30 September 2024

Early autumn holiday, 30 September 2024

Budapest, Hungary

The Swan Whisperer didn't go for a run this morning, although he would have liked to, but he said he had a but of a niggle. But after breakfast we decided to walk through Szechenyi Park, which was lovely. We ended up in Hero Square, where the main statue of the Archangel Gabriel had been removed for repairs, and its column was covered in scaffolding. As, indeed, is the statue of the large woman waving her knickers in the breeze that is on the top of the hill on the Buda side.  Then I said I'd like to see the Central Market, which we hadn't seen since our first visit here in about 2008 or thereabouts. So we took the metro from Hero Square. (line 1, the Földalatti) and then a tram back to where we had been last night, which was where the market is. We had a very pleasant wander around it, not quite sure whether it catered mainly to tourists or to locals - or both.

It was a little early for lunch, so we took the no 2 tram back past the Houses of Parliament, and then wandered up and down a main road looking for somewhere to eat - panini and beer, in the end!

I had had enough walking by then, so we decided to go on a bus to where we could catch a tram back to the aire - we took ourselves over the Danube on to the Buda side, and caught the tram in Obuda. What was really nice, though, was that you had to go on an underpass to get from the bus to the team, and it seemed, we thought, rather unnecessarily large, until we realised we were looking at the remains of a Roman bath-house that  had been excavated!

Back at the WoMo, we had a cup of tea, and then the SW went out for another walk, but I had had enough and stayed in, resting and reading and so on. And tomorrow we start the journey home, although we are only half-way though our holiday and have plenty more places to visit en route!

More photos on Facebook, as normal.