High in the hills of Buda sits the Sándor Palace, the home of the Hungarian President. It sits directly north of Buda Castle, the former residence of the kings and governors of Hungary.  Completed in 1806, the palace was badly bombed during World War II and remained in ruin until the Revolution of 1989 when the Communist regime was overthrown.  Slowly the palace was restored based upon the original blueprints, and the work completed in 2002.

Here are three photos from Sándor Palace…

Click on any image to enlarge

All over Budapest, the architecture was simply gorgeous!  This palace was no exception.

Teal doors with lion’s head knockers and carved details

From Denmark to the Czech Republic, I witnessed my share of tourists being dumb around palace guards this trip, but nothing was quite as shocking as the tourist who posed for a selfie right up next to this guard and then touched the guard’s gun.  The guard didn’t miss a beat as he jumped into action, ensuring he had full control of the gun, barking a verbal warning to the tourist, and scaring the snot out of the tourist.