A very happy 50th anniversary

We were up bright and early, ate a leisurely breakfast, wished each other a happy wedding anniversary and we were off, exploring. So much to see so little time. Our phone had buzzed us with a warning of heatwave conditions, but we wanted to see as much of Budapest as possible. We wandered along this (the Buda) side of the Danube then crossed to the Pest side via the historic Chain Bridge. We then spent a lot of time exploring the Parliament Square and surroundings, with Brian concentrating on trying to get the perfect photo. As well as we travellers, all of the most popular places are filled with tourists whose only interest is in taking selfies, and who invariably get in the way when one is trying to take advantage of that Kodak momernt. As with our 2014 trip, Brian is going to have to Photoshop out all the extraneous tourists, parked cars, overflowing rubbish bins and so on.

By the time reached our hotel in the mid-afternoon, we were footsore and hot, but we'd thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Brian has two second cousins in Budapest whom he had never met, but who are close to his cousin Panni. One of them, Zsuzsi (Susie) had invited us over to her place for afternoon tea. We arrived there late afternoon, and met Zsuzsi, her husband Feri and son Adam. We were made most welcome. They live in a very old apartment building, but have renovated their own apartment, which is now very modern and comfortable.

We spoke for several hours, much of it about family history, but also about Hungarianhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/middle-… life generally under the Germans then the Russians and then today's regime. Very interesting.

Panni dropped us off at her place and we then wandered back towards our hotel. After the big afternoon tea neither of us was terribly hungry, but we felt that we should at least have an anniversary meal and bottle of wine. The restaurant we chose turned out to be quite good, but neither of us was able to do justice to the giant-sized portions of traditional Hungarian dishes which we'd ordered. We did however manage to finish off a celebratory bottle of beautiful Hungarian red.

By that time we were exhausted and well and truly ready to hit the sack.Okumaya devam et