Budapest, Hungary

Jon leads the way to Hungary.
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Jon and Alex like Budapest.  Prague is a beautiful city, but the tourist area is so separate from the rest of the city it feels like a resort rather than a European town.  Budapest combines both.  The ride in was short (this was the shortest day at 3 hours of driving) and uneventful except that as we were getting ready to ride out from Vienna it started to rain.  Alex eagerly put on all of the rain gear he had purchased and has been lugging around everywhere unused.  ALL of the rain gear.  Needless to say, the rain stopped within 10 minutes and the temperature went up to 93 degrees.  After about an hour Alex zoomed off the highway to stop and shed - now wetter than if it had been pouring.  The remainder of the ride was mostly highway, but it was hot.  This was our first border crossing with a thourough ID check.  The non EU line was about 30 cars deep, and it took us 60 minutes to get through it.  The only entertainment was the occassional line jumper from the EU to the non EU queue.  Man - these Europeans get mad!  While there was a lot of hullabaloo (horn blowing and yelling and arm expressions) it never amounted to more than that and someone always, perhaps sheepishly, let them in line.  Alex used the time to open the trunk on the bike and use it for a portable office, updating this lovely blog.  A portable office that had to be rolled along by hand every ten minutes or so.  Very entertaining to the people around us.  Crazy Americans.  Of course we had to turn up the volume on the Leneord Skynyrd and Steely Dan with critical nods of approval from the patrolling border guards.

Saving...
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Bikes secure in the InterContinental hotel (this is now our third) we hit the streets.  First stop:  had to find someone to fix Jon's $12 flip-flop which came apart in Prague due to Jon's stumbling gate.  We found a cobbler a few blocks from the hotel that did a fantastic job in 30 minutes for a wopping 1,300For which translates to $6.  You could never do that in the US.

We walked to St. Stephens Basilica and Jon felt the need to pray.  We know that will make his family happy.  Enormous, but we felt bad for the one or two worshipers with over a thousand tourists passing by each hour.

During the 50 minute wait at the border, Alex created an office desk to input data to this blog. He'd have to leave his post every 10 minutes to push the bike along.
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We walked along the Danube which is a very different Danube than the one in Vienna.  Here it is wide and picturesque while in Vienna it's a dirty culvert.  We walked across Budapest's famous Chain Bridge (Alex loved the lions all over it).  It doesn't have the age of some of Europes notable bridges but it is architectually impressive.  On the far side we took the fanicular (that is a cable car that goes up the side of a hill/mountain) to the top and entrace to the Budapest Palace which is now an art museam.  We walked the grounds a few hours taking in the views of the river, Parliment, and the skyline.

Several times we witnessed a car that got mistakenly in the EU line meaning to get in the non-EU line. Each time the line jumper caused lots of frustration though eventually someone would concede to letting them in.
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We walked the return trip down from the palace and stumbled upon a local hangout for teens with an amazing view.  Normal stuff - graffiti, beer, and roof top lounging.  We fit right in... but left anyways.  Heh.

Dinner was an interesting event for three reasons.  One, after an hour search for the perfect restaurant, we ended up back where we started at the hotel.  Two, the great view of the river included a parade of street walkers unsuccessfully vending their wares.  Three, a lightning storm erupted filling the sky with bolts in every direction - also vidicating Jon in choice of restaurants when it started to pour.

Alex at the border control
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Tomorrow we're off early to Krakow with a stop at Auschwitz.  The forcast is for rain, rain, rain, so perhaps Alex will get another chance.