Day 13 – Budapest

Got up at a more normal time, then spent breakfast chatting with a couple from Connecticut    who were over for a friend’s wedding. Turns out Matt is in IT at Yale and also a cigar smoker, so we had lots to talk about. We went to the Mamut mall and got some swimsuits for  trip to the thermal baths that afternoon, then took one of the bus tours. We stopped at the Citadella and had a small lunch with some outstanding views…bet it is even more spectacular at night.  I FaceTimed Ma-in-Law and Bob and shared the view with them, since Anne had already taken Kate to school and had no wifi. We finished the tour and then went to the Szechenyi Baths, and spent a wonderful two hours of relaxing in the warm waters. We realized too late that we had neglected to get towels, but judicious shaking and prodigious used of the hair dryers got us dry enough to don our clothes for the short walk to Owl’s Castle, a sister restaurant to Gundel…sister literally, since it has an all-female staff. This is no Hooters…same type and quality of food as it’s more famous sibling, but in a much simpler setting…kind of like Pronto compared to Vincent’s, for you Houston folk. We had the set menu with the wine pairings; it was quite tasty, but for one course we again had the palacsinta with paprikash…Agnes’ was better, in our opinion. We checked out the casinos, but none had any hold’em games that evening, so I just went back to the room while John wandered the city to get some more spectacular photos.