Embarking on yet another adventure! Our first flight – Kansas City to Chicago – was uneventful. Rushed through Chicago due to our 53 minute layover only to find that our plane was delayed by 1:10. No worries, right?! We had a 4 hour layover in Toronto anyway.
Wellllll… as we stopped moving on the tarmac, and all of the engines were turned off, the pilot came on and told us no outbound planes were being allowed due to severe thunderstorms in Toronto. We could see at least 2 other planes just parked on the tarmac.
Finally, at almost the 1-hour mark (with no engines, no air, etc.) we heard the engines rev back on/up, and the captain said we were cleared to get in line to taxi for take-off.
This cut 2 hours out of our Toronto layover time, but since we’d had 4, we were okay, with still enough time in Toronto to grab a really quick bite. (Airline restaurants aren’t known for quick, so it was an un-inspiring quick bite, but some food none-the-less.
JACKPOT!!!! DING DING DING…
Oh… that is because after we got on our plane, we discovered it was NOT full. In a 2 – 3 – 2 configuration, Jay had her side (2) to herself (so both aisle and window, whenever she preferred the one over the other), Margaret moved to the entirely empty center (3) row behind the assigned seats, and Mary and Tim each then got an aisle seat in the original center (3) row with a nice empty seat between them to spread out / set stuff / etc.
We needed that jackpot, because the un-jackpot discovery about the flight, was that we were in a plane evidently built in 1831 before the advent of television or any other entertainment related medium. No in-flight entertainment of any kind (other that the older gentlemen behind Jay rhythmically kicking her seat)… that was entertaining for all of 45 seconds or so…
Fast forward through an agonizingly long and boring flight to Wednesday morning and voila… we were in Budapest, Hungary. As Jay commented, it felt like flying into KCI (MCI) because the airport was surrounded by lots of agriculture.
Going to skip the long and boring check-in to our hotel (nope, rooms weren’t ready), with only a side note that Tim & Jay got upgraded to a suite because their room was taking so long. Even on the 2nd floor, the room has a pretty sweet view. Margaret & Mary are on the 5th floor, with a higher view, but they have an additional building somewhat hogging the view. Both are pretty awesome though, as the hotel is right at the foot of the Chain Bridge (completed in 1849, and the first crossing of the Danube downstream of Germany). (More on this, including better pictures, in tomorrow’s update.)
Here are a couple of the views outside the hotel:
Adjacent building
View of the Chain Bridge from Tim & Jay’s room:
And just another cool building:
We took a quick walk-about (the hotel is basically in a very walkable down-town area), and decided to go see St Stephen’s Basillica a few blocks away. Basically another fine example of a beautiful European church!
After sight-seeing and a quick easy dinner at Subway, we met up with our fellow cruise-mates for orientation. Boy were we in for a surprise – we are hands down the young ones in the group. Well….there might be one guy younger than us who is on vacation with his parents, but still!!
More fun to come tomorrow!
Cheers!
