As promised we are sending you greetings from Budapest with our postcard from Budapest #1. Our travel partners in Hungary, invited us as their guests, so that we can share with you firsthand what it is like here.  Three words:  Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!

We left early Wednesday evening on American Airlines, which now has a direct flight from JFK to Budapest.  A couple of glasses of vino, a great meal, a movie, sleep, breakfast, and you’re here!

The first thing we discovered is that Budapest (prounced “BOO-dah-pesht) is actually two cities: Buda, which is the hilly city on the West side of the Danube, and Pest, the flat city on the East Side.  We are staying at the Corinthia Hotelwhich is in the Pest part of Budapest.  This gem of a hotel  first opened in 1896 as the Grand Hotel Royal  and has been beautifully restored to its original glory with marble floors, a sweeping staircase and breathtaking, six-storey Atrium where you can dine, or just relax with a cup of coffee.  They have beautiful rooms, with free WIFI internet access.  Our favorite part of the hotel is the Royal Spa, which is stunning and has one of the most beautiful indoor pools we have ever seen.  We’ve scheduled spa appointments for everyday, perfect after a day touring this beautiful old world city.

Here we are on the grand stair case of the Corinthia hotel (head tomoto, Cheryl (left) and Roni (tomato daughter and 3T partner.)

A few quick impressions:  impeccably clean, very friendly, charming and helpful people , safe (you can walk anywhere), lots of easy public transportation with a tram and the metro, and compared to NYC, the traffic around the city is moderate. A very manageable city to get around.

Last night we had a dinner cruise along the Danube with spectacular breathtaking views of Buda, Pest and Castle Hill.   Check out our Budapest photo album below.  Tomorrow we’re heading to the market for a little shopping (paprika is the top of our list), sightseeing, and dinner on Gellert Hill overlooking the city.  Tomorrow we head for a dip in one of the city’s famous thermal baths that date back to Roman times. Oh and the food and wines? World class.

Here we are at the start of our boat cruise, toasting Budapest with our 3G Travel friends, Estzer and Zsuzsa in the middle.

We’ll be posting more photos to our Budapest album over the weekend, so check them out.  And Tuesday (as we are saying “Viszlát” to Budapest and our wonderful new friends here) you will get our next postcard from here, which will include shopping from the market place to haute couture, our thermal bath experience, and more Budapest delights.