Heather and I took a lot of pictures (something like 1,500) on our cruise through Europe and it’s going to take a while to go through all of those. I’ll be using Wednesdays to post a few as it’s likely I won’t be doing much in the shop in July. We have family visiting and shop time is going to be limited.
Here the first place we visited: The Former Royal Palace in Budapest Hungary. It’s called that because it was formerly used as the royal palace. It has also served as a fortress and been the scene of many battles. Today it houses the National Gallery and a museum. There’s also a nice bistro up there that served a nice lunch – it’s on just right of the dome behind those trees, no, you can’t see it in the photo, but go there if you’re in the area.
One of the first things we learned is that Budapest is two cities. On one side of the Danube is Buda (where the palace is) and the other side is Pest (where our hotel was). Often when asking for directions, the locals would first say, “Ah, that’s in Pest.” or “Oh, that’s over in Buda.”

Former Royal Palace on Castle Hill
We spent our first morning up on the hill where we visited the Hungarian Nation Gallery, walked around the palace, visited the little town, and ate our lunch.
If you need me – I’m sorting through pictures,
Andrew
I have found someone who takes more pics than me 😊
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I love this city! Buda on one side of the river, Pest on the other – and I wish I could remember which is which! The Basilica is awesome and Freedom Square is one of my favourite places! I’m jealous!
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I am so happy we got to see it. Lots of great things there.
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Seriously? Buda and Pest?
Sounds like a gag they play on unsuspecting tourists. 😉
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At first I thought that, but they carry on a lot about it.
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Been there too!
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We enjoyed our visit.
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I hope you will put together a video. That would be spectacular to see. Thanks for sharing these beautiful, memorable photos.
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We just might do the video.
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I learned about Buda and Pest just a few short years ago when my son returned from an extended time in Europe, and this was his favorite stop. Until then, I’d never realized it was two cities. I take thousands of photos every time I go anywhere at all, yet I’m not very good at organizing them afterward. I hope you do well with that! You’ve taken such a wonderful trip it will be worth your time to savor the photos!
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Heather and I are determined to do something with all these photos. Right now it’s somewhere between a slideshow or creating a video with them.
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1,500 photos? That should keep you out of trouble for a while.
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at least for a few hours. 😉
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A nice photo, Andrew, and thanks for the info about the difference between Buda and Pest. I didn’t know that until today.
Ω
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It’s interesting the things you learn when you visit a palace. I never knew this either and it’s important to the folks who live there.
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Important and rightfully so.
Ω
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