Day 4 - Wednesday, May 3, 2017 - Szentendre

Szofia met us at the hotel for the 45 minute ride to Szentendre, a small historic town which is now famous for its crafts. Along the way we passed numerous Roman ruins, including parts of an aqueduct and two coliseums dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

With all the changing country borders over time it is hard to keep track of which ethnic groups were in which areas. Szentendre is ethnically Serbian and there are numerous Serbian Orthodox churches in the town which are elaborately decorated inside.
Serbian Church Altar
Szentendre has a large main square with a Baroque cross erected in the middle in 1763 to commemorate the plague avoiding the town. We had a photo of our Woodstock tour group taken in front of the cross. Szofia, our Hungarian tour guide, is at the far left. The two ladies next to her are Joann and Adriana, identical twins - I had a hard time telling them apart.

We visited the marzipan museum that has various elaborate scenes and statues made out of marzipan - who would have guessed. There are even competitions between different places.


After a walking tour of the town, we had lunch in a restaurant that was decorated heavily with old instruments, clocks, signs, etc. Carmen and I walked along the Danube back to the bus which took us to the Avalon Panorama which was docked in Budapest.

Our luggage was brought on board and we settled into our stateroom before going up to the lounge for a mandatory safety briefing and introduction to the staff. We then headed down to the dining room where Ginny had arranged tables for our group to be together. Each day the menu is different with 3 appetizers, 2 soups, 3 entrees and 3-5 desserts. Everything was delicious and it was difficult to choose.
Steak with mustard sauce, straw onions and Spanish rice

As we were eating dinner, the ship started up the Danube towards Vienna. The current is very strong and it is slow going upstream. It takes almost 24 hours even though it is only a 2-3 hour car drive.
As we went forward, we could get a good view of the Buda Castle and Matthias Church on the hill on the other side of the river. Dinners tend to be a lengthy process, ending around 9pm or so.

We went to bed with the rumble of the ship's engines.


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