Sept 12

Sept 12 Budapest Sightseeing

We are up early and have breakfast at the hotel. We wait in the lobby for our taxi pickup at 8:30 to take us to the tour office for our “Royal Tour”. There is just one other woman who is on the tour with us. She is from Canada. We chat while waiting to leave. She says she and her husband have considered coming to AZ for a few months, so we tell her about our rental and give her our card. This woman grew up with Hungarian grandparents and so learned the language. She says she wants to remember how to speak it as a tribute to her grandfather. Our guide and driver appear and we head out for about an hour’s drive to Godollo  to see the “Sissy” Palace—one of the Hapsburgs summer residences. Empress Elizabeth is called “Sissy” and is beloved by the people. There is a sort of cult following—she was assassinated. Reminds us of JFK. Her statues are everywhere and the gift shops have every conceivable object with her likeness—from key rings to paperweights. Sissy was an active woman who excelled at horsewomanship and won many awards. She kept her elaborate dresses to wear again, even though that was not the custom.Our guide is so full of knowledge. She runs through the royal history at amazing speed and we wish we had a Family tree chart to refer to.

This is the second-largest baroque chateau in the world. The large complex  has not  been well maintained, but the central portion has been restored. The guide takes us on a tour of the interior. Much of the original furnishings have been stolen, but the preservation group is trying to find it—shopping at antique stores and auctions all over Europe. A large table was recently found in Vienna and returned. A call has gone out to locals to donate back any of the items they may have in their possession. Our guide says she has donated some dresses that came into possession of her family.

Following the tour, we had lunch at an outdoor café. We changes tables because of a smoker. We asked our waiter to give us directions to the tourist info center, walked across a park and found it. We wanted the route and fare info to visit a village outside of town called Szentendre. This is where we learned about free fare for folks over 65. We found the train and enjoyed the ride to this picturesque village.At the end of the line, we enjoyed a walk through the baroque section of town. We are so late in theday, the info center is closed, but we sit having ice cream along the bank of the river before finding our way back to the train.

Back in Budapest, we decide to have dinner in an elegant restaurant overlooking the city. We climb several levels of stairs up the  hillside, found our destination, and  had a lovely meal to end our time in Budapest.