WE tend to indulge in the odd quiz to wile away travelling time and, in the airport lounge of the Charles de Gaulle, waiting for our flight to Budapest, Ellie asked me to name some famous Hungarians.

It took me a minute to appreciate she was not setting up a quiz but genuinely interested in the answers. I thought of Ferenc Puskas, Nandor Hidegkuti, and Gyula Grosics: three members of the Magical Magyars who beat England 6-3 at Wembley and proved we were staid and off the pace of mainstream football back in 1953 and one could ask, what’s changed?

Then I recalled Sandor Iharos, a post-war distance runner, and Florian Albert, a gifted striker who played for Hungary in the 1966 World Cup in England.

But I must admit: I was struggling.

We worked on it and came up with Franz Liszt and Balint Bartok; plus Eva and Zsa Zsar Gabor who introduced the word “darlink” to the English language.

We were surprised, when finally we resorted to the internet, how many there are from Alexander Korda to Johnny Weissmuller; Harry Houdini to Michael Curtiz; Emo Rubik of Cube-fame; Laszio Biro who gave his name to his invented pen; and Mickey Hargity, who lived under the super-structured shadow of his more famous partner, Jayne Mansfield.

Watford Observer: One of the most famous Hungarians, Harry Houdini.One of the most famous Hungarians, Harry Houdini.

One of the most famous Hungarians, Harry Houdini.

Of course there are many scientists, men of books and medicine, but they did not feature in our recollections and during three days in Budapest, we were acquainted with many more.

It was a fair mental exercise and we were halfway to Budapest before we gave up. I did try to claim Bela Lugosi but apparently he was an American of Hungarian parentage.

As for Budapest, we did not know quite what to expect, but we had heard the architecture was impressive.

In fact we were presented with an architectural feast of Baroque, Gothic, Art Nouveau, Classicist, Renaissance, Neo-Renaissance as well as the odd remnants of Turkish and Roman architecture that can be found in a city that is the amalgamation of two former cities and a small town, and was only joined by the Chain Bridge across the Danube in the 1840s.

The building that captured my attention was the Gothic Revival style of the Parliament building on the banks of the Danube, which is often featured on UK televised advertisements for Viking cruises on the river. It is splendidly illuminated at night.

The entire visit was a delight and our superbly-located Arcadia hotel cost us 200 euros for three nights, including breakfast, and the highly efficient and charming quality of help and service from the staff, was at a level I have experienced rarely before.

However, I came close to recalling Budapest for an unpleasant experience. Sat in an open-topped bus looking out on Pest from the heights of Buda, something clipped the collar of my body-warmer. I turned confused, as did Ellie, who omitted an: “Ooh”. I could not see the object of her shock but I flinched my shoulders and the three-inch long hornet flew away. Just six or seven inches difference in its fall into a moving bus would have resulted it in dropping from a tree and landing on my neck.

I wondered if my number was marked because, the next day, a pigeon splatted just short of my forward foot as I walked down the pavement. It seemed as if “they” were after me, but ironically, a week later, a pigeon got Ellie instead.

We were captivated by the twin cities of Buda and Pest and we were fortunate that the Watford Observer’s Editor had recommended a restaurant to us. It proved to be the best restaurant we visited during our time in Hungary, yet, while the cuisine and service were superb, the reason we were extra pleased was because that first sunny evening we had to walk down through the centre of Pest to reach the Danube and then walk across the Chain Bridge to the city of Buda that rises from the banks.

We had been advised there were good restaurants nearer to hand without requiring a 30-minute walk, but we decided to head for the recommended restaurant in warm sunshine. The views are spectacular - a superb cityscape and by the time we had reached the restaurant, we were already delighting in the ambience and atmosphere of Hungary’s capital.

There is a youthful vibe to Budapest. We picked up on that within five minutes of leaving the hotel, close to the heart of the city and the Hop-on-Hop-off bus terminal.

We opted for the bus tour the first morning and by the end of the day, we had gorged on the city’s architecture and main sights. These tours also give you an idea as to where you want to go, but also serve as a taxi service.

Unfortunately, the days when you had a guide speaking in a microphone and bombarding you with anecdotes seem to have passed. Now you have a pre-taped commentary. I don’t know how they are triggered but often they refer to something that we have just passed by, or that is some way ahead.

We first came across this in Washington DC and having travelled a section of the route before, I was able to point out to some people, looking questioningly at McDonalds on the left, that the Ford Theatre was a block ahead.

As a result of this tendency, recorded commentaries tend to provide less information and frankly, I would rather give a tip to the guide for fully acquainting us with what is on view with a live commentary..

We did not indulge in the numerous thermal springs on offer, but just enjoyed the sights, including a large warehouse building near the Danube in Pest, which housed an impressive market. We also got hooked on Hungarian goulash soup and wished we had set aside four days instead of three for our visit.

We enjoyed the architecture, the people, the hotel service and the cityscape, which is very impressive. I also appreciated the fact that in front of the main Kelet railway station they have two statues.

You can visit a park where the discredited statues of their communist past are shown as a macabre reminder of previous ogres, but the two statues in front of the station have survived two world wars, the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and communism.

They are statues to James Watt and George Stephenson. That, in a foreign capital was unusual in itself, but the warm-hearted Hungarians clearly welcome and appreciated the “invasion” of steam and the railways.