Tag Archives: Danube River Cruise

St. Stephen’s Basilica

On Saturday the 28th of February we broke away from our excursion group to buy tickets to visit the inside of St. Stephen’s Basilica situated centrally in the Pest side of Budapest. This is a photo heavy post!

St. Stephen’s Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It is named in honor of Stephen, the first King of Hungary, whose right hand is housed in the reliquary.

It was awe-inspiring to see this finished work of art.

 

It is one of the grandest buildings we have been in.

This is kind of creepy to me. This is the right hand relic of King Stephen of Hungary. King Stephen died in August of 1038.

Not being Catholic, this Basilica was not a point of worship for me and in fact holds some areas of veneration that are against my beliefs. I did appreciate the beauty and the grandeur of the building. The way the architecture and artwork draws your eyes upward is appreciated, too. It is an amazing collection of artwork and treasures but not something to be worshipped in itself.

I’ll share the views from the panorama look-out in another post since this post is already photo heavy.

It is going to take a while to share much of our Danube River and Cambridge adventures.

Budapest Pre-Cruise

We arrived in Budapest on the afternoon of Friday February 27th. There was an AmaWaterways Kiosk just outside of the baggage claim area where we checked in and met a few of our fellow river cruise passengers before it was time to board our bus to the hotel. When making our arrangements for the cruise we chose the 2 day pre-cruise option and we are so glad that we did. On our bus ride to the hotel we were able to get our first glimpse of the Danube.

When we arrived at the hotel we were pleasantly surprised at the luxury level of the hotel.

The Matilde Palace is a luxury hotel and part of the Marriott properties. This is not the type of hotel we would book for ourselves. There were automatic buttons for everything including the curtains and sheers.

Matild Palace, an iconic gem of Budapest, was envisioned in 1902 by her Imperial and Royal Highness, Maria Kotild of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as part of the twin Kotild Palaces, a beacon of the Bell Epoque Era. Standing proudly beside the Elisabeth Bridge, these two majestic landmarks were designed to inspire and sere the social heart of the city. Over the decades, Matild Palace has borne witness to profound historical moments. From the grandeur of its early days to the trials of two world wars and the Hungarian revolution. Following a meticulous restoration, it emerged reborn in 2021 as a masterpiece within Marriott’s luxury collection.

Today, Matild Palace invites guests to immerse themselves in art nouveau inspired rooms and suites, and dine in exquisite venues led by the globally acclaimed Chef Wolfgang Puck.

Before dinner we had a meeting with our Tour Director for some general information. I thought I had made dinner reservations on Friday evening at a restaurant in town but come to find out it was for Saturday night instead of Friday night. We shifted our plans and headed up to the rooftop bar in our hotel and had some charcuterie and lovely views of the town at night.

 

Saturday morning we woke up early. Breakfast was included with our pre tour package. The hotel puts on an amazing buffet along with items you could choose off of a menu. We were really impressed with all of it and with the honey comb that was part of the buffet.

The breakfast view of the Elizabeth Bridge.

We had an early morning walk on streets next to the hotel. We tried to get some local currency at a bank ATM and the transactions would not go through. We hoped this was just a local issue.

So many grand buildings with impressive architecture.

The back entrance to the Matilde.

There was a excursion on Saturday morning that we were part of and into the tour we broke off to be able to buy tickets to see the inside of St. Stephens Basilica. I’ll share those photos in another post. We had time on Saturday to be on our own and also on Sunday before it was time for embarkation on the AmaMagna.

Back to the Present:

Monday afternoon was JJ time here while Addy was at dance lessons. While we were away he had to go to dance with his mom and Addy which was quite boring for him. He kept asking how many more days until we would return.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and we will be enjoying a corned beef and cabbage meal later in the day.

We are still in recovery mode and I’m forcing myself to stay awake till at least 8pm. Hopefully sleep patterns will return to normal, soon.

Postcards from the Danube

On Monday March 2nd,  we docked and visited Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia situated on the Danube by the border of Austria and Hungary. It has a pedestrian only old town center.

On Tuesday March 3rd,  we passed the little village we were going to visit and docked further on. We had a short bus ride back to the village of Durnstein.

We also visited the Melk Abbey on this same day.

On Wednesday March 4th, we chose to travel by bus from the boat to the Czech Republic to visit the picturesque town of Český Krumlov.

Here is a sneak peek of the town surrounded by water.

Thursday March 5th and Friday March 6th we were in Vienna.

Carriage rides and Apple Strudel and a whole lot more.

Saturday we cruised back to Budapest.

Throughout our River cruise we were blessed with very decent weather. That was not a guarantee for this time of the year. Looking forward to putting my thoughts together for each stop of our cruise and to post all my photos. That will have to wait for when we get home. Thanks for traveling along with us!

On Sunday March 8th we disembarked from the AmaMagna and were bused to the airport.  We flew to London boarded a bus to Cambridge and checked into our apart/hotel for 6 nights in the college town.

Once checked into our hotel we found a pub close to the apart/hotel for some comfort food before we turned in for the night.

Goodnight Budapest

We sailed away from Budapest Sunday evening of March 1st. Last Sunday. I am finally able to upload my photos from the past week!

We arrived in Cambridge on Sunday the 8th and my internet connections are good so I’ll add a postcard from each village/town we visited on our days on the Danube soon. We are going to take it easy on this Monday after a long day of traveling yesterday. We flew from Budapest to London and boarded a bus to Cambridge. After being dropped off at the bus stop we walked to our Apart/Hotel and checked in. We had a meal at the Baron of Beef and will now hopefully have a good nights sleep.

Happy Monday to you all.