The Danube River at night

Tonight we did a dinner cruise on the Danube River - in all of my wildest dreams I never thought I would do that! It was very cool. It was a four course dinner with all drinks included.

                                           A pumpkin soup with roasted pepitos on top - really good

                                                    Four different pate's in a pastry shell

          Dessert

I drank draft beer because I know from past trips to Europe that their draft beer is better than bottled back in the States. (I talked to the guy at the table next to us and he told me to wait until we got to Prague their draft beer is the best isn't he world!!!!) Our cruise was so cool -

A picture of the Parliament Building.

 there was a band playing and there we folk dancers - at the end the violin player played all Christmas songs - it brought tears to my eyes to hear people from all over the world sing Silent Night together - we may be different but we all want the same things.

Thursday - we had a city tour with Julia -

a delightful young lady that told us so much about Budapest. I think living in America our whole lives we are shielded from the effects of war. She took us to the Jewish ghetto where 20,000 jews were killed. Prior to sending them to the camps in Germany they had to live in the ghetto surround by these walls. The are the only parts of the wall left. We learned so much and it was so interesting. We watched the day end from atop a hill on the Buda side where we got a magnificent view of the city.

Next it was on the to Christmas Markets and some warm mulled wine to warm us up.