July 7 - Train from Budapest, Hungary to Koblenz, Germany

Monday
This is the second day in a row that we got up early in order to reach our destination in good time. For the second day in a row, we could just as well have slept longer and taken a later train!
When the taxi driver left us off at our guest house last night, we asked him to pick us up at 6:30 today. He wanted us to phone, but we told him we didn't have phone access. He agreed to pick us up -- we thought he understood. But this morning we stood out in the rain waiting for him until 6:50. We couldn't try to take the bus because we didn't have any Hungarian money. Everyone was asleep at the guest house, so our only option was to walk to the train station carrying our backpacks.


It took us an hour and a half -- we (of course) missed the 7:10 train, but we got to the station at 8:25 in plenty of time to catch the 9:10 train. We were among the first on the train and could choose a compartment. The walk was actually fun -- and we saved $30 in taxi fare. Not only that, we got to see much of downtown Budapest.


Its massive ornate buildings remind us of Venice. The main street is wide and even the buildings on the side streets are ornate.


The beautiful Danube River (Duna to them) flows through the town. The train station is one of the most decorated of all the buildings, with a number of statues looking down from above.


It can be seen from several blocks away -- so we could tell that we were following the map correctly -- it's easy to get turned around going down under the streets and into the shopping area below -- it reminded us of Toronto.
We got our value out of our train pass today, riding for 12 hours from Budapest to Koblenz, Germany. Two couples joined us in our compartment. One is from Texas, and currently drive trucks in Iraq. The second couple was from Italy -- he is a photographer who sells his photos to magazines like Cosmopolitan, and she is his make-up director. Interesting!
We had our area to ourselves on the longer ride from Vienna to Koblanz. In the restaurant on the train, we sat with a lady who counsels families and often mediates in court. She firmly believes that most problems families are facing are due to a lack of firmness in the home. It was refreshing to visit with a counselor with those views.
It was a long day of riding but very enjoyable, watching the countryside, especially near Koblenz along the Rhine River. We played cards part of the time -- we haven't done much of that while we were traveling, but it helped pass the time.
We arrived in Koblenz on schedule at 9:10 p.m. and checked into the Hotel Ibis, which we had reserved on the Internet. We have a comfortable room for 2 nights, and the cost includes breakfast.