Budapest!

After 21 hours of travel (leaving CT at 9 am and arriving Budapest at 12:30 pm) we arrived at our hotel.  The drive down to JFK was faster than we thought... all the traffic jams were in the opposite direction.  The Delta flight over was crowded, but we survived -- arriving early in Amsterdam.  Scott tried to use his Starbucks card at the airport, but they told him they were not set up for that.

KLM ops in Amsterdam were disorganized... they had these portable kiosks that you were supposed to use for scanning your ticket to get a boarding number... they didn't work.  We and about six others all got assigned #113... it was chaotic.  The flight itself was OK -- the whole region was cloudy, so there wasn't much to see.





We got to the hotel before check in time, but our room was ready, so we crashed.  Amazing what a good nap will do to get your body clock caught up.  We are six hours ahead of NY... 9 ahead of the west coast.

We caught an early dinner and it was off to the Opera House for Madam Butterfly.  No pics to show you, my camera battery ran out.  We had third level box seats.  There's something strange about sitting in an old Hungarian theater, watching a Japanese story sung in Italian, where the composer has woven in strains to the "Star Spangled Banner" into the score.

We are going to hit the sack.  Tomorrow we explore Buda.

Our room overlooks the Danube.  Here's our view, looking NE at the Parliament Building and the Margaret bridge.