Double Draw

Cultural sights and sounds abound on the Buda and Pest sides of the Hungarian capital, reports Dominic Ellis

- Dominic Ellis

Holding Out For A Hero appropriately filters out of the taxi’s speakers as we approach Heroes’ Square, which is lined with seven chieftains of the Magyars and other important leaders. Outside on the long tree-lined Andrassy through fare, young revellers pedal and imbibe.

Inside Szechenyi baths, small jets sooth my back but that’s about as soothing as it gets with Asians, Indians, Brits and Hungarians of all ages splashing and swirling around in the thermal waters – the city sits on 125 springs and this is the largest and most popular, attracting 1.5m visitors last year. The water temperature tops 30 degrees celsius in summer and 34 degrees in winter. The late afternoon sun provides some extra warmth, amid the cool wind, and adds a glow to the yellow neo-Baroque-come Renaissance façade. There are even ‘beer tubs’, for those who can’t face pedalling.

Hungary is riding a tourism wave with Budapest’s international visitors rising 21 per cent last year. Just as it took a while for everyone to discover Prague, the Hungarian capital is now starting to follow the same trajectory and firmly on the map, although prices remain low.

LOT Polish Airlines is to launch direct flights from Budapest to New York and Chicago in May 2018.

Walking back towards Andrassy, a 30-strong throng of Asian tourists marched past on Kos Karoly bridge by the square – showing the city’s appeal stretches beyond hedonistic weekenders flying in on Wizz Air and Ryanair. Emirates’ Boeing 777 was parked remotely at Ferenc Liszt International Airport, symptomatic of its wider international profile; sat next to me on the final 49th row was a Sri Lankan heading home to Colombo though his facial recognition company is based in Tokyo, and he plans to set up a European base in Budapest. He fitted the bill of your archetypal timezone-crossing Emirates customer.