Budapest. Rest day. 27 June.

Slept in - breakfast at 8.30 in hotel. At ten am joined with Janice, Jos and Karen to go on the hop on hop off sightseeing bus. We went through over to Buda and right up the hill to the citadel, from where there were great views over Buda and Pest. There was a commentary all along the journey, and so all the interesting buildings and statues were pointed out. A number of souvenir stalls around the tourist places. Down back over the river into Pest we wandered around the shopping area, then visited the church (St. Stephens) - another Baroque cathedral. Lunch was a smorgasbord of Hungarian food. Then the boys returned to the hotel and the girls walked to the famous Gellert thermal baths. There we bathed for a while in the different temperature pools. Afterwards we walked back through the market, a very clean and tidy place with foodstuffs on the ground floor and souvenirs on the upper level.

We then headed back to the hotel, but were soon hit with heavy rain as a thunderstorm passed over. So we passed the time at a coffee shop until it passed, then caught the tram back to the hotel. Dined at a Lenanese restaurant with Janice, Karen, Stewart and Garis. Back to finish packing to be ready for an early start tomorrow. Budapest is a city undergoing many makeovers and in another ten years or so will be a beautiful city. There are many lovely buildings from the mid-late nineteenth century showing signs of wear after years of communist rule. There is quite a lot of graffiti around. Unfortunately we did not get to see any of the 233 museums!
It was 32 degrees until the rain fell, when it dropped to 27.