To Budapest without an Organiser
Our Annual Club holiday this year took us to Budapest from the 8th to 11th May. It started in a way nobody wanted when our leader Colin Pickles had to miss the trip due to a leg injury. Apparently he stumbled on his way out of Church. But deep down we wondered if he missed the trip because Man. United had won the league and Colin didn’t think he could bear four days of crowing by the likes of Dave Akers.

Eighteen members and friends gathered at the Jet2.com desk in Terminal 1. They were Tony & Dorothy Redford, Brian & Hilary Turnbull, Joyce Streets and Hugh Oldham, Alan & Val Wild, Bill & Milly Chadband, Roger Dye, Dave Akers, Gordon Robson, Geoff Robinson, Don Stafford, Phil Riley, Roy Cheeham, and John Ranson, We then queued up at Gate 5 for the 2.00pm take-off. At 2.30pm, still standing in the queue, we began to think the Lord had smiled on Colin after all. Eventually we climbed aboard the bus which took us to a Futura ‘Plane.

We were mostly in the back rows of seats. But those with Row 30 tickets discovered that the numbering only went to 29! So the 30’s took row 29 which threw the rest of the numbering into confusion. Grab a seat quickly became the order of the day. We presumed that the Jet2.com craft had had to be replaced at short notice. Fasten your seatbelts said the steward. But many of the seat belts were too short to go round the well built man!. Thus seatbelt extensions were liberally sprinkled about. However there was plenty of legroom, which more than made up for the delay and the short seatbelts. On the plane I had the pleasure of sitting next to Bill, and hence found myself agreeing to write this article.

In Colin’s absence our leader was President Tony Redford. His first job was to locate the coach which had been booked to take us to the Hotel. Our hearts sank as we were dropped off outside an unprepossessing building - more a warehouse than hotel. But no! Go down the street, and round the corner, and the Ibis Budapest Centrum hotel came into view - a nice, clean establishment. And the street (Raday utca) was pedestrianized and full of eating places.
We chose one of these restaurants for our communal meal that evening, and were entertained by a three-piece band. It was the task of the band’s fiddler to embarrass our female members by moving up behind them and playing softly into their ears. The meal was fair, with several soups being sent back because they were not hot enough. The bill of course came as one long strip of paper summing to a six-figure total.

Tony and Dorothy undertook the task of collecting the appropriate amount from each diner. We all duly paid her, adding the odd fifty Forints extra as a tip. But it wasn’t enough! We found that a 12% service charge had been added, (and 50 Forints only equated to 15p in English money). After several collections Dorothy almost had enough money to pay the bill.

On the Wednesday Gordon joined Geoff, Don, Roy and myself to see the sites. On the right of the Danube was Pest – the newer part of the city containing many Parks, Museums, Churches

and the Parliament Building. Across the river was Buda, the older Hilly part, from which great views of the river and city could be obtained.

Making our way back to the hotel by underground Gordon attempted some artistic shots on the escalator. He fell backwards, but was saved by Geoff. This caused Geoff to fall backwards and bang his head, arms and leg on the moving stairway. Was I glad to see him look up at us after the fall1 He was patched up by a lady working for the under-ground train service; and on returning to the hotel we decided to have a night in. Other members however decided to visit the Duna Palota theatre for a Folklor show. On the Thursday we explored the Parliament building, and the Mirtham Park. On the Friday we found the local Market Hall, which seemed to be the focal point for all the locals and met Tony, Dorothy Dave and Roger for a relaxed lunch.

Our bags had all been stored in a luggage room at the hotel on the Friday morning. The bus picked us up at 3.30pm to return us to the airport. The plane was an hour late in leaving, but we had a good flight back, finally landing in Manchester at 9.40pm UK time.

So; Sorry you weren’t with us Colin, after all your work, but thanks from all of us for another good trip.

Phil Riley
Bill Chadband adds:

As is normal on these trips we split up into smaller groups or couples to do our explorations, following our first meal together. Bill and Milly paid about 4000 Forints each for 24hrs use of the hop-on hop-off sight-seeing bus. The price included a taxi-ride to the start point. It was then that we discovered how crowded and full of bottle-necks were the Budapest streets. The taxi took a circuitous route to get us there but we could have walked there in the 35 minutes the taxi took. The underground (three lines1) was a much more reliable and cheaper service. The bus made many loops around the centre and riverside of Pest before setting off across the City to Hero’s Square, where we found more parks, Art Galleries, swimming pool, zoo, and botanical gardens, A large paved area the size of a football pitch was flooded and frozen in winter to provide an enormous skating rink.

The bus took us over one of the bridges to Buda where we saw another Art gallery, the President’s Palace, and the Fishermen’s Bastion; to name but a few of the fascinating buildings found there. It then took us down and up the next hill, Gellert Hill, stopping again for photographs of the views before returning us to a stop close to our Hotel. We took a peek into the Gellert Hotel billed as the home of the finest neo-classical architecture in Hungary (with a therapeutic swimming pool !). Some took a walk on Margareth Island, but being mostly green trees it apparently didn’t offer much in the way of photographic opportunities.
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