In spite of being awake since 12:30 am last night, I managed to get through a busy day which began with a Budapest city tour. Boy, was I shocked at the end of the day when I opened up the Health app on my phone!

See the first entry: Flights climbed 24 floors!

I know for a fact that we climbed 133 steps at the beautiful Parliament building, our first stop this morning. Can you imagine our Congress conducting business in such a gilded and ornamented space? In spite of its baroque appearance, the space features all the latest electronic voting and tabulation.

We also visited Matthias Church on the top of the hill, which had a colorful tile roof and was highly decorated inside. It is important as the site of coronations and weddings.

What’s interesting is that during a period of 150 years the building served as an Islamic mosque, after being built as a Catholic Church. The walls were painted white and all its statues destroyed save for one of the Virgin Mary which the Muslims covered over with a wall. During a large earthquake the wall was destroyed, revealing the Virgin Mary statue. Soon after, the building was restored as a Catholic Church.

Of course I had to take a picture of the organ but unfortunately did not hear it.

We returned to the hotel for the afternoon where I got a much-needed nap before heading out in search of the Cave Church with new friends from Toronto, Charles and Laurie Wheeler.

Alas, it had closed five minutes before we found it, after climbing up a steep hill while searching for it. Still we enjoyed a spectacular view as we climbed the mountain.

Oh, my aching feet!