Budapest
sits on the geological fault separating the Buda Hills from the
Great Plains of Hungary. This fault has formed 118 thermal springs
with 30,000 cubic meters of warm to scalding mineral water gushing
forth daily.*
Thermal
baths are big attrations on weekends, and its very much the thing
to do when traveling, has Hungary has hundreds of thermal springs
and resorts because of geothermics. This page features pictures
of two of our favorites, Gellert and Széchenyi Baths
Gellert
The Gellert hotel and baths were built by the
city of Budapest as part of a conscious policy to make Budapest
into a city of baths. The hotel and baths are far more elegant
than anything I've ever been in. Can you believe they let me in?
Covered inside swimming pool
Dale, aka "Alaska Man" in the lobby. Check out the marble
and stained glass. Pretty cool, eh?
A close-up of the artwork on the outside of the hotel
Inside Art Nouveau statue & decoration
The outside swimming pool. Looks quite pleasant, doesn't it?
Everything changes when at the beginning of the hour, the wave
machine gets turned on.
The children run and scream and adults try to stay standing. Note
guy in lower right trying to keep his child from slamming into
stone pool decorations. They would never
have this in the US. Its amazingly good fun.
This is a shot of the grounds of the hotel, and in the background
is the beloved tram that takes you there. More on Budapest's awesome
public transit later.
Here's a picture of the outside of the hotel. Quite grand really.
This is the inside lobby, complete with more marble, stained glass
and cool statues.
Széchenyi
Baths
One of the most notable things about the Szechenyi Baths is its
size with 9 - count em 9 thermal indoor and outdoor pools. The
other noteworthy item is that the water temperatures are actually
what the wall plaques say they are supposed to be. No scalding
mistakes there!
The very elegant building surrounding the outdoor pools. With
the overhanging flowers, its really quite lovely
This outdoor pool features favorite attraction at this location:
the current pool. This one blasts you around the tile circle enclosure
with such force it makes the Whitehorse current pool look like
a stagnant pond
Another picture of the current pool, hard to capture the action
in a still photo
This is a picture of the warmest outdoor pool (note pink tinge
to bathers' skin)
Inside these yellow buildings are, guess what? More pools! Each
one is a different temp. But if you get bored w/ swimming, there
are also steams and saunas you can go into
I liked this picture
Dale at the end of a day at the baths. These Hungarians know how
to live.
Here's how relaxed you too could look at the end of the day at
the Széchenyi Baths
