A day of our own

A bit more on last night's Budapest Great Market Hall visit. I could take up residence here. The Great Market Hall was built in 1897, and is the largest of all Budapest market halls. You can get pretty well anything on the 3 floors including fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meats, pickles, fresh fish, Hungarian paprika, wines, souvenirs, bags, clothes, and home style meals and Hungarian snacks. Looks like this could be a home base for a bit.

Rick Steve’s glimpse of the Market Hall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyyJnd_bxaE

After a long day and a half of travel, it's time to see how much we can squeeze in before we board our river cruise tomorrow evening. After a much needed 10 hour sleep... we were up and ready to roll shortly after 8 AM. For our first couple of days we are staying in a beautiful VRBO directly in the centre of the city so getting around by foot should be pretty easy. We usually do a mix of hotels and VRBO type rentals on our trips. The VRBO rentals can definitely save a bit of money with 2-3 couples travelling and they do give you the luxury of washer/dryer facilities and the use of a kitchen and living room for some together time. In other cities, a central hotel works much better. We’ve even done bed and breakfasts in some countries. Our favourite was in Plitvice, Croatia where we found a little out of the way place near the national park. My best memory of that location was ringing the doorbell to get into our rooms at 9PM after a meal because the door wouldn’t open. At least until Paul realized it was a push door and not a pull door.

First stop was the Gellert Thermal Spa. Whether you’re a local or a tourist, soaking one’s weary bones in the warm, mineral-rich waters of a thermal bath is what everyone does.
Sitting on a area of tons of thermal springs — the result of a thinned Earth crust Budapest has well and truly earned itself the title of the City of Spas. After changing into our bathing suits we were off fo a dip in their many pools... some cooler and some vary warm. In between we found time to relax in a longe chair and sip on a cool beverage. On a day that reached 34 degrees by noon, the cooler pools were our favourites.

A quick walk back to our VRBO to drop off towels and bathing suits... and we were ready to roll again. But first, Paul and I offered to take the ladies to a fine bistro. Well, actually it was called a BEERSTRO but they served delicious Hungarian Goulash and schnitzel.

Next up, Budapest Retro Élményközpont... the budapest Retro Museum. This was a cool spot recommended by Janie and Chris Lumsden and it didn't disappoint. We got to jump in a Lada and travel back to Socialist Hungary for a couple of hours. "Hungarians born in the late ’80s, at the time of régime change, may still have experienced a few hangovers of Communist life. The TV teddy bear at children’s bedtime, Turbo chewing gum and the indispensable orange kitchen furniture were all features of any Hungarian childhood". It was a little scary when we realized that so many of the displays were pretty familiar to us.... a sign our age. My favourite display was the technology section where I got a chance to take a peek at the popular Commodore64 computers from the early 80's. I remember having 6 of these beasts in my classroom in Mulgrave back in 1984-85? The first real 'computer lab' in the area.

The last stop before a suppertime break at our condo was a visit to the Fan Square exhibit for the World Athletic Games being held in Budapest. Lots of nice interactive challenges where you can handle a shot-put, run the 100m or challenge yourself to beat the world high jump record. A bit of a bonus. The World Athletics Games are in Budapest while we are there. The top Track and Field athletes from across the globe. The city is going to be crazy busy which should make it fun. The 34 degree heat is a bit much… but hey… we’re watching, not running. It looks like the marathon passes near our AirBnB on Saturday morning.
https://worldathletics.org

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