The day has finally arrived

After waiting 596 days, the day has finally arrived.  We are off to Europe to sail on our first river cruise.  And not just any river cruise, but a Christmas Markets River Cruise on the Danube.  This is definitely a bucket list item.

Our Air Canada flight (180,600 Aeroplan points + $366.33 in fees and taxes) to Budapest, Hungary via Munich, Germany was not leaving until 8:00pm.  This gave Karen, Nana and myself time to head down to Toronto early in the afternoon and have a great visit with Karen’s brother Ross and his wife Susie.  They were also kind enough to let us leave the car and drop us off at Pearson International Airport.

Once we got inside the airport, we quickly found the Air Canada kiosks where we printed our luggage tags and boarding passes.  It was now time to head to baggage drop off and see if any of our bags were overweight.  We held our collective breath and surprisingly all three bags started their journey down the conveyor belt.

We made our way over to the E gates to meet up with the rest of the group.  The cruise was organized by Chris Ashton of Expedia Cruises, Barrie.  There are sixteen of us in total including Karen’s niece Marie who happens to work for Chris, Chris’ wife Maria and Steve and Linda.  Prior to getting to the airport, we learned that the flight was delayed by forty-five minutes.  After we boarded and got settled in our seats, the captain told us that we were actually going to be an hour and a half late.  This is exactly the same amount of time our layover is in Munich.  Therefore we will be missing our connecting fight.  Even with the middle seat empty between Nana and myself, I could not get comfortable during the eight hour flight.

We finally arrived in Munich and instead of running to the gate, we took our time because as far as we knew, we were missing our flight.  As it turns out the fight to Budapest was delayed and so we had a chance.  We booked it to the gate and we were literally the last people to board.  It was only a one hour flight and we arrived in Budapest by 1:00pm but without our bags.

We met up with our ride ($?.?? CAD / person) who drove us the half an hour to the Millennium Court, Budapest – Marriott Executive Apartments ($???.?? CAD)  which is just steps away from the main shopping in the city centre.  We booked a two bedroom / two bathroom suite and we have a view of the Danube River, the Citadel and the Hungarian Parliament Building.

We grabbed some hot beverages and headed out to explore Vaci Utca the most famous street in central Budapest.  There are many shops, restaurants primarily catering to the tourists.  It was so cool to finally be here.

It did not take us long to get to Vorosmarty Square which is home to one of Budapest’s Christmas Market.  I knew it was going to be magical but it was truly beyond words.  The square was surrounded by stalls selling crafts, sweets and food, tons of food.  We walked around the square and surrounding area for a couple of hours.

With the long travel day, we headed back to the hotel.  I hope the luggage gets here soon.