Day 16 - Friday, Sept. 5 - Budapest to Prague

 A 7-hour ride on the bus today! We left at 8:30AM and got to the hotel at 3PM. We were surprised to be taking a Viking-logo bus - this was a first.

The first hour through Hungary was completely flat farmland. Similar to other regions, it was largely sunflowers, corn, hay and maybe wheat / barley.

We had our first stop in Slovakia after two hours. Slovakia is in the EuroZone so Euros could be used but we always use a credit card. 

There were huge wind farms with wind turbines extending as far as the eye could see. There were also moderate size solar farms of a few acres.

By noon we were in the Czech Republic, Czechia, and had lunch at a rest area where there was a cafeteria. I had a delicious cabbage and sausage soup with cucumber pickles; Carmen had a chicken wrap. They also had a sushi bar but I couldn't imagine getting sushi there.

Another two hours and we arrived at our hotel for a briefing by Viking and check in.

Just after we checked in there was an absolute deluge and heavy rain was forecast for the evening. We had paid for an evening walking tour of Prague.

Around 5, the rain had stopped so we decided to go out for a walk. When we went by the beautiful Art Nuveau municipal building, we saw a poster for a classical concert at 8pm and decided to buy tickets, giving up on our walking tour. The building was constructed in the early 1900s on the site of one of the first palaces from the 1300s but soon fell into disuse and was eventually demolished.

We had an interesting dinner at La Republica which had been recommended by Viking. Carmen had pig's knuckle and I had a huge grilled pork chop along with local dark beer. The pig's knuckle (meat) was surprisingly good, very tender and like pulled pork. The pork chop was also delicious.

After dinner we went back to the municipal building for our concert. There is a large room with an organ dedicated to the composer Smetena. The room can be used for concerts, as a ballroom and for other large events. It was a chamber orchestra playing short pieces by Mozart, Dvorak and Strauss accompanied by ballet dancers and an opera singer for the arias. The two youngest ballerinas looked like they were 13 and 15 and were very good. The concert really exceeded our expectations.

It was just starting to sprinkle more heavily as we left back to the hotel which was about 5 minutes away. When we spoke to people who went on the walking tour, they said they got absolutely soaked, even with rain gear.

Budapest Parliament at night
The photo is from our friend Charlie Berkowitz- truly spectacular.

Viking Bus

La Republica restaurant

Pig knuckle and pork chop

Chamber orchestra with ballerinas and opera singer



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