Tuesday, June 10th

Today we went the other way along the river to the Freedom Bridge. Just on the corner before crossing the river, we came across the massive indoor market which we strolled round taking in the size of it. There is no shortage of food stuffs in Budapest. The Freedom Bridge itself was closed for repairs yet the traffic didn’t seem to be that bad. We crossed the bridge and came to our main destination for the day, the Gellért Thermal Baths.

Some had plans to go into the baths and had brought their cossies. This had not been communicated to others who had brought their cossie and a towel all the way to Budapest but didn’t realise the others intended to actually go into the baths themselves. So four of us decided to go into the baths, with one of us having to hire a cossie and towel – (a rather fetching red number I thought; a bit baggy, particularly when the jacuzzi shot up my leg). After buying our tickets we walked along various passages before Fiona went her own way to find the ladies changing rooms. The remaining three men went to the male changing room, where Jerry discovered he had Fiona’s cossie in his bag. So he set off down the labyrinth of corridors in search of Fiona. Realising he would not be able to enter the women’s area even if he found it (mind you Jerry you could have tried putting Fiona’s cossie on), he started calling out “Fionaaaa!” “Fionaaaa!” This resounded along the corridors and got quieter and quieter as he got further away. There would be a pause and then a more distant “Fionaaaa!” “Fionaaaa!” We were waiting for a splash, but it didn’t come. We didn’t see him for a while after that.

However we all eventually got into the baths which were certainly an experience not to be missed. One of the outside pools had a wave machine which came as a bit of a surprise since we didn’t know what was happening until a wave hit us.

Whilst some of us were in the baths, the others went up the hill opposite and looked around a church set into a cave in the hillside.

Once we were all out of the baths, Jerry and Fiona started to make there way home as they had an earlier flight than the rest of us. Jerry was determined to make the most of his public transport ticket and took a mixture of trains back to the airport despite Fiona’s reservations about how safe it was.

The rest of us crossed back across Freedom Bridge and found a café bar for lunch. Following this we made our way back to the hotel passing the Hungarian National Museum (which we didn’t go in – I think because we were running out of time) and the Franciscan Church.

Our pre–booked taxi arrived on cue and we had a very pleasant journey back to the airport with no worries at all about safety.