Nic and Sue’s Euro River Cruise and some bits on the side. Autumn 2026. Day 7 – Budapest to Edinburgh.

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Last day in Budapest today, would have been the day we embarked on our Cruise ship, but that can now wait till 2027.

The taxis/ubers and bolts here are all yellow. Bolt seems a little cheaper than Uber.

This morning, the usual breaky, then a Bolt to Szèchenyi Thermal Baths. We secured a late checkout at the hotel, so some time spent lolling about at the baths, then a return to the hotel for shower and pack up.

Oxana our first female Bolt driver was really a step up, she was giving us tips of things to see and places to go. Using her Tesla map to zoom out and show us places of interest on the map. The car is her ‘baby.’ She explained that the drivers they have to buy (or rent) yellow and are contracted to Bolt OR Uber – can’t be both. Some of the places she suggested were
• Tihany. An old town worth seeing. By train. One day trip.
• Next year spa and
Vahunyad castle and gardens/Heroes Square.

The Széchenyi Baths were lovely, busy even in the morning. We opted for cabins at the baths – which we meant we could get changed and leave our stuff locked up. With our late checkout secured we took our hotel towels and headed off to arrive about 9.

It was a maze with indoor and outdoor thermal pools, saunas and massage rooms and other treatments as well.
We headed outdoors first. To the “adventure pool” not sure why it was called that. There were some
Water fountains of different types which gave a good hard shoulder, neck and back massage. Also the centre of the pool had a small circular pool you could sit in and around it was another ring that had water pumped around to create a whirlpool, that was fun, went in a gap and got swept around with all the other people. On the outside edge it was pretty fast, with no control. Then you had to let yourself be spat out at the break in the circle. Good fun! Brings back memories of the whirlpools we used to create in our above ground pool as kids.

We sat beside a group of four women with broad Scottish accents, everything was fookin this and fookin that. A hoot to listen too.
Next we ventured to the inside pools, one was warmer than the outside pool at about 36 degrees, the others were all cooler. I tried out the salt inhalation room, which was like a sauna with salty air. Quite odd, sort of took my breath away but in a good way!

I grabbed the phone from my cabin to take some pics, before we changed and headed back to the hotel to shower and pack.

Checked out and checked our luggage before a short walk to a light lunch at Parisi Passage Cafe.

Walked home to Marriott for the last time and took a Bolt to the airport.

A few glitches with our Ryanair flight booking. (Trap for new players – don’t book through a third party! It cost us to get checked in.)

We had a few hours to kill and the time went by quickly. We had a cuppa and shared some apple cake before buying something to eat on the plane (nothing provided for nothing on budget airlines) when the time came to move we’d left it a little late to make our way to the gate AND I’d forgotten we hadn’t done passport control yet either. Started to get a little sweaty that we might actually be late to the gate. As it turned out things were moving slowly at lounge and we had to wait for quite a while to scan in, only to wait on the other side, again!!! Sue took lift down to tarmac and I was about 3rd last to board. No room for cabin luggage – everything had to go in overhead – including handbags. My stuff is a few rows in front. No seat back pockets, nothing but feet under the seat in front. Plane is chockers and we took off
65 minutes late. Flight is 2 hours 40.

The time went pretty fast for me, think I had a few cat naps – certainly caught myself catching flies with the mouth open wide.

Other than a bit warm towards the end of the flight, it was ok. 👌

We gain an hour going this way, Scotland is an hour behind Budapest.

We landed at about 9:00 Edinburgh time, and the deplaning was a touch chaotic. With us in row 29 it was exit down the back BUT my stuff was in the locker above row 23. So a salmon swimming upstream had nothing on me, wriggling my way forward when I could. I did ok. Sue was in passport control and the carousel well before me. Straight out into a taxi into Edinburgh to our new home – Moxy Hotel.

It’s a cool/quirky hotel, associated with Marriott Bonvoy. I’d say it’s their hip/funky/Moxy option for a younger crowd.

Rooms a lot smaller than the previous two. Cool tho and has everything we need. Best shower and thickest biggest towels to date.

Time for bed. Almost midnight local time. 1am Budapest time. 💤