Well the end is near. We decided to spend our last two days in Budapest. Meredith gave us the tip that there is a military rate for the Ritz-Carlton Budapest and we couldn’t turn it down.

We took off Thursday afternoon and of course we were not disappointed. The countryside was beautiful and we love seeing all the small villages.

We were immediately in love upon arriving in Budapest. We laughed so hard because we couldn’t figure out if we were in Buda or Pest (hint our hotel was in Pest). The Ritz was everything you expect, beautiful and opulent, and an incredible bed.

We spent the evening out at the markets, Buda Castle, the Chain Bridge, and St. Stephens. We had a wonderful evening site seeing and Christmas Shopping.

Hungarian Forints. Dave and I called them everything but Forints, including Huffnagels, Fortnights, Hufflepuffs, Hunjagers.

We called this the fancy market, because it was on Fashion Street.

St.Stephens Basilica, absolutely stunning.

Killer food, we loved the ghoulash on the potato pancake and the stuffed cabbage.

We spent a good part of the evening on Castle Hill at Buda Castle. Budapest by night is incredible, one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen. We sat at the castle and watched the lights come on as the sun set.

We finished our night at St. Stephens Basilica and the market there. It was a small market and we really enjoyed it. They had great hot chocolate, almost as good as Italy.

We had a leisurely morning the next day and then made our way to Matthias Church and Fisherman Bastion, or Harry Potter Castle as Dave called it. The church was originally built in 1200 and has been restored a number of times. We climbed the tower and got to see all the bells. I always want to climb every tower, so I was pretty excited about this one.

We finished our night back in Vienna at the Museum Quarter market. This is where we found the elusive Santa mug. I had seen people with them at Rathaus but no one could ever tell me where they got it. I searched all 9 markets in Vienna, of course it was the last one in the city where I found it. What we didn’t know was that there were actually 2 mugs. The body mug was super hard to find. We hit every gluwein stall before we found it.

We also found some great ornaments in the last market and shockingly food we haven’t tried before as well as a new Christmas punch.

Our last night was wonderful. I wouldn’t have asked for it to end any other way. Tomorrow we leave very very early. We don’t want to leave but we are ready to be home as well.