Viking River Cruise - Romantic Danube - Day 1 - Budapest

Well guess what? I'm still only sleeping about 3 hours in the night... I expect you aren't very sympathetic 😉 I wouldn't be either!

So this morning after a lovely breakfast Steve, Dianne and Angie decided to head out and see if they could find where our boat was docked. It seems they don't always dock in the same place so they warn you not to actually get out of a cab until you see your actual boat!

I thought I was super smart and in the middle of the night found a website called something like trackyourvessel that told me exactly where the boat was docked. In the morning when Steve headed out I showed him my map and explained where I thought the boat would be. (I'm pretty sure you can tell by now that something went awry). So Steve trusted me (appears he forgot about my directional issues) and off they went. Guess what? The boat wasn't there... nothing was there. Seems like I had the map upside down... oopsie 😁 Steve figured it out and they found the boat... but it was apparently quite a hike. While I sent the three of them traipsing around on a wild goose chase I had a nap 😉

At noon (12:03 as Senne might point out... yes we were three minutes late) we checked out and caught two cabs down to the boat. We knew exactly which dock to send the cabs to. This apparently is not enough information. It didn't matter how many times we told him international dock 4 he took us to the other dock. He was very helpful though and went and talked to the guy at the dock who told him in Hungarian where to take us, he got back in the car and took us there. Steve, Angie and I headed on to the boat. The check-in is super-fast compared to an ocean liner. We literally just showed them our passports and they highlighted our names on a list. Our rooms weren't prepared yet so they put our luggage to the side and gave us a cool towel to freshen up with. Fancy schmancy hey?

We were surprised that Senne, Dianne and John were not there yet because they left in the first cab a few minutes before us. The arrived shortly after and told us that their cab driver also took them to the other dock. It was apparently so confusing that they got out of his cab and took a different cab to the second dock on the advice of the staff working at the dock! Nevertheless they made it and also checked in.

We headed up to the cafe and had a light lunch, which was quite delicious. They even offer you free beer and wine with your lunch!

I honestly can't remember what happened after lunch (Honestly, this is not related to the free beer and wine at lunch... I had none...really that's how well my brain operates with sleep disruption... imagine what a mess I would have been if I ever had a newborn!) Oh! I just looked at the pictures and noticed there was some shuffleboard and some lounging, although I'm pretty sure that didn't take 5 hours... there must have been a nap in there!

We met up in the lounge around 6 for the "introductory briefing" which basically introduced the crew and told us what the week would be like. Then we headed into the dining room for dinner which was absolutely delicious!

The assistant waiter at our table is named Adam, and I think he looks like Angie's Adam so we took a photo of them together!

After dinner they did an evening sail up and down the Danube showing all the main sites which you can see from the river. It was beautiful, and a wonderful start to our river cruise!

 

The Liberty Bridge

 Here is Dianne watching the evening cruise through her eyelids!