Budapest to Vienna

We left Budapest this morning on a beautiful sunny day...it was strange having the ship moving for the first time but what an awesome way to see some of Budapests best sights.  The photo below is taken while sailing past the beautiful Parliament Buildings in Budapest - sorry if the picture quality is poor - the satellite internet connection tonight is shockingly slow.





























We have travelled up the Danube River all day today so its been a day of relaxing and sitting in the sun and
literally watching the beautiful countryside pass by.  Although we have only started on this cruise I would highly recommend this way of seeing this part of Europe to anyone.

This morning the tour manager gave a good run down of the cruise and sights to see and this afternoon the pastry chef on board gave a demonstration of how to cook an authentic apple streudal (very fitting given we are heading to Austria!) - with tasting afterwards...like we need more food!!

We have been getting to know the other passengers...who all know us as the 'young kiwi couple'.  Although the other passengers are all at least 20 years older than me I am finding the company really good - great conversation, no drunken noisy young people...its great.  Once again we had the most delicious 3 course dinner (not to mention breakfast and lunch)....thank god the rest of the cruise involves a lot of walking so we shouldn't have to be rolled off the ship at the end.

We sailed through Ezstergom late morning which has the biggest catholic church in Hungary...just beautiful





We went through our first 'lock' tonight which is the biggest of the 68 we go through....it was amazing and very clever how they have done it.  To explain, a lock is made to artificially join two rivers so that the ship can continue sailing 'over land'.  You cruise through an artificially made channel and then in to an area which has two huge doors which are opened and closed - once inside the water is rushed in so that the ship is literally raised up over the land and then the front gate is opened so that you can continue sailing.  Most of the locks also generate power. 



Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day in Vienna as we have decided to take the two optional tours as well.  We go sightseeing around Vienna in the morning, come back for lunch then go to a palace and then come back for an early dinner and out to a Viennese concert.  Will blog about that tomorrow!