We had a tour of the castle on the Buda side on Sunday, but that time we took a bus to the base of the hill. Today we decided to walk from our hotel, then climb up the steps to the castle complex. All told, we walked about 10 km, so we felt we earned our wine with dinner. The first interesting sight we saw along the way was a church with a tiled roof. It wasn’t the tiled roof that made it stand out, but the fact that it was a Protestant church. I think it was the first one we’ve seen on this trip.

When we got to the top of the hill we spotted a restaurant in the Fisherman’s Bastion. It had lovely views over the river and a window table that was just coming free. We took it and had a lovely lunch overlooking the Danube.

After lunch we walked around the outside of the castle complex. On Sunday we stayed mainly in the central area, but once you get a little off the beaten path you find interesting details. We’ve seen many tiled roofs this week, but most of them have been on churches. This wasn’t – I think it was the archives. But it was very beautiful, no matter what it was.

Half of the walk around the castle complex is planted in cherry trees, and they are in full bloom now. In this case our timing was perfect.

The petals are beginning to fall, coating the ground with something that looks a little like snow or hail, but is far more pleasant. I definitely prefer this.

And then we headed down the hill to the Danube. This picture gives you a sense of how far down we had to come – and how far up we had to go to get there in the first place. If you zoom in on this picture, near the statue on the top of the walls you can see tiny people. That is where we were 20 minutes earlier.

As we headed back to the Pest side of the city, we spotted a monument that we’d first seen at breakfast as we sailed into Budapest. It was the perfect angle, almost making it look as if the saint (it has to be a saint, right?) was summoning the heavens…

It’s a good final image of Budapest. Tomorrow we fly to Stockholm.