The Börzsöny hills are north of Budapest in the area of the Danube bend. Lots of weekend houses out here. Endless supply of forest fun: lots of trees, small streams, mountain vistas, Büfé in the middle of nowhere… good times. Take the train to Szob from Nyugati train station and get off at Kismaros. You will be greeted by a fully stocked CBA store, bar, bufe and lots of icecream!
Ok, maybe not in size, but definitely in number of animal skulls nailed to the walls. First time to the Bakony was great! We stayed just outside Zirc in the lower Bakony, but very near the higher areas to the north-west. Lots of things going on here: alpine chairlift, historical library, nature/science museum, biking and hiking, lots of caves, a couple castles and… Crop Circles!
The extra-terrestrial markings were visible from the castle at Csesznek.
On our way home, we stopped in Veszprém and walked all along the castle hill. Oh, and on our way TO there, we had a chance to stop and see the factory town of Herend, where all the very expensive porcelain comes from — amazing!
After a long hiatus, we’re back touring around Hungary. Next stop? Gyula! It’s in the south-west and very close to the Romanian border. We spent two days there touring the castle, swimming pool and spa and the old town pedestrian streets.
On the way there, we stopped at Kecskemét just to see the main square and the Ornamented Palace…
This is part 1 of 2, more photos from the second day to come…!
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!
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!!
