Tapp's Travels

Bad news and good!  Sadly, we leave the ship today – Monday 14 October.  But not until 5pm.  So the good news is that we have plenty of time for another exploration of the city.  Immediately opposite our ship we watched the sunrise reflected on the Gellért Hotel.

I said we’d come back to Spas.  So here we are – because within the hotel there are hot water baths.  The Gellért Baths.  The foyer is a magnificently tiled hallway with an arched roof.

The Gellért Baths opened in 1918 offering medicinal water treatments using the same deep underground springs the Knights of St John used in the 12th century!  Having smooched around the entrance area regretting not having brought our togs with us, we looped around the front of the building to the hotel’s entrance – for plan B.

On the hill beside the hotel (Gellért Hill) (I wonder who Gellért was – I bet he was a saint!) there is a small church carved into the rock and guarded by none other that Saint Stephen and his horse.

The cave is also referred to as “Saint Ivan’s Cave” after a hermit who lived there in the early years.  Ivan is believed to have used the natural hot water of a muddy lake next to the cave to heal the sick.  Probably the same source that now feeds the Gellért Baths.

The cave is part of a network within the rocky cliffs.  It has had a chequered history.  First (maybe???) It was a hermit’s dwelling then a peasant’s humble abode in the 19th century.  In 1920 Pauline monks further excavated the premises and housed a catholic chapel and monastery within.  The Red Army captured Budapest in 1945 and in 1951 sealed off the cave with a thick layer of concrete.  After the “revolution” the chapel was re-opened and has been an active church since then.

Walking up the West bank we met a bunch of giant World War 1 soldiers doing soldiery things outside the southern-most buildings of the Castle Garden Bazaar.

The Bazaar itself is more a garden below the hilltop palaces and castle…

After lunch – yes, food went on to the bitter end – we walked past the iconic covered market.  Down the pedestrianised street towards the Sofitel Hotel and past another modest statue…

Mihály Vörösmarty in Vörösmarty Square.  He was a (locally famous) Hungarian poet and dramatist.  Budapestrians do love their memorials!  They are everywhere.  They have them for fun. Maybe they make the city more friendly.  Each is telling stories of the people and the history of the place.  Many of them have a shiny part because you have to rub the corner of a statue to bring good luck!

As we approached the Sofitel we were passed by a swooping convoy of nine black SUVs with blue flashing lights.   They parked right in front of “our” hotel and out flooded dozens of bodyguards surrounding their principals.  We couldn’t get anywhere near the place for ten minutes.  Later a small entourage emerged for a walk along the river bank.

Actually, the only reason these guys are staying at “our” Sofitel is that the Marriott was fully booked by an international conference of scrap metal merchants!

Now, the last bit of excitement we had involved trams.  They are free to over 65 year olds.  Maybe only 65 year old members of the EU!  They have priority over cars, obviously.  But today there are massive queues at the tram stops but no trams!  There’s always some bright sparks who think they can outrun a tram.  Usually they do…

.. but not always!  This one got squished.  This jammed the system and left us oldies to walk home!

So, there you have it – our cruise to the Black Sea – all from the horse’s mouth!

Now here’s where we’ve been…

On the trip we have negotiated just four locks (two each way), we’ve visited five countries  (Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania) and got right to the border of the Ukraine.  We’ve been paraded in front of Serbian border guards at Mohács – twice – both times in the dead of night!  We think it’s something to do with Brexit – or the lack of…  However, leaving the EU on board the MS Robert Burns happened smoothly – both times.  Not a Remoaner in sight!

We’ve visited three capital cities, one of them twice.  From the outskirts of Budapest we passed under just 16 road bridges each way.  On average one every 100 kms.  And three of them were at the city of Novi Sad (pronounced Novey Saad).  The longest distance between bridges was exactly 300 kms.  If you were driving, it would pay not to miss your bridge – or, perhaps, to own a boat!

We’ve spent a total of almost exactly 24 hours on buses looking for attractions to visit and well over half of that being inundated with facts and a not a few political statements.  Our guides have without exception been well informed, but some were easier to listen to than others.  I think Ms. Strident and our German refugee from Vukovar were the best communicators.  Maybe someone should have a quiet word with the guides and tell them that, at an average age of – well let’s just say “over 60”  – their audience need to forget two facts just to store one new one!!!

We’ve seen more dilapidated factories and rural housing than you can shake a stick at.  There have been some big palaces and some fabulous cathedrals and churches.   We now know that the walls of icons are known as iconostases not iconostages!  We’ve seen tiny churches carved into cliffs and others which have to be open 18 hours a day to satisfy the pilgrims.  Luckily for the priest for just one day a year!

We’ve seen evidence of some of the oldest human settlements on the planet and we’ve seen a massive rock carving of a long dead king completed just a decade or two ago!

There have been lots of forts, some big and impregnable – others more “pregnable” and well damaged.  There have been Roman remains and lots of evidence of very recent wars.

Our fellow passengers have, without exception, been absolutely punctual – the ship and buses have never had to wait for stragglers.  No one has got lost and apart from a bit of a cold bug circulating all the passengers remained healthy.

We’ve generally had a really good introduction to life in countries from behind “the iron Curtain” struggling to recover from “difficult” times under communist regimes.  The local guides have had so many different perspectives on the situation.  They have given us a lot to think about!

A really interesting experience.

Thank you MS Robert Burns and all his/her crew!

Thank you Riviera.