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HUNGARY: Sanctuary at Gellert’s

2 minute read
TIME

Edward of Wales, leaving Vienna behind (see above), arrived last week in Hungary’s capital, did the rounds of Pest on the flat east bank of the Danube, then the rounds of Buda on its hill on the west bank. All Budapest joined the usual peekaboo chase after H. R. H.—all except the rickety old Hungarian aristocrats who spend their days steaming stark naked in the hot springs pool of Gellert’s Municipal Baths in Buda.* There, far from the grand hotels and cafés of Pest where Edward was disporting himself, the old Magyars went on stewing in their own sweat, with an occasional spot of tea or Tokay.

Meanwhile the Prince was being trailed around Budapest by a file of cars a block long. Finally someone had the bright idea of telling him about Gellert’s bath for men only. Edward posted to Gellert’s as fast as he could, stripped, had a hot soak. Word spread quickly and all Budapest society flocked to the hotel café. But H. R. H. was satisfied where he was. When tea time came, he too had tea brought into the men’s bath, like the morose old Magyars staring at him dully through the mist.

* Whose pride is an open-air pool with artificial surf every half hour, photographed annually for European illustrated magazines.

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