There is a city with a gothic parliament, a baroque domed cathedral and a set of great museums next to a vast park - it can only be London, you say - but no! I speak of a sister of Vienna, on the banks of the Danube, called Budapest. We visited this fascinating city in 2009.

The magnificent Hungarian Parliament Building was designed by Imre Steindl in the 1880s. Central to the plan is the sixteen-sided dome, an extremely rare feature in a gothic building.
The dome hall currently houses The Holy Crown Of Hungary, protected by armed guards. This is the crown of Saint Stephen, the first King of Hungary. Traditionally, it is the crown which holds absolute power in Hungary; the monarch is only an instrument of that power. The crown found its way into Fort Knox (in the USA) after World War II and was returned to Hungary in 1978.
Gresham Palace is (indirectly) named after Sir Thomas Gresham, the London banker who also founded Gresham College.
Hidden away in St. Stephen's Basilica is the right hand of St. Stephen. It is known as The Holy Right.
Surrounding the vast Heroes' Square are two monumental museums, the city park, and the Millennium Memorial which includes statues of many Hungarian kings.
Budapest is in fact formed from historical Buda on one side of the Danube, and Pest on the other. The current Buda Castle is a post-war reconstruction of a baroque work, and has disappointingly sparse interiors. It is however home to the Bibliotheca Corviniana which happened to be closed during our visit.
The interior of the Matthias Church is covered in frescos and heraldry relating to King Matthias Corvinus, who founded a famous library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana.

We decided to go on a trip to the tiny cathedral city of Esztergom, north of Budapest and just across the Danube from Slovakia. It was a place of silence.

A former capital of Hungary, it is like Canterbury in being the seat of the church. Indeed, there is a hill there dedicated to St. Thomas Becket.