Day 155, 6 December 2012. Budapest - Hungary. For today at least there are more Santas per capita than anywhere else in the world it seems. We're not sure what the collective noun for a group of santas is.... a sleigh of santas? but we've come across a few - including a cycling group raising money for charity which included a santa on a penny farthing bicycle. This morning we had a bus tour of Budapest as part of our river cruise package and met some of our fellow travellers. Interesting to get another guide's perspective. Yesterday our free walking tour guide (young, Hungarian born) warned us.... if you don't want to hear a shopping list of complaints, then avoid talking to Hungarians about the economy, politics, the Euro or history. And we didn't, because our Hungarian bus tour guide took it upon herself to tell us about the Mayor (certifiable), particular restaurants (good PR - crap food), the traffic (constantly bad, due in no small part to the city council, and thus, the Mayor). Anyway, we survived the tour with our morale intact and meandered back down Andrassy Utca until we reached the Szechenyi Baths near the City Park (www.szechenyibath.com). We knew it was going to be brilliant before we even arrived. 1) their website said so and 2) most importantly, we passed a duck pond with steam rising from the thermal water. We know ducks are cold blooded. We really do. But these were the happiest looking birds in Hungary as they paddled frantically to the edge of the pond to scout our food-source potential. The baths themselves were an incredible experience. The changing cabins and hallways of the buildings are heated - all is good - right up until you are standing at the door in a swimsuit, wishing it was a wetsuit, and have to make a mad dash to the first of the outdoor pools in sub-zero temperatures. Let's not even get into walking on snow in bare feet! But we made it (pretty sure I broke some land speed records...). We soaked so long the wrinkles in our hands were almost permanent. The concept of the baths is shower / hot bath / shower / cold bath ... probably all well and good (a bit like the Finnish leaving the sauna to stand in the snow periodically). We decided 38 degrees was the bare minimum and spent 2 hours nipping from pool to pool - the best one had a whirlpool in the centre with a fast lane and a slow lane. Just imagine an enormous plug hole with people streaming around a centre point. Strange but true. It was getting late (you know... 4 pm) and the blue sky and sun shine ceded to clouds and just as we were leaving and thought it couldn't get colder it did and it snowed all the way back to the hotel. We found a section of the Berlin Wall along the way - first time either of us had seen a piece. A final dinner and we resisted the urge for an early night (barely) and headed out to see Budapest's main Christmas Market in Vorosmarty Square. Lights. Trees. Action - all that jazz. But not as magical as the St Stephen's Basilica market. So lucky to be in a position to have enough Christmas Markets to compare. Off to Vienna (Austria) tomorrow. We never thought as children (when we both collected stamps) that one day we would be visiting our stamp albums in person. Too cool. A bit like our feet.