David Currie

The Hungaria Cup came up when we were searching for possible Summer holiday orienteering and, neither of us having ever been to the country before, we decided to give it a try.Part of our decision process also included checking the average seasonal temperature: a very reasonable mid-20s °C. However, when we landed in Budapest there was a heatwave in force and the temperature was a hot but dry 39°C! The top-floor apartment we were staying in downtown Pest did have a standalone air-con unit but it simply couldn’t compete and the temperature inside didn’t drop below 30°C whilst we were there which made for some uncomfortable nights.

On our first full day, we crossed the chain bridge to Buda and walked up the hill (the shady path on the hillside looking preferable to the long queue for the funicular). To escape the heat, we descended into the Labyrinth under Buda Castle, containing a bizarre mixture of waxwork figures dressed in mouldy opera outfits and Dracula themed displays. The latter certainly had Emma spooked!

We returned via the picturesque Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. Stopping in a playground on the way down, Emma was unfortunately stung by a wasp but thankfully didn’t react too badly.

The next day, we headed past the Parliament Building to Margaret Island, which was taking a break between being the venue for the FINA World Champs and the World Masters, and joined what seemed like most of the local population at Palatinus Strand. There was no need to sample the thermal waters with the outdoor pools being quite warm enough. Sadly Duncan wasn’t quite tall enough for the water slides but Emma certainly enjoyed dragging me down them!

City Park was the venue for our last full day in Budapest. We had booked in for the circus mid-afternoon and, not being entirely sure what to do with ourselves in the interim, we ended up in the zoo. Given the temperature, part of the attraction of the circus was that the performance took place on ice. It was a superb show and the acrobatics would have been breathtaking even without the addition of ice skates!

Whilst we were in the big top the weather broke and we emerged into a torrential downpour. The rain continued the next day but it was time to pick up the hire car and move on to the next part of the holiday anyway…

This final instalment is mostly taken up with our actual summer holiday. Taking a holiday in Britain at the end of August can sometimes be testing the definition of summer and, as we set off for Pembrokeshire, we were heading in to gale force winds. To be fair, this kept the roads fairly empty and, when we arrived at Broad Haven, meant there were some impressive waves breaking against the sea wall. We were staying in a ‘lodge’ at the same place we’d stayed six years earlier when Duncan would have been about 9 months old.

By the following day, the wind had died down enough that Christine and the children could test out their new wetsuits body boarding in the sea. Unfortunately the rain returned before too long and we had to test out the selection of board games in the lodge. Things weren’t much better the following day and we tested out the swimming pool in Haverfordwest before taking a trip to St David’s for a look round the cathedral.

The sun finally made itself felt after that and we spent two pleasant days at the beach. Duncan has thankfully learnt not to eat sand in the intervening years! On another day we visited the privately owned Pembroke Castle which was a trip down memory lane for me having been there during a junior school trip to Tenby. We fell in on a guided tour where there was a good selection of gruesome stories to entertain the children. It was also, slightly randomly, circus skills day, and the children greatly enjoyed the Punch and Judy show.

We also revisited Martin’s Haven where the martins are still in residence in the toilets! We debated a trip to Skomer Island but it was too late in the year to see puffins. Instead we just wandered the cliff top path, looking down on the seals and their newborn pups below.

As with our last trip to Pembrokeshire, it was followed by a drive up to north Wales. In an unfortunate reoccurrence, Emma was once again car sick on that journey. We stayed a couple of nights in Caernarfon to be close to Christine’s cousin and extended family who were staying on Anglesey. We took the children for a walk round Llyn Idwal which was unfortunately shrouded in damp mist. Christine and her cousin did a run/walk up to the Glyders and such was the visibility that they managed to descend on the wrong side of Tryfan!

In contrast, we had glorious sunshine for the following day’s visit to Newborough Sands, scene of the British Orienteering Champs in 1995. While the others set off along the beach to the island (at least it’s an island at high tides) I had a run round the 10K+ Commonwealth Trail Champs route which is signposted.

We relocated to Bryn Gwynant Youth Hostel for the next couple of nights but met up with Cath and family again at Pen-y-Pass for an assault on Snowdon. Thankfully, unlike our last trip along the Miner’s Track, no running buggies or baby carriers were required and this time the children made it all the way to the summit of Snowdon. Unfortunately the cloud never lifted as forecast and it was pretty miserable on top, not helped by the café being closed and Emma was heartbroken that she wouldn’t be able to spend any money in the shop! We descended back down the tourist track in to Llanberis for the traditional refuelling at Pete’s Eats.

Christine had a grant interview in Swindon on the Thursday so we departed Wales and spent a night in the rather grand YHA Wilderhope Manor on Wenlock Edge. The stay was even more grand for the fact that our ‘en-suite room’ turned out to be the bridal suite! The mere presence of a bridal suite is a good indication of why we have never been able to book a room here at the weekend when orienteering in Shropshire.

Whilst Christine attended her interview, we amused ourselves at the nearby STEAM Museum of the Great Western Railway. It was billed as being an excellent way to pass a few hours and so it proved to be. There were a relatively small number of locomotives on display but this meant there was plenty of space to stand back and appreciate them. There were also lots of diversion for the children which meant that I could actually read some of the material on display. I hadn’t appreciated the extent to which Swindon owed its existence, or at least size, to the presence of the railway.

That brought us back home but, with Christine working a weekend open day at the University, I still had some child-minding to do and we decided to tick one more item of the children’s bucket list for the summer: a return trip to Paultons Park. The answer I posed at the end of my last blog post on this subject was 5 years, although Emma has managed a trip there with school in the interim. The children’s tastes have certainly matured and we only had one ride in Peppa Pig World (although this was possibly my worst with Duncan attempting to spin our cabin as fast as he could!). Thankfully the queues are somewhat shorter in other parts of the park, including the new rides in the Lost Kingdom. Emma demurred at some of the rides but this only spurred Duncan on and sadly he was the one who still needs to be accompanied by an adult on many of them! In the end, Emma caved in and joined us on everything. The only ride we didn’t do (although Duncan was definitely eyeing it up) was the Edge.