I Heart Budapest

I have a newfound favorite city!  Venice is pretty spectacular, but Budapest is amazing.  The food is fantastic, you don't have nearly the crowds Venice does, and there is so much to do and see. Budapest is made of two cities Buda and Pest and in 1873 they were joined together to make up Budapest.  It is the capital of Hungary. We arrived in Budapest early in the morning.  After checking into our hotel, we hit the streets making our way to the palace and church by crossing the Chains Bridge.  It was noticeably hotter in Budapest and we opted to take the funicular to the top of the hill. We arrived in time to see the changing of the guards, but don't get any visions of it being anything like Buckingham Palace as it only involved a half dozen guards.  We wandered through a few tourist shops and then over to the church.  What a spectacular view of the city one has from the palace and Matthias church. Given the size of the city and the short amount of time we had to spend there we thought it would be a great idea to do the Hop on Hop off tour of the city.  The tickets are pretty dirt cheap and they also give you discounts on entrance to many other attractions in the city.  Our next stop took us to Vajdahunyad Castle.  So beautiful!  The grounds are pretty and enjoyable to stroll through.  Back on the bus to the city center where we grabbed a bite to eat, did some shopping, and by this time it was time to see them go to a dance performance of folk dancers. We finished our first evening with a cruise along the Danube River. The word stunning doesn't even do seeing the city at night from the river justice!