Budapest

 

A fairly good sleep last night, but I woke up early because I went to bed early. We had a nice relaxed breakfast at our hotel, then headed out for a walk along the Danube to the Parliament buildings. It's a beautiful morning, already quite warm with a breeze along the river. There are so many beautiful buildings here. We are walking along the Pest side, so we have a great view of all the buildings on the Buda side! On this side the Parliament buildings are very impressive, huge and very ornate. There is also a shoe memorial on the river to commemorate the people, mostly Jews killed in 1944/45 by the Arrow Brigade, a far right Nazi party. We then wandered through streets and made our way to St Stephan's Basilica, then through some more pedestrian streets back to the river, and finally back to our hotel for a bit of a rest. Instead of a "proper" lunch today, we had a Funnel Cake. A Budapest variation of an ice-cream cone.

Then later in the afternoon, we took the metro to the Szechenyi Baths, one of Budapest's many thermal spas. The metro ride itself was very interesting. it opened in 1896, and definitely feels like it's from another era! Then the baths themselves are over 100 years old, and very ornate. We tried maybe half of their 18 pools. A very fun and relaxing experience, though we almost got lost trying to find our way back to the changing rooms!

Another little rest before heading out for dinner. We decide to try Langos, another popular Budapest food. It's a deep-fried dough, topped with cheese and sour cream. Delicious! The cafe is on the pedestrian street, so there is lots of good people watching. It seems fairly busy, but I'm sure next month will be even busier.

Another earlyish night as we re-adjust our inner clocks!

















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