29 September - Budapest, Hungary

After travelling all night we had an early breakfast so that we could watch our ship arrive in the beautiful city of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and our final destination on the Danube. It was a fairly grey and overcast day as we anxiously peered around each bend in the river to catch a glimpse of Budapest, and suddenly there it was. The first major building to greet us was the magnificent Hungarian house of parliament which looks like a palace from a fairy tale.

Then, as we glided slowly down the Danube we were treated to one beautiful building after another.

It was totally silent on the Monarch Baroness as we sailed very slowly into the heart of town, the silence only broken now and then by the commentary of our Cruise Director Jean Pierre who explained what it was we were looking at.

Shortly after, the ship spun on its own axis and we retraced our approach to dock next to many other cruise ships close to the centre of town. A few minutes later we were on our way to the buses for our guided tour of Budapest.

Our tour took us for a panoramic overview of the city before proceeding up to a hill where the church of St Matthias and the former royal palaces are located. The view over Budapest from here was absolutely spectacular and we spent just over an hour looking around and taking photographs. It was very busy - there are lots of tourists around even this late in the season.

We returned to the Baroness just before 1 pm and just in time for lunch. We spend our final evening on the ship here in Budapest and then vacate our cabins in the morning ready for the next cruise from here to Amsterdam. We are booked into a hotel here for three nights, before then flying to Dubai and then home.