Tuk Tuk time – Picture of the Day

Friday, August 22, 2025

Our cruise officially finished this morning. Everyone else checked out and went home or on to extension trips to Vienna or Prague. We ran into friends Toni and Eric just as they were going, so we had more hugs good-bye before breakfast.

We gave our bags to the front desk and headed to the trash museum. The artists primarily upcycle old parts of cars into art. It was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. The weather today was outstanding. It only got up to 73 in the afternoon. I wore sleeves AND took my summer cardigan because I imagined getting cold when we rode in the wind. I am delusional. It was glorious all day.

On our walk back. we looked for some of the local murals.

We passed a book store and there was an Abby Jimenez book in the window. She lives in Woodbury – I do not know her, but I have read her books – it seemed very exciting to see her in the window.

This is the funniest looking sammich.

We met our driver Robert for a 4-hour tuk tuk tour. We told him where we’d been and he created a super fun day for us to see new things. We started at City Park. In 1896 they had a world’s fair type festival to celebrate their 1000 year anniversary. Temporary buildings were built, but some were so popular that they were rebuilt in stone and are here for us to see today. It was just lovely.

As we watched a steady stream of people walk across a “bridge” on the lake, Keith asked if that was encouraged or if people just did it. Robert said it was definitely posted as DO NOT DO.

We saw the thermal spa building as we motored to Hero Square.

Since we had seen some of the classic tourist things already, Robert suggested we go out of downtown a bit and see some other things. We were all for it. We took the highway (in our tuk tuk! It was not as crazy as driving a golf cart around Bonaire, because Robert was a way more competent driver than the ladies and I were in Bonair, but close!!). The Margaret Bridge has an exit in the middle of it where you can go to Margaret Island. It’s a big island in the middle of the Danube that has a couple hotels and lots of recreation areas and a Japanese Garden that we visited.

On to the Roman ruins, then the Roman beach. The Romans were hanging around here in about 100CE, getting along fine with the Hungarians on the other side of the river. The Roman beach was an extremely popular place for vacation during the communist times – Hungarians could not leave Hungary afterall. Robert said his family always vacationed there when he was a kid because his grandfather loved it.

The Mattias church is up on castle hill but we didn’t see it last night. It is just stunning with its tile roof. The area behind it is called the Fisherman’s Bastion and it has 7 towers for the leaders of the 7 tribes. They look like an awesome sandcastle neighborhood.

We continued our travels back down the hill and saw people and waterfalls and a spa/hotel/hospital (obviously)

We had dinner with Randi from the backyard!! I know Randi originally from Woodbury Junior high, but really got to know and spend some time chatting with her in Jean’s backyard and book club. A month ago she said she would be in Budapest – seeing off her son as he starts a two year wander through Europe – and I said I thought I would be too. So we are both here and we met for dinner. There we were – just sitting outside the restaurant eating with someone from home, like it was the most normal thing. We both had a “spice bag” – breaded chicken with tiny veggies and fries and a remoulade dipping sauce.

Keith brought us a picture from’s the men’s room –

We changed hotels. Keith got us an Uber to go across town. He had options. We got a deal from TravelZoo for the Kimpton Budapest hotel. They gave us a delicious glass of sparkllng wine as we checked in. Our room is really nice and they seem to have thought of everything – we can even check flight status on the TV.