New Digs

Welcome to Argens-Minevois

Today we left the apartment in Narbonne and we are now in a little town called Argens-Minevois which is where we pick up the boat on Monday for the week-long canal boat trip with Ryan & Ben. As often happens, “kindness of strangers” played a part in making this part of the trip easy and stress free. Argens-Minevois really is a little town and our original plan was to take the train from Narbonne to a train station about 6 km out of town. We would have then had to take a taxi to the B & B where we were booked for two days while we wait for “the boys” to arrive from London. However, our host in Narbonne offered to drive us, and then our new French friends said they would drive us. Then when Regis was arranging things with the B & B host here, she also offered to come get us in Narbonne. I call them strangers, but actually we have gotten to know them all even if just through digital communications. 

Communicating with Google Translate

Our host in Narbonne, Patricia, was the one who drove us here this morning and we were able to do an early check-in at the B & B. Our host here, Martine, does not speak English, but we managed to communicate just fine and she allowed us to use a fridge in her garage to store food we brought from Narbonne since the only store in town has closed for the season. When we asked about a taxi to actually get to the boat since our luggage has grown with the addition of food, she quickly offered to drive us and when we said we needed to find out about a taxi for Ryan and Ben on Monday, she said that was not needed as she would go and get them as well. 

Our B & B

Our B & B here is a large new house in the French style, so quite different from the older house in Narbonne and it sits on a beautiful property bordering on the Canal de Midi. AND Regis is happy that it has a pool out back, although Martine could not understand why anyone would want to swim when it was “TOO COLD”. Regis however felt the 24ºC was just fine for swimming.

The town itself is very small and it only took us 15 minutes to explore it completely. The only market is closed and only one of the three restaurants in towns is still open. We did visit the Winery owned by the people who run the B & B and got a couple of bottles of local wine to take on the boat. 

So, unless something really interesting happens tomorrow, this is probably the only post you will get from this location. Stay tuned for canal boat posts later. 

Even little towns have cathedrals

It is not too cold . . . .

Finally the Canal du Midi

We will be headed down here Monday

Old wine making equipment I think.

A nice door in the town

Bathing in Budapest

Bath Complex (Thanks to Internet - not my photo)

They say that you cannot dig a hole in the ground in Budapest without hitting a natural steam vent. As a result one of the “Must See” attractions are the thermal baths. Anyone who knows me realizes that I do not swim, I go to the beach for the sunshine, and think large bodies of water are intended to hold up large boats. The public baths of Budapest was not initially on my personal “Must See” list, but since we had friends visiting and wanted them to get the real Budapest experience I relented and agreed to go to the baths.

Lots of People enjoying the Baths

Now Budapest had a wide variety of bath facilities all over the city, so some research was needed. For example, the nearest baths were right across the river from the apartment, but research discovered that these are “traditional” baths, meaning no clothes, and men only all week. Now our friends are good friends, but not “that good”, so we elected to search further afield. We finally decided to take the various guide book advice and go to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool.

Housed in an elegant looking 100 year old Neo-Baroque (Amazing how much you learn on a River Cruise . . ) building, it is actually the largest thermal spa in Europe. Fortunately it is right on one of Budapest’s excellent underground lines, and easy to get to. We had no problem finding it, and thanks to Rick Steves’ Guidebook on Budapest’s excellent hints on entering, exiting and finding your way around the huge complex we spent a completely relaxing afternoon.

Yup, me in the water . . .

Anyone for Chess

The complex has at least 12 pools with water at various temperatures and with different minerals. Some are just for fun, but some are supposed to aid various ailments, and in Budapest you can get your doctor to prescribe a visit to the baths at a discounted rate. The water in all the pools is hot, generally above 24°C, and some are as hot as 38°C. After a while here the cool pool at 24° is downright chilly! Probably the most popular pools are the outdoor ones, there are actually three, but one was under repair. There is one that is a regular swimming pool with lanes for actually swimming, but it was not busy; people do not come here to swim. The other main outdoor pool is just for relaxing and soaking. There were two corners where people spent the entire time sitting up to their chest in water playing chess. Most people just sat on the steps all the way around, or slowly walked around in the warm water. There is something about being in an outdoor pool in October sitting in 28°C water looking up at the clear blue sky of Budapest that can even convince me to get wet!

Needless to say we all went back to the apartment relaxed and mellow. Do you suppose Blue Cross covers this; I do have a bad back . . . . ?