This is the first post of this trip that I am writing from our own living room. We flew back yesterday on another nightmare of a day of flying (a birthday I won’t soon forget). It is 2:43 am, and of course, I am still on Budapest time, where it is almost noon. But I shouldn’t complain because jet lag is always easier to handle at home. I will get into our flight day as soon as I am more coherent, but I will say that it was another bad one and that we will never fly through or to Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris again. If we have to go to Paris (we are not planning on it), we will fly to Amsterdam and take the train.

In the meantime, I will give you the photos of Budapest at night that I promised would knock your socks off. After spending three and a half days there I can say with total certainty—this is the most photogenic city I have ever had the pleasure of visiting—and it’s at night when it really shines. On the first night, we were in port. I was going to go out after dinner and take pictures, but with the sun setting so early and it getting really dark by 5:00 pm, I went out before dinner. It was truly a photo walk I will remember. You are going to see 25 photos in the gallery below. I took 346 on that early (very cold🥶) evening walk. Well, enough narrative; here are the photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Just opposite where Gulveig (our ship), was docked was the Four Seasons, where Steve and Jamie would stay.

Then I turned and crossed the Chain Bridge.

It was beautifully lit up…

And I could look back and shoot our ship moored just below it.

The real prime parking spot.

There will be some duplication here because…

…the light kept changing.

And as I walked further out on the bridge I could start to see the Parliament Building.

And an excursion boat went underneath as I looked out.

The Parliament Building just keeps on catching my eye.

But incredible views are everywhere…

Off the bridge and headed back up the Danube/

I keep seeing more and more of the Parliament.

And the river walk had some nice shadows.

But oh, that amazing building.

It’s like the Opera House in Sydney….

if you see it, it just screams, “TAKE MY PICTURE!”

But so does the bridge.

And the castle.

And the lions at the end of the bridge.

And the castle again.

And the traffic on the river front.

We would see a lot of this view…

…because when we moved from our ship to the hotel, we were looking right at it.

And the bridge again as I turned to go back to the ship for dinner.

There is nothing like walking that riverbank at night. Every single place you look, you see something you HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE OF! What an amazing place to be a photographer. I sometimes wonder if the people who live in Budapest end up getting jaded by these views. I am sure they do, but I hope they don’t. I hope I wouldn’t.

Editor’s Note: My plan is to do two more posts about Budapest (we were there for three days), one about our flight day and then do a summary of the cruise, what we loved and what we didn’t like so much. And I have been getting some questions. So I will try and answer those with the follow-up. I really want all this wound up before Christmas, but that will depend on three things: a cut/crack I have developed on my ring finger that makes it really hurt to type (you never realize how much you use any individual finger while typing until you hurt one). How much time do I sleep versus writing as I finish up with jet lag? And how much time it takes to get ready for Christmas?

Photogenic is a stupid, nonsensical word, but it is also a great mystery.   —Blaise Cendrars