We arrived in Budapest, Hungary at 8:30 this morning after leaving Krakow twelve hours earlier and traveling aboard two separate trains. While we got a little more sleep during this round of sleeper cars, we were still pretty exhausted when we arrived in Budapest. Therefore, we were ecstatic when we showed up at our hotel at 10:00 a.m. and they said our room was ready. Although we didn’t take a nap, it was nice to be able to relax, have our luggage stowed, and shower up. 
Looking for a good spot for some traditional Hungarian fare, we landed a homey restaurant that provided us a hearty pork and potato meal to match the massive appetites we built from our night’s train ride. Jennifer was tempted to take an afternoon siesta, but Sam convinced her to rally and tour yet another castle as we only had a couple of days to see what Budapest had to offer. 
As our accommodations at “Hotel Castle” imply, we are just steps outside of the Castle Hill gates. This was ideal as we wanted to do the touristy thing yet did not have the energy to hop a tram to Budapest’s other offerings across the Danube River. While in the confines of the Castle we visited the following sites:
Magdalene Tower (the last remains from a Gothic Church that was destroyed during WWII)
The neo-Gothic Matthias Church (most impressive to us was the colorful tile roof and the height of the church spire)
St. Stephen Statue - immortalizing Hungary’s first king
After these sites we hung out around Fisherman’s Bastion, a neo-Gothic arcade built along the castle’s fortification wall that frames some lovely picture opportunities of the river and the Parliament beyond.
We wrapped up our tour of Castle Hill by walking the grounds of the Royal Palace. The structures are now museums and while they were quite lovely in their own right… we did not find the palace to meet the same standards of those we saw in Poland (Rosie would be proud)!!!
Our evening was wrapped up by walking back to our hotel along the river’s edge and Sam taking off for a six-mile run before returning to the hotel for a nice night of wine and appetizers in our lovely hotel room.
We look forward to resting up for some more strong runs in the morning followed by lots of “touristy” activities tomorrow on the other side of the Danube River.
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