to get rid of the smoke smell on our clothes. The plan was to get a bite to eat (we were jet lagged and it started hitting us) and then see the Sea Organ and go up the bell tower.

Found a nice Pizza place and had it inside. If you don't want smoke, don't make the mistake of eating in the open dining tables. Peopel sitting there smoke or the passersby blow smoke that you can visually see come and settle down on your Pizza!

After that weird meal at 5PM we walked to the Sea organ. It was as amazing as advertized. The sea comes and and pushes air through these channels that make music along a 500 foot? stretch. 

From there we walked through the ancient Roman ruins to the Bell Tower. We could not go to the Church as there was a service and the doors had already closed. 

Walking up this tower reminded us of the Pisa Tower. Same narrow staircase with a window to the town every now and then. We were early for the sunset but decided to stay there on top of the tower for an hour! Needless to say there were a few 100 sunset pics.

Given Squarespace is yet to fix my slideshow gallery display, just gonig to post the pictures here one after the other. For the first time in 12+ years, Squarespace has not followed up on my ticket! This prompts a post of its own on Legacy products.. 

got this pano shot.. and then two other familes joined us.. 

Took this shot and they all asked me to show it to them and they took the same shot and thanked me for the composing.. little moments like that always make my day!

The fencing does come in the way.. 

After the tower we walked back to the market and waterfront, did some shopping, had some ice cream, I managed to get separated from San in that market and we both started singing the family song to get reunited.. saw the usual Chennai beach scenes on the sands there.. with the exception of a lady dressed as a mermaid for photo ops with kids and Mickey mouse's Croatian cousin! 

The town was bustling with activity. We stayed up till 9 and decided to call it a night.

A video highlight...

We still had half a day to spend the following morning before flying out of Zadar..