Budapest and over to Amsterdam

This morning when we woke up, Brett was already over in Vienna on his route back home. He will get in in the middle of the afternoon back in Alberta. We did some packing and went down to meet Dad, Mom, and Rae for quite a light breakfast. Went over to Starbucks and I had only a muffin and a coffee. Guess I'm trying to wean myself off of the buffet breakfasts and bacon we have been enjoying every day. Spent breakfast chatting and telling everyone about the pinball museum we went to the night before.

Went back to the hotel to load up our bags again (getting really good at it) and dropped them off in Mom and Dad's room for the day. Downstairs we said goodbye to Rae with lots of hugs. She has a direct flight home to Toronto and will also get in in the middle of the afternoon Ontario time. Sent her off in the cab and wished her safe travels.

Now with just four of us left, we went out for a morning walk with Mom and Dad around 10:15. Headed north along the river and crossed via walking across the Chain Bridge. Over on the other side Dad suggested that we take the funicular up to the Palace. The ride was quite neat and it was a quick way up the hill. Up there we enjoyed the view, poked our head into the art museum, and intently watched two ugly ravens try to crack open a nut.

Back down on street I wanted to get one last look at the Parliament building from across the river, so we took a 10 minute walk up the river. Found a really good spot and took it in one last time. Probably my favourite part of Budapest.

Next we walked back over to Pest and stopped at the hotel for a quick free bathroom break. Then we went back to Vaci utca to find a place to have lunch. Brooke and I first went back to the Lego store for the third time and I decided on which keychains to buy. Got a Boba Fett and Y-Wing Pilot and Brooke got a Rey.

We landed on a restaurant called Soforras on the main pedestrian walkway and ate outside. They had a lunch special for 2900 Forint (~$12 CDN) which included goulash soup, paprika chicken with dumplings, and a jam pancake. It was a great deal and a filling lunch before a flight. Afterwards we said goodbye to Mom and Dad and headed back to the hotel to grab our bags.

Headed off to the airport shortly after 2:00 for our 5:00 flight. At the airport, the line to drop off our bags was quite long, but we had plenty of time so I wasn't worried. Once we were through security we sat down near the gate and I spent the whole time getting caught up on blogging. Once the flight was announced at the gate, it became an incredibly inefficient process for boarding the plane. Everybody queued up around the gate and there were still people coming off of the plane from the previous flight. And they didn't even board by zones. We also heard that the plane was late getting in because of a storm in Amsterdam (later confirmed by our cabbie) so it was a good thing we didn't have an earlier flight.

During the flight I blogged more, Brooke napped, we got free beer and cheese sandwiches, Brooke blogged, and I played a bit of Metroid. Then we safely landed in Amsterdam.

Our bags were literally the first two on the luggage trolley, what luck! Then I spent some time trying to figure out the transit system to our hotel. After a while Brooke suggested that we should just take a taxi since it was getting late and we were tired. I decided to not get stubborn about it and we went over to the taxi queue. The taxi ended up being expensive, but we made it safely and were not exhausted by the end of it.

Our hotel is decently centrally located. There is no elevator and there was an incredibly steep staircase going down to our room. We spent a bit of time in the room getting settled and then headed out to find some dinner shortly after 9:00.

We walked to one of the main squares (Rembrandt square) which was still very active. Walked around a bit looking at menus, sat down at one restaurant, Brooke wasn't feeling it so we left. Went to a Mexican restaurant that we passed earlier and had a solid meal that hit the spot.

Finished off the night at our hotel bar, looking through our Amsterdam guide book.

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