Last Day

Today is our last full day in Europe.  Tomorrow we will embark on the long flight home, so today we are resting up for it.  The Avalon cruise staff arranged for a taxi to take us from the ship to our hotel this morning.  It was a short, fast ride. Despite the usual heavy city traffic, the driver had us to our hotel in about 10 minutes.  I think he was in a hurry to go back and pick up some more fares.

We got very lucky at the hotel.  Check in time wasn't until 2pm and we arrived at 10am, but they actually had a clean room available.  We settled in and relaxed for awhile, then went out for a walk.

Saint Stephens Basilica

One of the places the guides said was worth seeing which was not included in yesterday's tours, was St. Stephen's Basilica.  It is only a few blocks from our hotel so that was our destination.  St Stephen was the Hungarian king who led his people to Christianity, and is the patron Saint of Hungary. We spent about an hour looking at all the altars and art. It is a beautiful church.

After that we went looking for lunch.  Ray really wanted a hamburger and we had been told that there are lots of McDonald's in Budapest, so that was our goal.  We walked quite a long time up and down some of the lovely pedestrian streets with no luck.  Finally, we turned back towards the hotel to look for another market square Ray had seen on the map in the other direction.   That's when I spotted a clock with what looked like a McDonald's M in the middle and an arrow below.  Sure enough, this was telling everyone that McDonald's could be found down that cobblestone walk.

When we got there we discovered a mecca of American restaurants, and we decided on a T.G.I. Fridays so Ray could have his burger and I could find something more to my liking (chicken fajitas). I guess this is just about right for 2 Americans' last day in Budapest. ;-))

A van is picking us up tomorrow morning for the trip to the airport.  This is going to be a long day.  We're guessing that it will take about an hour to get to the airport.  We leave the hotel about 7:30AM and our flight from Budapest to Frankfurt leaves at 10:40AM.   We arrive in Frankfurt about 12:25PM, then catch the next flight to Orlando at 2:05PM.  That is supposed to put us in Orlando at 6:10PM Eastern time. Then comes the ordeal through customs and the ride home in the Villages shuttle van.   Our travel time from first takeoff to final landing is supposed to be 13 hrs and 30 minutes.  Add in the 3 hours from our hotel pickup until takeoff and 2 to 2 and a half hours from landing until we get home, and we are expecting our travel time tomorrow to be something like 19 hours.  So dear friends and family, don't expect much from us for a few days.  We are going to be zonked.  Maybe that will help get our internal clocks back on Florida time.