Visegrád and the Danube Bend!

Today we drove to the Buda side and headed north to Visegrád. Szentendre was along the way — there’s a big art scene there, we might go by boat from Budapest and rent bikes for another day… It was clear the entire way there, but as soon as we parked in the castle lot, it started to pour down rain. When it cleared a little, we scuttled up the wooden slippery steps and into the first part of the castle which afforded some shelter.

Great views of the famous “Danube Bend”. The Duna is very high now and lots of tributaries along the way up the mountain to the castle have also flooded, bringing down the little foot bridges and walls of homes opposite the main road. We wanted to hike up the hill, but the weather (and our heavy lunch pack) just wouldn’t permit it…

On the way back we took a different route across the Danube over the brand new bridge: Megyeri Hid. Check out the history of the Megyeri Hid naming contest over on Wikipedia!

Budapest Boat Cruise and Gellért Hegy

We did a boat trip on the Danube today. From one of the docks in Budapest we floated up river and around Margit-Szeget (Margaret Island) and back to “port”. Then we hiked it across Szabadság híd (Freedom Bridge) and up Gellért-hegy. At the top there was a downhill mountain bike race going on — CRAZY!! — full-on body padding, bombing down the foot-paths to the bottom of the hill. Today we’ll be going to Visegrad Castle so stay tuned!!

Margit-sziget and the New Air-Conditioned Trams!

No, it’s not the name of my latest band, but it was what we did yesterday. Spent the day on the sziget — the big island between Buda and Pest. On the way, we were fortunate enough to take a ride on the newer air-conditioned trams on the 4/6 route… awesome! The old yellow ones are still running, and still run exclusively on the other routes around town. The 4/6 route I read was one of the busiest trams in the world. It runs on the longest ring-road in Pest, then into Buda stopping at Moskva square — huge route.

Libegő and the Children’s Railway

The Libegő is always fun. It’s a ski-lift that starts in Buda and goes up to Jánoshegy (János is a person’s name and hegy = mountain). When you get to the top, you can hike all over the place. We walked up to the tower and then down to the train stop. Taking the “nostalgic” train — a steam engine — we headed for Hüvösvögy (“chilly valley”) at the end of the line. Foosball and cappuccino was awesome!

Eger Castle!

The castle at Eger is definitely on the must-see list in this part of Hungary. Also check out the little-known underground wine complex beneath the temple on the way. Bring an extra sweater though, it’s colder then most caves for some reason… I read 10 degrees Celsius on the inner walls.