21.06.2007 Budapest

Our hotel is located in downtown Budapest. Without navigation system I would completely use my orientation here, because I feel overwhelmed by the street names. With the navigation system however I find my target quickly. The first impressions of our hotel are rather bad: the building is very old and needs to be renovated, the rooms are sparsely furnished. In accordance with European standards the hotel gets no star. But we will survive two overnight stays here. At least the employees are friendly. We parked our Mercedes Vito on the street just in front of the hotel. When the porter notices the two bikes on the bike rack, he tells us, we would miss them tomorrow. He opens the yard gate and tells us to park inside.

Near by the hotel is a large public green where we use to walk the dog. A lot of men are working there to prepare a open air concert starting in the evening. We move to wards the city center in order to more of Budapest and to have a little dinner. It's early in the afternoon, but suddenly the sky turns to black, the wind becomes very strong and it starts to hail. Thanks God many buildings or residental complexes open their doors, so we find shelter in an entrance hall. Next mornig we speak with some inhabitants and we get to know that last year there also was such a stormy weather. But there were no open doors then, so many peaple got hurt. In the media the people were told then to let in men seeking protection from storm. We have benefited from it. After the storm we look for a restaurant, but that's difficult because of the dog. Due to the storm most restaurants have only few guests, so we find one dorrman who makes an exception and let us in with the dog. On the way back through the park we see the storm damages and get to know, that the concert had to be cancelled.

Next day we want to see more of Budapest and decide to make a boat trip, but we are not sure, whether we can take the dog with us. An employee of the hotel solves the problem - relatives of him have such a promendade boat. One call and we and our dog are taken to the landing stage by taxi. Our dog soon becomes the favorite of the crew and they spoil and photograph it. The boat trip is informative and from the boat we have a much better view to the interesting buildings as from the shore.

After the boat trip we find an Italian ice café and get some ice there. Then we start the way back to the hotel. We cross a large square, where a dance festival takes place. At that tieme we are not dancers yet, but we enjoy the dancing performances. It's a pity I have no video camera with me, so I can only take some photos.