budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

Last weekend we joined one of the free Art Nouveau walks organized by Budapest UnderGuide to celebrate the EU presidency of Hungary. We are big fans of the Budapest spas and thermal baths and were really looking forward to learn more about Gellért Baths. We have been at the Gellért several times and were always amazed by the art nouveau windows, mosaics and all those lovely details. The guide first took us in the baths and we saw the indoor bubble pool: the bubbles are turned on once every hour. We were told that it was built in the 30s and before that there was a conservatory and a mini golf course there. Then we looked at the outside wave pool, which was built in 1927, and a Hungarian architect designed the wave machine which is still used today! The waves are turned on once every hour and that is the nearest you can get to a sea splash in our small landlocked country. There are three other wave pools in Budapest I know of: at Dagály, Palatinus and  Aquaworld, and they are fun. The most splendid part of the bath is no doubt the men’s thermal area which is only open to ladies on Sunday, with beautiful original Zsolnay mosaics, well worth a visit. Then we looked around in the hall and adored the Miksa Roth art nouveau stained glass windows and all the majolica details, then came the real deal which attracted me to the walk: we could go down to see the secret corridor under the Gellért Hill and also the cave where the water was first discovered. This corridor is bit over a kilometre long and connects the Gellért, the Rudas and the Rácz baths, all these baths are supplied by the same spring, and the 4 wells on the corridor. Normally only 2 wells are switched on but if there is a need they can switch on the others. This corridor was made after the second world war with normal mining methods hence the small railway track on the corridor. The water is quite close to the surface and it is around 40 degrees Celsius. Then we entered the cave in small groups since it was so tiny and extremely hot; the cave is called “Cauliflower” because of the rock formations, and it used to be connected to the massive cave system in the Gellért Hill. Unfortunately these walks are fully booked but if you don’t mind being a bit naughty, you can just turn up, the guides were super nice and never once asked our names. Also you can download a map and play art nouveau treasure hunt! All these pics were taken by my phone hence the trabant-quality but a simple googling will give you tons of quality images of all the lovely art nouveau details of the baths!