Sunday, December 30, 2018: Day 3; Hungary/Solvenia

Our Route for Today

We awoke this morning in the Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest. We cleaned up and did most of our packing before going down to the restaurant for breakfast. Our instructions were to have our luggage tagged and placed outside our room by 7:30 am. We got back to the room after breakfast and had the luggage outside the door in time.

At 8:15, we went down to the lobby and checked out, sat down to wait for everyone else to show up. We did not have any “incidental” expenses. Last night’s dinner was on the company up to $100 per person. At today’s exchange rate, that is equivalent to 56,000 Hungarian Forints (Ft) for the two of us. When the check came, it only added up to 47,000 FT and that included a 4,500 Ft “service charge”, i.e., tip.  I added another 3,000 Ft to the tip. Why I did not go ahead and round the total up to 56,000 Ft, I don’t know.

We got on the bus and headed for the train yard. This was actually the Rail Heritage Park, a train “park” where they had numerous old locomotives and coaches on display. As we unloaded from the bus, we were greeted by a brass band and train staff with trays of champagne.

Outside our window

We finally found our room with all of our luggage preceding us. The room is nice with 90 sq ft. The bath is ample in size. We unloaded our luggage and then set off to explore the train. We found the bar and dining cars.

Club/Bar Car

Dining Car

The train pulled out of the station at 9:35 am and headed for Keszthely in eastern Hungary. We dined in the dining car at noon.  We arrived at Keszthely around 1:30pm but did not leave the train until 2:15pm. While it has been overcast all day, by the time we left the train, there was a light rain which persisted for the remainder of the day. We were bused to the Festetics Palace for a guided tour and wine tasting. On the way to the palace, we passed by the Heviz Lake. The second largest hot springs fed lake in the world (the largest is in New Zealand). People come from all over Europe to bath in the hot mineral waters and there were a number of people in the lake on this cold December day. The guide told us that during the winter, the water temperature is around 80F. In the summer, it is closer to 104F.

Festetics Palace is a palace built by a non-royal family. The tour was interesting and the subsequent wine tasting of Hungarian whites from the local Laposa winery was just as interesting. We tasted six wines and the one I liked the most was the first.

We staggered back to the bus and got to the train a little after 6:00pm. We met in the bar car for drinks at 7:00pm and dinner was at 7:30pm. Apparently, Gavin has developed a taste for Pate. They offered a Mackerel pate and he ordered it and said he enjoyed it.

After diner, we retired. Tomorrow will be a very long day in Vienna. New Year’s Eve will start at 6:00am and not end until 2:00am New Year’s Day. We will cross over into Slovenia around midnight and then stop for about six hours before crossing into Austria in the morning.