27 July: Budapest (2)
Today Avalon offered us a coach trip into surrounding countryside. 60% of Hungary is totally flat agricultural land producing sunflowers, paprika, acacia trees for honey and wines. The feature of acacia honey is that it does not crystalise,  but they also produce chestnut honey and linden tree honey. Hungary is dominated by the Volga and Danube Rivers. The latter floods regularly (not this week though).The biggest flood recorded was in 2013. Cruises couldn't run then either because the boats couldn't fit under the bridges.
Our first port of call was at Esztergom which used to be the capital of Hungary.  This is the Suzuki manufacturing and Volkswagen Centre. It is dominated by the Catholic religion and is famous for its Basilica built in the 19th century overlooking the Danube.
We then drove on to Visegrad which was the royal seat of Hungary in 12 th century. In 1335 it was the venue for the royal congress of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to find a trade route to circumnavigate Vienna which was demanding extortionate taxes. Those 3 countries still hold annual conferences to reinforce alliance.
We were greeted by a band of Knights of the Order of St George who played a fanfare and then led us to the Solomon Tower for bulls' blood wine (Peter and I went for the Apple juice) before the tournament.  This whole area was restored in 1980 and is now used for international entertainment. After the tournament Peter tried his hand at several of the games but found them a tad harder than they looked.
This was followed by a magnificent medieval banquet. All so much fun!
Most of us slept coming back to our hotel later in the afternoon by which time it was raining!!!! The temperature had dropped 20 degrees also. Very good for some fleeting shopping before dinner.