Budapest: Danube
Started the day at a great playground near the Zoo. Swings, slides, a pirate ship for climbing on, and a huge multi-area trampoline for 400 HUF per 5 minutes. We had a big time before racing across town on the Metro to make the 12:15 Danube river cruise departing from Dock 7.
Fantastic view of Parliment and a variety of historic and architectural wonders, but my boy was absorbed in the headphones for the narrated tour. It was available in about 50 languages, and he flipped through them all alphabetically. He was impressed when he recognized a word, “Mommy, she said HOTEL!” When he got out of hand with the volume buttons, I disconnected the headset from the controls, and he remained equally engrossed with pushing the buttons.
The middle part of the trip was an hour drop off on Margaret Island. We decided to call it Ant Island instead, like in A Bug’s Life, or maybe Bat Island or Super Island. We opted out of the guided tour and ate lemon icecream instead. There were multi-person bikes for rent, like pedal golf carts, in all sizes. I rented a tiny one for Lex. They all had silly names, this one was “Pottom.”
After a half-hour rental it was time for another lemon ice cream, and to meet the boat. The guide came by with her group to let us know why the road we pedaled along was closed off by police cars. Apparently they found an unexploded WWII device and were defusing it. No danger, but they would not let our boat land at the dock.
After a bit of a wait, we got word that the boat was allowed to land on the other side of the island, so we hiked across. The cruise back was shorter, and included a non-alcoholic fruit juice “cocktail” with crushed ice. Brilliant pictures of Lex knocking it back, trying to get the last ice cubes.
After a nap, we met Zac after his conference and went back to the playground and the trampoline. Then “Owl’s Castle” for dinner in the courtyard. Moon rising, live music, beautiful weather, wonderful food featuring the classic Hungarian fried cheese.
We walked to Heroes Square and took in the monuments on the way to the Metro stop. Lex was impressed with the swords and capes, and that these were “Heroes! Like super heroes!” and wanted to stay longer. We promised to come back again.
