Budapest - we loved Budapest. It's such a beautiful city with different architecture - there's a lot of Turkish influence here as they ruled Hungary for about 140 years from 1541. Budapest was originally 3 cities - Buda on one side of the Danube River, Pest on the other and the third city, Obuda (Ancient Buda) were all merged in 1873 to become Budapest. It is considered to be the city of baths boasting to be the only capital city in Europe to have thermal springs underneath. There are many thermal bath houses you can go to. After a quick review of them all we decided to go to one of the most famous - Gellert Bath. There are 12 pools in total varying from 21 - 40 degrees Celsius. It's a bit of a maze finding your way around and after we'd been in there for an hour or so we discovered another 4 baths hidden behind the massage rooms. There are also a couple of wet and dry saunas. After you've been in the sauna you have a shower to wash the sweat off and then hop into the chilly 18 degree dunking pool to close your pores….brrrrr!!! Cara loved going into the 18 degree pool and kept wanting to go back in - though she didn't stay there for long!!

The following day we caught the bus, then the Metro into the town centre, hopped on the red busses and did two days on these, which also included a boat ride. The red bus tours are very good in Budapest and we saw all the major sites. We hopped off on the Buda side of the Danube at the castle district and found the best view in the city, overlooking the Danube and across to the beautiful buildings of Pest.

On the boat ride we got off at Margaret Island - a 2.5 km long island in the Danube. The island mainly consists of parks, sporting fields and a pool complex. We had a look around and found some sprinklers in the kids playground and all of us were having a great time cooling off under those (I can't remember the exact temperature but it would have been between 38 - 40 degrees) it was very hot while we were here.

The caravan park we stayed at while we were in Budapest was quite small, very crowded and noisy. We have never seen them cram people in like they did in this park. On top of that we had planes flying over and the train track just over the fence. Having said that, the owners were so very friendly and helpful and the toilets and showers were constantly being cleaned. We couldn't fault them. Loche got chatting to a guy from Belgium, Alex and his wife who were defender fans and we also met a group of Belgium scouts who were camped in their tents on the road in the caravan park (there was no room anywhere else) and right next to us. We leant them some cups to use and when they left they gave us a washing up dish and other bits and pieces they couldn't take back on the plane with them.

We left Budapest on Sunday 28 July and drove about an hour south to Lake Balaton. We were scouting the park out for a decent pitch to put the van on and while doing this we, met Gabriel who was so very friendly to us and his local knowledge and help was great. Thanks Gabriel.

Balaton is the largest inland lake in central Europe. It has a sandy bottom and is a beautiful aqua blue. The caravan park was very large and situated right on the lake. The temperature was 40 C most of the time so we spent the next couple of days here in the lake trying to cool off. We decided in this heat an air conditioner would be a brilliant idea, so off to the shop and back to the van with an A/C, (good investment). We had been keeping in touch with my (Nicole's) parents who were doing a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. We managed to catch up with them on the 1st of August - we drove back into Budapest and took the van with us so we didn't have to leave early to drive back to the lake. We met them at their boat and took them for a drive around the major sites - up to the castle district for the panoramic view of the city and then lunch at a nearby restaurant. That night we went out for dinner on their boat - a lovely four course meal. Cara was very excited because in the entry foyer of the boat there were bowls of lollies and mum was more than happy to fill her up with them! The next day we left Budapest again and headed to Slovenia. Mum and Dad finished the cruise the following day and flew to Venice for their next cruise through the Greek Islands.