Budapest

 At present we are spending 12 days in Budapest, a grand European city which has long been on our must visit list. The once separate cities of Buda and Pest are divided by the Danube river. The same river that flows through Regensburg Germany, where, at this same time last August we found ourselves taking a swim. I now wonder just how long it would have taken for us to drift downstream in the swift currents from Regensburg to our present location. Perhaps google has the answer.

But for now we are swimming in Hungarian paprika and goulash…..

...... as well as swimming in the soothing warm waters of one of Budapest's famous natural baths. There are numerous thermal spas here, from those at the elegant Gellert hotel (eerily similar to the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel), to the massive outdoor pools at the Szechenyi baths, one of the largest medicinal baths in Europe.

Of course no trip to Budapest would be complete without an appropriate musical accompaniment to set the mood, like Lavotta's Serenade performed by Magyari Imre And His Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra 1940:

https://archive.org/details/78_lavottas-serenade_magyari-imre-and-his-hungarian-gypsy-orchestra_gbia0376233b

This selection was found on ‘The Internet Archive’, an amazing non-profit library for music, books, film, television and so much more: https://archive.org/