Day 19 - Vienna Budapest
 April
22, 2005. Our lazy days ended this
morning with a wakeup call at 05:45. It was time for us to say a temporary
goodbye to Vienna. We’ll be back for one more night on Sunday. We’re travelling
light to Hungary, as we’ll only be in Budapest for one full day and two nights.
So we left our two large suitcases with the porter at the Imperial. From the
hotel it was a short ten minutes taxi ride to the south train station in Vienna.
There are actually three train stations in the city.
When we arrived we went
directly to the platform, found our coach at the front of the train and settled
into our reserved seats. Travel by train in Europe is effortless. We left right
on time at 07:30 and were in Budapest, on schedule, at 10:00. Found us a taxi
and were on our way to the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal in minutes.
Budapest is not an old city,
really coming of age in the 19th century, at the start of which the
towns of Buda and Pest were little more than provincial outposts on the Danube.
In 1867 Hungary became part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the combined
city started to prosper. The architecture from that period is neoclassical.
 The
decades after World War I and the fall of the Hapsburg monarchy weren’t kind to
Hungary’s capital. However, the city has undergone a post – Cold War renaissance
and it is once again a city well worth a visit.
The Grand Hotel Royal opened
its doors on the 1st of May, 1896 and in those days it was a
magnificent grand hotel. It maintained its reputation as the finest hotel in
Budapest until the beginning of World War I. During the war it became run down
and the Grand Ballroom was turned into a cinema. During World War II, the
building was bombed and suffered serious damage and much of its original
splendor was destroyed. It was closed in 1991. In 2002 it was purchased by the
Corinthia Hotel chain and restored to its original splendor.
Today it consists of two
building and an empty space between them, which has been turned into a solarium.
There is a walkway over the solarium on each floor connecting the two buildings.
Our room is a good size and very pleasant.
After we checked in we went
for a long walk down to the Danube and the old town. This was followed by a
cheese and bread lunch in the Executive lounge of the hotel. Then it was time
for me to do some work while Nancy made the long trek back to the old town to
continue her shopping. So far she hasn’t left me penniless.
We had a quiet dinner in the
hotel dining room and then retired early. It was a long day and we were both
tired.
The photographs today show
the train which brought us to Budapest and a shot of the Danube from one of the
bridges which cross it.
Stay tuned for Day 20 in my
“Around the World in 30 Days” saga.
Alan Salmon
eClub One
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