Wednesday (day 12) in Kalocsa, Hungary

me in the ship lounge

Kalocsa, Hungary and visit to Hungarian horse show

I haven’t said much about the ship we are traveling on; it’s the River Explorer and holds about 160 passengers plus crew.  The cruise has been very enjoyable; the cabins are not large but are well designed and the beds are comfortable.  The food is good with open seating meals and innovative menus (the soups are outstanding).  Most importantly, the people are friendly and efficient (most of the crew are from the countries we are sailing through).  I’m really enjoying not having to unpack every time we go to a new place (nothing beats a moveable bedroom) and not having to hassle with the customs officials myself.   Romania and Bulgaria (remember the bandits?) are not yet places I’d visit driving on my own - maybe in a few years, but not now.

Paprika-to-be

We spent the morning cruising into Hungary.  The riverside is looking more prosperous with obvious farms and fields.  The big crop is peppers for paprika and our guides keep talking about and showing us paprika fields.  One paprika field would have been enough to get the idea but the guide either thought we were really dense or else she ran out of other things to talk about.  Anyway, Trish and I had to stifle giggles every the paprika subject came up again. 

We visited a Hungarian farm and horse show.  The original Hungarian riders called themselves “chicos” and we saw a riding demonstration.  Unbelievably they use saddles without a girth strap; nobody fell off.  Interesting but a little too touristy so I was a lot more interested in seeing the farming methods. 

We left the port at 5 pm so there was no chance to look around the area of the dock other than seeing a crew put a few rowing shells into the water.  Dinner on board the ship was excellant as always.