We arrived in Budapest around 3PM today via the 11:50 train from Vienna. We had a great train ride. It was approximately 3 hours long and no delays, which was great! Budapest, part of the Habsburg triumvirate, is much grander in scale than Prague and Vienna. Comprising of three separate towns, the city is rich in historical sights. We are so excited to start exploring!
Since it was later in the day, we made our way to the Castle Districts to visit the House of Hungarian Wines. Here you will find all the wines from Hungary's 22 wine regions and they even organize daily wine tastings for its visitors...that's exactly what we did. The Royal Wine House and Wine Cellar Museum brings wonder underground, in both royal and civil cellars that were previously closed and could not be visited! There are a number of cellar rooms, salons, and wine tasting rooms, as well as dungeons. We did a 3 course wine tasting with a 1 course Champagne tasting. The tasting experience was very different than we have ever experienced. You actually sit down at a table with live music and dancing (we loved that) and you are served each tasting as a FULL glass of wine. While the white wine was ok, the red wine was unlike anything we had ever tasted. One of them was very smokey, while the other was very spicy, almost a Paprika taste. We finished off with a glass of champagne and them toured the rest of the winery. The winery itself is underground, housed by old caves where the Hungarian Royal used to entertain. As you can see by the pictures, they couldn't have been that tall!!!
Afer dinner, we took a taxi back to the hotel, where we sat in the bar and talked about what we were going to do tomorrow. We are very excited to be tourists in Budapest. From what we have seen thus far, we are looking f
orward to the next few days! 
Have a great night, we are off to bed!
Once we arrived in Budapest, we made our way to our hotel, Four Seasons, Gresham Palace. Gresham Palace is an Art Nouveau landmark. It has views of the Chain Bride, Danube River and the Buda Hills. It even has its own place in the history of Budapest, as it was once was a great Palace. The hotel at night is absoluetely beautiful! We climbed Getrin hill and took a bunch of pictures of the city. 
Since it was later in the day, we made our way to the Castle Districts to visit the House of Hungarian Wines. Here you will find all the wines from Hungary's 22 wine regions and they even organize daily wine tastings for its visitors...that's exactly what we did. The Royal Wine House and Wine Cellar Museum brings wonder underground, in both royal and civil cellars that were previously closed and could not be visited! There are a number of cellar rooms, salons, and wine tasting rooms, as well as dungeons. We did a 3 course wine tasting with a 1 course Champagne tasting. The tasting experience was very different than we have ever experienced. You actually sit down at a table with live music and dancing (we loved that) and you are served each tasting as a FULL glass of wine. While the white wine was ok, the red wine was unlike anything we had ever tasted. One of them was very smokey, while the other was very spicy, almost a Paprika taste. We finished off with a glass of champagne and them toured the rest of the winery. The winery itself is underground, housed by old caves where the Hungarian Royal used to entertain. As you can see by the pictures, they couldn't have been that tall!!!
After dinner we went to a casual Italian restuarant called "Tratoria Toscana." It was SO GOOD and the atmosphere was great. We sat here for about 3 hours just taking it all in...I kept saying, "we are in Hungary, can you believe it?" Jeff got a good laugh out of that! Also, check out the sizes of the wine glasses. They were the largest glasses we have ever seen! I think I could have fit my whole head inside!
Afer dinner, we took a taxi back to the hotel, where we sat in the bar and talked about what we were going to do tomorrow. We are very excited to be tourists in Budapest. From what we have seen thus far, we are looking f
orward to the next few days! 
Have a great night, we are off to bed!
xoxo
Jenn & Jeff
Hey...Maureen and one of my clients say Budapest is an incredible city...looks like you are having a great time there!! They had those giant wine glasses on the Today Show last week...holds an entire bottle!! My kind of glass!! I sure would love that winery tour!! :) Babies are good...we are watching the Academy Awards. Love you and miss you...Mom/Jean
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