Budapest - White Towels and Chess
Budapest, Hungary - May, 2007
Budapest was founded on natural hot springs and for centuries it has welcomed foreigners wishing to be cured of aches and pains. Thankfully you don't have to be sick to enjoy one of the city's fourteen thermal baths but you might be if you left without visiting one.
Going to the baths in Budapest is different from a swimming pool at home and you should treat it more like a day at the beach or a hotel’s pool.
If you are only in Budapest for the weekend it’s all too easy to talk yourself out of a “Buda Bath” especially with so many other attractions to keep you away. However a visit can easily be fitted into your sightseeing schedule and as it was the baths that made the city famous there really is no excuse. The Gellért and The Széchenyi are the two most popular and to get you in the mood you can purchase a visitor’s ticket at The Gellért which allows you to look round without taking your clothes off.
The Gellért Thermal Bath and Hotel has been popular with foreigners since it opened its doors in 1918 but there has been a natural spring here since the 13th century. The Art Nouveau building is located on the Buda side of the ornate green-iron Liberty Bridge which you can stroll across after a visit to Market Hall. The hotel is enormous and the entrance to the baths is adjacent to Gellért Hill, the highest hill in Budapest and home to the Citadel and the Liberation Monument. After visiting the baths it’s worth taking the short walk up to the unusual Cave Church and if you are feeling energetic continue to the top for a panoramic view of the city.
Although the dramatic stone entrance looks intimidating once through the doors you will find the staff are helpful and understand English. Unfortunately with your visitor’s ticket you will only see one of Gellért’s thirteen baths and watching everyone through the viewing window will make you wish you had joined them. Instead you will have to settle for a couple of photos of the two storey pool, flanked by carved columns and iron balconies and topped by a glass ceiling which slides open to reveal the sky.
The Széchenyi Thermal Bath can be found in the City Park (locally known as Városliget) back on the Pest side of the river. The best way to get there is to take the metro from Vörösmarty Tér, a lovely square at the end of Váci utca – the main pedestrianised shopping street. You can easily walk from The Gellért or take a No.2 tram along the Danube but before buying your metro ticket you must experience another Budapest institution conveniently located opposite the subway entrance.
Café Gerbeaud is one of the city’s original coffee shops (est. 1858) and sells delicious patisseries, hand made chocolates, home brewed lagers and ice-cream. It’s a wonderful place to sit outside and watch the shoppers coming and going as you enjoy a sandwich and gateaux lunch, a much lighter option than goulash soup and stew and dumplings that feature on the majority of menus.
Budapest’s metro has three easy to follow lines (M1 Yellow, M2 Red and M3 Blue) and even if you’ve never been on a foreign metro before you can’t miss travelling on the antique M1 Yellow line. Built in 1890 it starts right outside Café Gerbeaud and its miniature carriages pass through beautiful tiled stations quickly taking you the ten stops to the doorstep of the baths. The station (Széchenyi Fürdo) is the second last stop and is conveniently named after the baths so you will know when to get off.
The Széchenyi baths were built in 1913 although the city’s hottest and deepest spring was discovered here in 1879. Again buying your ticket couldn’t be easier and there will be someone to help you through the barrier and point you in the direction of the changing rooms where you will find lockers to store your belongings. An attendant will either tell you which locker to use or just find an empty one and when you are ready you will be given a wrist band with an engraved numbered disc.
Proud stone lions guard the entrance across to Buda where the quaint funicular railway transports you up to the Royal Palace sitting proudly on the hilltop.
The wristband is part of an old fashioned but effective security system. Inside each locker is a small blackboard where the attendant scribbles in chalk the number on your wristband before locking the door with her master key. All you need to remember is the number on the outside of the locker and when you return the attendant will open the door and check that the number inside matches your wristband before leaving you alone with its contents.
From the changing rooms you enter into a large high ceiling room with several Roman style baths complete with marble columns, balustrades and urns. The pools which are varying shades of green all have different temperatures and the heat in Celsius is clearly displayed. With everyone in their swimming costumes and bikinis it’s difficult to tell the locals from the tourists although white fluffy hotel towels and towelling slippers, instead of flip flops, perhaps gives the game away.
Going to the baths in Budapest is different from a swimming pool at home and you should treat it more like a day at the beach or a hotel’s pool. A beach bag or poly bag helps keep your towel and camera dry and a bottle of water will come in handy although there is a café outside selling hot and cold drinks.
After you’ve experienced this first room of baths you have the option to go out into the enormous courtyard, where the outdoor pools are located, or continue the length of the building sampling all twelve baths and exit into the courtyard at the far end. Apart from different temperatures and sizes the baths all appear the same with the exception of the rectangular whirlpool where you and you fellow bathers are jettisoned around by a strong current. It’s hilarious and has everyone smiling and laughing and afterwards you’ll know what a shirt feels like in a washing machine.
Outside, three large pools are surrounded by yellow palatial buildings boasting columns, arches and cathedral-like domes. An Olympic sized swimming pool sits in the middle with two shaped pools at either end surrounded by statues and fountains. With everyone bathing and walking around in their swimsuits you would think you were at a five star holiday resort. The only thing lacking are sun loungers and instead there are wooden benches and tables for you to leave your belongings before taking a dip.
In the first pool, which is the temperature of a hot tub, you can watch chess being played through the steam or have your shoulders pummelled by jets of water. Young babies, blind pensioners and men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes stroll through the water or lounge on the steps. The larger pool in the middle is for the serious swimmers with lanes for doing laps but you can’t go in without a swimming cap or the shower cap from your hotel room. Last, but not least, the third pool known as the fancy pool is warm and has a Jacuzzi section and massaging jets.
The architecture on both sides of the river is amazing and without doubt Budapest will become even more beautiful as its buildings are restored to their former glory.
The massage and treatments rooms are located in the building opposite the thermal baths and through the arched windows you can see a long corridor with male therapists dressed in white waiting for their next patient. At the two entrance/exits to the baths curved stone stairs lead down to what must be the longest saunas in the world. The saunas are long narrow corridors that run underneath the thermal baths and you can just make out the other end through jam packed sweaty bodies.
When your fingers are too crinkly to touch and you’ve changed back in your street clothes make sure you have your bar coded plastic “ticket” handy as you will need it to get out and depending on how long you’ve been you might get a refund. Even if you’ve stayed a couple of hours you’ll feel you’ve won the jackpot when coins fly out the machine as soon as you insert your ticket.
Once back in the park it’s a short stroll past the lake to the dramatic Hero’s Square built in 1896 and then down the beautiful tree lined Andrássy Boulevard with its stunning palaces and apartment buildings. After admiring the Opera House you can stop for a glass of Vylyan’s cabernet sauvignon in front of the impressive St Stephen Basilica or treat yourself to an art deco cocktail in the jaw dropping Four Seasons Gresham Palace directly in front of the Chain Bridge.
There is no better place to start and end your stay in Budapest than beside the bridge that was responsible for joining the towns of Buda and Pest together. Proud stone lions guard the entrance across to Buda where the quaint funicular railway transports you up to the Royal Palace sitting proudly on the hilltop. Next to it the equally dramatic old Castle district with its fairy tale Fishermen’s Bastion overlooks the Parliament buildings and the rest of Pest on the opposite bank of the Danube.
The architecture on both sides of the river is amazing and without doubt Budapest will become even more beautiful as its buildings are restored to their former glory. However, the most memorable part of the weekend will be “taking the waters” and after walking the city, climbing hills and cycling round Margaret Island we had no aches and pains so perhaps the baths really do have therapeutic healing powers.