We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful……” We went on a mini-break last week, Budapest to be precise. It was quite lovely and having spent three weeks without my wife in New Zealand I realised the end was nigh unless she got some attention and time away with me – what a lucky lady!
To be fair, Jinglis did the legwork booking this excursion. Firstly she looked at www.voyage-prive.co.uk/ and www.secretescapes.com who do great deals on such things and she found flights and hotel for a good price. (We’ve had our last four holidays through one or the other.) Stag Kiss Budapest was also an informative read for those visiting Budapest.
We drove to Manchester Airport with the help of www.google.co.uk/maps on the iPhone keeping us updated on our ETA and traffic congestion – allowing us to stop for coffee as we were ahead of time. We boarded, flew and landed in Budapest and were driven to our hotel http://budapest.boscolohotels.com/ which we didn’t know until arrival is an old palace now converted to a five star hotel.
I’d already downloaded the www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ offline guide for Budapest to my iPhone and iPad and the next morning we went off into town guided by the TripAdvisor map taking us to the river and a few attractions including Shoes on the Danube, the Parliament building and Heroes Square before lunch. They were all suggested and rated by fellow visitors that use TripAdvisor. Lunch was at the TripAdvisor number one rated restaurant AND most importantly they were right, a small family restaurant run by technology literate people who gave you a menu and an iPad with images of their Hungarian dishes to look at corresponding with the menu.
We also went to the www.szechenyibath.hu/ thermal baths where my wife wondered in passing “how much do you think it cost to heat these?…” Think about it…they are thermal spring baths…
We ate at the most famous restaurant in Budapest www.gundel.hu/en/ suggested by our taxi driver!? and then we walked back to our hotel using the iPhone TripAdvisor map again, which suggested things to look at and points of interest on the way.
Without the technology we would have had a lovely trip, but without the tech it might not have been quite so successful. You certainly couldn’t have done it as we did pre 21st century. which brings to me to the point of our trip! My best friend is out there working on a remake of The Wizard of Oz for USA TV – the original film was itself a modern masterpiece in that it was one of the first to be made in Technicolor.
So there you go people: technology, it’s great and I love it. My wife on the other hand is still working out how they heat the Szecheny Baths….
