Dad and Diane"s excellent Danube adventure Day 1 and 2

Hi
Dad and I decided to do a river cruise and settled on Gate1 trip Budapest to Prague...yes part is by bus since Prague is not on the Danube.Trip was 14-15 days long. dad is 80+, active and fun, I am 62 , less active and less fun. We usually travel independently, have done only one other group tour which was to Russia. The goal of this trip was to see a part of the world we hadn't seen, to have an easy trip where we would not have to worry about logistics .
Day 1: JFK- Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Budapest. dad had upgraded to the Comfort Seats on Delta- very nice and was grateful for it. Nice flight. met at jetway in Amsterdam as arranged by airport assistance as Dad is saving his steps for dancing and the long walks from the gates thru to the next terminals are too long and too stressful for him. This worked out great but the 3 hour layover was a killer in the long run. Flight to Budapest was cramped and uncomfortable. Not to be unkind but Dad gave up his aisle seat to an elderly woman whose size and lack of mobility (bad knees) made it almost impossible for her to get in and out of the seat. Dad quipped that he was thinking that there was no chance of his going to the lavatory before Budapest.. I was really thinking that we would not be able to evacuate.
Arrived in Budapest and met some of the people on our tour. The guide was there and we took a van to the Hilton Budapest City
RE; Budapest - we liked the Hilton very much and did not consider it out of the way. The tram 4 and 6 were very near, some of the more energetic people on our group walked to Heros Square. The 4/6 tram connected to the M1 subway in a bout a 5-10 min ride , and to the scenic 2 Tram within 5 minutes. We also enjoyed being at the Westfeld mall- I enjoy looking around stores in other countries to see what is different etc. It also was a soft, albeit kinda wimpy, landing spot for dinner the first night when we wimped out and just went to TGI Fridays. Inside the hotel, there is a great view from the window at the far end near the rail station- we could see the Buda side, the Budapest eye and the freedom statue. Our room was on the fourth floor.
Here's what we did during our stay. Our goal was to try and minimize walking as dad conserves his steps for the dance floor . this trip we were not as interested in art museums as in the past. We also opted for convenience and so did more
of the group excursions then we might have, but were glad we did.
Day 1 arrival: we took a longer nap than usual as the trip there was harder then we thought- the 3 hour layover in Amsterdam killed us. Went to the Welcome Cocktail hour and met some nice people. Others in the group tried out the recommended restaurant which they liked

Day 2: took the included City Tour.. Enjoyed it very much. The guide was excellent and the tour focused on the Buda side and castle area. We would not have made our way independently to some of the viewpoints otherwise.We decided to not return to the hotel with the group but stayed at the castle. toured the church, walked around the area slowly and had lunch at a self serve place near the church. We realized that our tour group had arrived at the castle area about 20 mins ahead of the other tours. we should have taken advantage of that and had lunch at the cafe near the church recommended by Rick Steve's when we first came upon it and not 20 min later when it was packed. Walked down to the funicular, just caught the changing of the guard and then took the funicular down. Got 72 hr transit passes for dad and myself in the machine and took the number 16 bus across the bridge to the first stop where we changed to the number 2 tram and then number 4 to hotel. Nap time before dinner. Stay tuned