In Budapest: Taking the waters

September 24, 2023

Sunday was another wet day, hopefully the last one for awhile. I'm glad we weren't counting on this as a ride day. Barry was feeling a little off so he hung out in the hotel in the morning while Peter, our guide, led the rest of us out from the Hotel Museum Budapest to learn where to go and how to get around.

Unlike the walkable old city centers of Prague and Krakow, Budapest is a big loud city with lots of fast traffic. The Metro is the way to go. It's the oldest electrified underground railway system in the world, completed in 1896 for the millennial celebration of Hungary's founding in 896.

Peter, a native of Budapest, shows us the ropes in the Metro

Hungarian is unlike any of the Slavic or Indo-European languages, all speckled with accents and umlauts. Compared to French, Spanish or Czech, it doesn't look or sound at all familiar. So far I have mastered one word: Egészségedre (sounds something like Eh-geh-Sheh-guh-dreh) which means Cheers! We had lots of practice on this one at the winery yesterday.

All the signs in the Metro are in Hungarian but they are not too difficult to follow once you know how the system works. We took the red line and then the yellow line up to the City Park and Heroes Square, another 1896 project and a good place to start getting a handle on Hungary's history.

In Heroes Square we spent some time at the Millenium Monument. Hungarians love to put up statues to honor their heroes and this one pays homage to abundance of them from the first 1,000 years of Hungary's story. Below the Archangel Gabriel atop the center column are the seven chieftains of the Magyars who settled here in 896. In the 14 colonnades stand kings, princes and noblemen starting with Saint Stephen I, the first King from the year 1001.

The seven chieftains of the Magyars who led their tribes to settle in the Carpathian Basin, a region that encompasses Hungary, Slovakia and other territory in Central Europe.

On the left, King Saint Stephen - Szent István - leads off the parade of heroes

Near the Millenium Monument stands Vajdahunyad Castle, built in 1896 as a museum and example of various architectural styles from the Middle Ages.

We passed some handsome buildings as we worked our way back through the Pest side of Budapest towards the Danube.

On the Danube standing 96 meters tall is Hungary's Parliament. It's another 1896 project and the largest building in the country, big enough to hold 50 five-story buildings.

Back at the hotel, Barry was feeling revived and ready for lunch. I put my navigation survival skills to work and we zoomed back up to the City Park. We scored a table at Gundel Restaurant, an elegant 130-year-old institution. A sign named our spot as the official table of John Cleese. This place exudes atmosphere, with a string ensemble and tidy white-gloved waiters.

My grilled chicken with potato pancake, pears and porcini mushrooms was excellent, as was Barry's wiener schnitzel. Then came their signature dessert...

The Gundel Pancake, filled with a toasted walnut concoction topped with dark chocolate glaze. I could have gone for the flambe option, but it was luscious as is.

A visit to the thermal baths is a favorite social activity here. We hung out at Szecheny Baths with the locals and saw several of our tour mates. They have indoor and outdoor pools and nice private changing cabins.

The hot baths get up to about 101 degrees, and the swimming pools are in the 60s and 70s.

Sunday afternoon is prime time at the baths

On the way back we had just enough time to duck into the state opera house for a peek at the opulent lobby before the evening performance.

Tomorrow looks like sunny weather for a ride!

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