All Aboard - Sunday 4th June

First of all. Let me apologize for not posting until now.  I'm afraid the "free wi-fi" on the ship is virtually non-existent.  We have had no connectivity at all until this afternoon, and even now it's a bit flaky. So I may have to add photos to my posts later.

Becky and I got up to the news of the terror attack in central London that had happened overnight. Fortunately we were staying out by the airport and were nowhere near the incident.  Police presence at Heathrow was very visible when we got to Terminal 3, but everything seemed to be running smoothly and our flight to Budapest was on time.  We were met by the Uniworld rep at Budapest airport and loaded onto a coach for transport to the ship.

Fortunately, the coach was air conditioned because Budapest was very hot and humid (30c). Budapest is known as the city of spas, but those of us from the UK could be forgiven for thinking it was the city of Spars (as in the corner shop) .There was a Spar grocery store at the airport - and we must have passed half a dozen more Spars on the way to the ship, also a number of Tescos and a Costa coffee.

The ship is very posh. Done out in Austro-Hungarian Empire style. Lots of gold leaf and mirrors and a nice spiral staircase with a large portrait of Empress Maria Theresa (who the ship is named after). There's a small but very beautiful swimming pool, 2 bars, a Viennese cafe (which is virtually next to our room), and a lovely sun deck that Becky and I have made extensive use of in the nice weather.  Sadly Becky and I are confined to the "basement" - i.e. the lowest deck of the ship.  We chose a cheap room thinking that all the rooms would have a window, but our window is very narrow and close to the ceiling. The ships can't have too many decks of course, or they wouldn't get under the bridges, so there are only 4 decks altogether including the sun deck.

 

At dinner the chef made Becky a special chocolate birthday cake which was delivered to the table at dessert time, and shared with the people at our table. Though Becky would have liked to keep the whole thing for herself

On our first evening aboard we were treated to an evening sailing up and down a short section of the Danube to admire Budpest lit up by night. The Hungarians kindly put on a firework display for Becky's birthday outside the parliament building - though our crew members kept insisting that it was actually for the Pentecost bank holiday that was happening the next day (Monday).