HOME | DD

Description

If you can't find any prime real eastate on the bank of the Danube, just get a boat!

Was going through pics from last year and came across this nicely lit photo of a floating hotel near the Margaret Bridge, with the parliament building in the background.

Operated today as the Grand Jules Budapest, the actual vessel's name is Vidin, originally launched in 1961 as the Belaya at the Óbuda shipyard not far from here. It was a type 305 ("Dunay") passenger motorship, intended for inland waterways, of which quite a few were built between 1959 and 1964, many having been exported to the Soviet Union. This particular example also spent most of its working life there, renamed V. L. Sobinov in 1970 before ending up in Bulgaria as the Vidin in 1990. On returning to Hungary, despite being in working order, the vessel was converted to a hotel ship, first in Neszmély in 2008, before finally ending up back in Budapest in 2016.

Even though it's kinda sad that it's just a floating hulk these days, it's still nice that it eventually returned to its birthplace and appears to be in okay shape.

Description

If you can't find any prime real eastate on the bank of the Danube, just get a boat!

Was going through pics from last year and came across this nicely lit photo of a floating hotel near the Margaret Bridge, with the parliament building in the background.

Operated today as the Grand Jules Budapest, the actual vessel's name is Vidin, originally launched in 1961 as the Belaya at the Óbuda shipyard not far from here. It was a type 305 ("Dunay") passenger motorship, intended for inland waterways, of which quite a few were built between 1959 and 1964, many having been exported to the Soviet Union. This particular example also spent most of its working life there, renamed V. L. Sobinov in 1970 before ending up in Bulgaria as the Vidin in 1990. On returning to Hungary, despite being in working order, the vessel was converted to a hotel ship, first in Neszmély in 2008, before finally ending up back in Budapest in 2016.

Even though it's kinda sad that it's just a floating hulk these days, it's still nice that it eventually returned to its birthplace and appears to be in okay shape.