A Trip To Remember: Part 2

This morning greeted me with some spectacular news.  The airlines had found my luggage and it would arrive in Budapest in the afternoon and delivered to the hotel soon after that.  With that knot of worry untied from my stomach, I headed for a nice breakfast and then off for my tour.



Our first stop was at the site of some ancient Roman ruins, dating back to the second century.  According to the tour guide, the area we were in was settled by the Romans and divided into to areas, the military camp and the citizen camp.

Standing there, looking at these ancient structures fills you with a sense of awe at just how old this area is. To think that so many centuries ago, people were wandering this area, living their day to day lives. I mean, Budapest as it stands now is itself over 1000 years old, before that it was conquered by Turks and settled by Romans, Greeks, the Huns, and others I'm forgetting to mention, so the place just breathes history.

After the ruins, we visited the jewelry center Caprice, where we got shown the history of jewelry making in the area, particularly diamonds as they cut and polish the gems there.  Alas, they did not allow free samples.

After drooling over so many precious gems in one place, we were prodded and herded back onto the bus for a visit to the town of Szentendre, a beautiful town with streets of cobblestone.  We wandered the streets with our guide who gave us gobs of local history, half of which I can't remember now.  The town has a Mediterranean feel to it because of the people who settled there.

After some souvineer shopping, we were off to Visegrad to see the ruins of the summer palace of King Matthias and a delicious 3 course lunch, with traditional Hungarian food including, as the tour guide put it in her somewhat, delightful broken english, "Bread Crumbles", atop the hill with spectacular views of the Danube.

After lunch we headed off for Esztergom, the seat of the Hungarian Catholic Church and visit to the magnificent Basilica.  Here is also the border of Slovakia.  The Basilica itself is the largest in Hungary and 4th largest in Europe.  Inside and out it is a magnificent structure that dominates the entire town from atop the hill on which it stands.

After recovering from the awe of this place, we headed back to Budapest.  The only small issue we had with the tour was that it was supposed to end with a cruise down the Danube back into the city, however due to the cold weather and strong winds, the cruise ships weren't operating today so instead we took the scenic route through the mountains and forest back to the city.  All in all a great day.  Tomorrow sees me on a train bound for Salzburg.