Wednesday, August 27, 2025 Budapest to Viking Lief

Dear Family and Friends,

Our last day in Budapest and the Corinthia Hotel.

The actual cruise begins today. Time to say goodby to our new friends and hotel staff, Tey and Elena at breakfast. Tey is working on her PhD in workforce management. We could both sympathize with her as she collects data for her dissertation especially Charlene with her background in business education. She took very good care of us each morning here. Ellen has an assignment to read and report on her two published journal articles when she get back to ASU.

Before we were picked up there was time for a short walk around the hotel. Ellen took her phone (camera) but forgot to take $$ so she could only window shop. It was sure a “rocking experience”

Next stop the Viking Lufn: Lunch on board then to the room to unpack. The two nights at the hotel spoiled us for the amount of room we had at the hotel. Our cabin is quite small (photo to follow*). In fact Charlene said that our whole room would fit in to the hotel bathroom.

We do have a balcony and a big sliding glass door to view the country side. One thing I find from small rooms is that you spend more time in the common areas of the ship visiting with new friends.

We had time for a long walk along the Danube before dinner so we went across the Chain Bridge to view the sights along the Danube. (I tried to write this is third party, but found that writing late at night made this difficult…please forgive)

The next big event was setting sail for our next port for tomorrow (Thursday). Viking wants to make sure we get the most out of journey so the captain took the ship north to an island in the Danube so we could see Budapest by night. A fantastic photographic experience. After everyone took all photos they wanted, the ship turned around to head south to our next port of call.

I am having so much fun each day that I have to work hard to carve out special time to write. I find that I can keep up with my Facebook posts easily. It is important to write this blog as soon as possible so it is accurate. (I am writing this late Thursday night, so I am only one day behind so far.)

However, while I am glad that you read this blog, I am writing it really for me so that when I reach 90+ I can read about the adventures of this unusual person named Ellen (not sure if I know her…but she sure has fun!)

Until next time…

Ellen

11:00 pm: Spell checker and editor is asleep. All mistakes are mine!