We woke up ready to do a little sightseeing and exploring in Budapest. Once we cleaned up, we had a delicious breakfast in the hotel. Afterwards, we went to meet our Ama cruise director and check-in.

Our cruise director, Kristina, will be overseeing every aspect of our voyage for the week. After a brief chat, we received our luggage tags and then were on our way. We stopped back to the room to drop off our tags, slather on some sunscreen and grab our sunglasses before heading out.

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Budapest was once three cities – Buda, Óbuda and Pest, separated by the Danube river. In 1873, the cities merged together to become what is now known as Budapest. Buda is across the river from our hotel and is the older city. It is hilly and contains many of the older churches and castles. Pest is the more modern part of the city and is mainly flat, so it’s easy to walk around and explore. It is considered the more commercial section.

Once merged together, the combined city became Budapest, Hungary’s capital city – and that’s what we’re here to see.

Today we’re going to start off with a walk through Pest. We also need to find tonight’s dinner restaurant so we know how to get there. It’s a beautiful day, sunny and warm, but not too hot. There are some clouds around, but no rain is expected.

There are quite a few people out walking around, especially along the river promenade. While there are not beaches or water attractions, there are plenty of opportunities via boat rides or cafes and benches to just enjoy being by the water.

We easily found tonight’s restaurant; it was just a ten minute walk from our hotel. It’s located in the Four Seasons Hotel and looks really nice.

We continued up the pedestrian street from the restaurant to St. Stephan’s Basilica. I have to say, the air on the street was a delightful mix of foods from all the eating places we were passing by. If we hadn’t had a good breakfast, we would have stopped in any one of them for a tasty bite.

When we arrived at St. Stephan’s, it wasn’t too crowded. One of the highlights is to climb to the dome and enjoy the views over the city. I’m sure the views are gorgeous, but stair climbing was not on our agenda for this walk.

From the basilica, we headed towards the Parliament building and the waterfront. The Prime Minister of Ireland was in town visiting with Hungary’s new Prime Minister, so the area right in front of the building was closed down. We were still able to take a few pictures, but an inside tour was not available. Perhaps another opportunity will present itself before we leave.

We walked along the promenade back towards our hotel and the “Chain” bridge. Along the way we came to the memorial dedicated to the Jewish war victims. The nazis had lined up a large group of Jews, had them remove their shoes and then murdered them along the river bank. A shoe memorial has been constructed to remember the victims of the atrocity. It’s a very moving memorial.

We continued on until we reached the Chain bridge and then decided to walk across to the Buda side of town. The bridge reminded us of walking across the Brooklyn bridge in New York City. Lots of great views of the city and all along the waterfront.

Upon crossing, we thought about taking the funicular up to the castle area but chose to wait, as we were both getting tired from all the walking. We chose instead to sit and relax for a bit and watch as the lines of people headed up.

We walked back across the bridge with the sun now shining brightly and heating up the afternoon.

Continuing along the promenade, we passed many riverboats preparing for their next group of passengers. Some would be leaving today, others on Friday or Saturday. It didn’t take a genius to see that we would definitely not have the river to ourselves.

There are many interesting statues that you pass as you walk along the promenade.

When we arrived back at our hotel, we were both tired and thirsty – wine time!

We enjoyed a bottle of water, a glass of rosé and a comfortable patio chair before heading in to relax for a while.

There was a brief reception at 6:00 pm to toast to a successful voyage and hear some details about the pre-boarding activities. A quick glance around the room revealed a group with an age range of 50’s to 80’s, mostly Americans and Canadians, and a few groups of friends traveling together, which is about what we expected.

When the meeting broke up, it was time for Sue and I to head to dinner. This would be our official anniversary dinner. We are going to a restaurant called Kollázs Brasserie & Bar located in the Four Seasons Hotel.

We arrived at the restaurant and we were promptly seated. The interior was nicely decorated in a comfortable art deco style. The room filled up quickly with a diverse mix of locals and foreigners.

We ordered a bottle of Domaine Christian Moreau Chablis, goat cheese salads and then Sue had grilled sea bass, while I had the seared sea scallops. We also ordered a side of mashed potatoes with truffles.

Everything was delicious!

For dessert, I ordered a chocolate sponge dobosh cake with two spoons. It was also delicious and was surprisingly “on the house” for our anniversary. I must have checked a box when I made the reservation.

Afterwards, we took a nice stroll along the waterfront back to our hotel, enjoying the lighted buildings, bridges and ships.

We cleaned up, relaxed for a while and then it was off to dreamland. It had been an active day and we were tired.