During the first few days of the trip, we were in Budapest,
the capital of Hungary, seeing the sights. We stayed at the Gallert
Hotel, located adjacent to the Danube River. This first class hotel
is famous for its hot mineral baths. A good website for finding hotels
in Budapest is Online Hotels Budapest - OHB;
OHB offers online booking.
Mineral Baths at the Gellert Hotel, Budapest
On Sunday, I took a tour where we visited a beautiful cathedral
high on the banks of the Danube River north of Budapest, on the Hungary/Slovakia
border. Later we visited Szentendre, an area with interesting shops
and restaurants. I bought my two-year old daughter a handmade Hungarian
dress for about $15 US. Since I was part of an eclipse expedition,
it was appropriate that we ate some excellent Hungarian fare at the Korona
restaurant (i.e. the restaurant's name sounds the same as the sun's corona
we hoped to see in the sky during the eclipse). We returned to the
Gallert Hotel by boat down the Danube River, with some beautiful sights
of Szentendre and the Hungarian Parliament building.
Eric overlooking the Danube River on the Slovakia/Hungary border
The Korona restaurant, where we ate excellent Hungarian fare
Evening View of Szentendre from the Danube River
Impressive Hungarian Parliament Building
Close-up of Hungarian Parliament Building
On Monday, I took a half-day Budapest tour. We went
high atop a hill near the Danube River, we had an excellent view of the
river and the "Pest" side (east side) of Budapest, albeit a bit hazy.
We also visited a square with statues of the more famous Hungarian kings.
I also purchased three of the Hungarian government's specially issued eclipse
stamps, which were actually souvenir sheets. With a face value of
1999 Forints (about $8 US), they were a bit pricey.
