We rose early and enjoyed a breakfast in the Ibis Hotel. We left at 9am on the bus to explore Budapest. We started in the Pesht side of the Danube and afterwards crossed over to the Buda side.

We were all astonished at the grandeur of Budapest. Nothing had prepared us for this amazing city. All we really knew about it was that it featured in My Fair Lady, and not very favourably.
"Every time we looked around there he was, that hairy hound from Budapest. Never leaving us alone, never have I ever known a ruder pest."

The bus took us on a drive around the city and ever turn revealed a larger and grander building with Baroque or neoclassical architecture. The Parliament building is simply astonishing in scale and magnificence.

We crossed the Danube on the Margaret Bridge and drove to the Royal Castle on the Buda side to visit the Fishermen’s’ Bastion for wonderful views over the city. We spent some time wandering around this high precinct which has spectacular architecture and incredible views.

I had the priviledge of holding a three-year-old falcon eagle and having my photo taken while doing so. It was very memorable being up so close to such a serene and dignified bird of prey.

We went to the huge covered market for lunch. After that we visited a coffee shop in town. From there I walked to the Jewish Synagogue in Budapest, which is significant for a few reasons. Firstly it incorporates the site of the house in which Theodore Herzl was born and spent his early years. Secondly it is the biggest synagogue in Europe and only the second-biggest in the whole world, second only to the Belz Synagogue in Jerusalem. Thirdly, there is a memorial to the Hungarian Jews who were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Fouthly, there is a memorial there to Raoul Wallenberg who saved many of the Hungarian Jews from extermination and is counted among the Righteous Gentiles. Raoul Wallenberg saved thousands and then he himself was taken by the soldiers of the Russian Red Army and was considered to be missing for many years. Later, the Russians confirmed that he had died soon after the war in their custody.

We left Budapest a little shocked at the amazing things to see there and travelled by bus towards Austria.

We arrived in Vienna at about 6:30pm and settled in to the Hotel Admiral. It was really hot and the hotel had no air conditioning so things were not as good as they could have been. We were issued with a fan, but the rooms were simply hot boxes and it was very clear from the outset that not much sleep would be happening. Our fears were not
unfounded.

I decided to spend the evening at a Concert if possible. I walked to the Musikverein and lined up for Concert tickets to a Mozart Concert. The line was long and the ticket booth booking system was malfunctioning.
However I did manage to buy an expensive ticket to the concert in the Golden Hall. This is the venue that the Vienna New Year's Concert is held each year. It is a fantastic concert venue. The acoustics are supposed to be in the top three venues in the world. The concert was fantastic, with a full classical orchestra, supplemented with a tenor and soprano vocal soloist, performed a range of Mozart pieces as well as a few Strauss pieces. It was a great night.

Not much sleep though.