1936 On the Continent

here.”
    “I shall be much obliged to you. Next time I shall in turn show you round in your native Paris.”
    My French friend had given me the following information about the thermal baths of Budapest, which herewith I duly pass on to you:
Unique Bathing Pool
    At the foot of the St. Gellért Hill—on the Buda side—is the St. Gellért Hotel, one of the most up-to-date hotels of the town. It has a medical bath, a “foam-bath” which is open all the year round, and an open-air, artificial wave-bath (a large and extremely smart swimming pool). The rooms in the hotel are heated by natural hot water. The St. Gellért is the most perfect thermal-hotel in the whole world. It has no less than thirteen hot springs. The water contains calcium, hydrocarbonate, magnesia and various radio-active salts. (What d’you think of the extent of my scientific knowledge?)
    The springs supply no less than 2,000,000 litres of water per day. The temperature of the water is … (sorry, I forget that).
    The greatest value of the Gellért is its radio-active mud known as “Geko.” It is a wonderful cure against rheumatism, ischias, sciatica, and other similar ailments.
    Another similarly large thermal hotel of Budapest is the Szent Lukács (St. Luke) Bath. It is built also on the Buda side. Its water contains sulphur and lime. Here are the springs of the famous Hungarian “Crystal Water.” Youcan bathe in the water of the hot springs here all through the winter in the open air. Adjoining the bath is one of the most up-to-date hotels of Budapest, with a recently opened rheuma-sanatorium. The mud at the St. Lukács Bath is so hot that you could easily boil an egg in it. It is a wonderful cure against the rheumatic pains in the bones, muscles and the nerves. I mean the mud.
    The ideal medical baths, however, are on the Margit Sziget (St. Margaret’s Island). The island is named after a Hungarian princess who resigned all pleasures life on earth could afford, and took refuge in the picturesque nunnery on the island. You could still see its lovely old ruins. To-day the island is a magnificent park with century-old trees and an area of 160 hectares. It really is a little paradise in the centre of the town, and I don’t exaggerate when I say that the invalid gets better from the sheer beauty of it. It is a little town in itself. It has hotels, medical baths, open-air and closed swimming pools, restaurants, night clubs, sanatoria, cafés, rowing clubs. Its climate is perfect all the year round. In the heat of the summer it is cooled by the Danube and the permanent springs of the park. In the winter it is quiet under the white sheet of snow, in spring its atmosphere is full of the scent of 20,000 roses, and the autumn is unforgettable among the yellow leaves. We call it the “Pearl of the Danube.” Its most important springs contain sulphur, which is a good cure for rheumatism.
Császárfürdö
    Opposite the island, on the Buda side, there is the oldest bath of the town: the Császárfürdö. It was already known to the Romans. Its water is also rich in lime and sulphur, like most of the baths in Budapest. It has a huge swimming pool, the scene of the swimming championships in the summer. The famous Hungarian water-polo team started from that pool on its way towards Olympic championship. The bath is fed by eight springs supplying about 2,000,000 litres of water per day. So you needn’t worry about water shortage.
    In the other end of the town, in the large Town Park, is the Széchenyi bath. It hasn’t a hotel. Its springs are as deep as 3,000 feet. That is the hottest natural spring in Europe. Also excellent against rheumatism.
    You might think the repertoire is exhausted. Far from it. The Hungarian plain-land, including Budapest, was a sea bottom in the prehistoric past, and all over it in the depths the dead sea is still steaming and hissing. A little higher under the romantic rocks of the Gellért Hill, there still are two baths which were built four hundred years ago by the Turks. The Turks came uninvited to Hungary and stayed on for more than a hundred and fifty years. When they finally left they had forgotten to settle the bill. Under the arches of the Rudas Bath a few centuries back corpulent Turkish pashas were enjoying a dip. A few minutes from it is the St. Imre Bath built for himself by Mátyás, the great King of Hungary. Then there is the Erzsébet Bath surrounded by a park of 15 hectares. It is supplied by nineteen