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!
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.
Lots of good fun around and inside castle hill. The self-guided tour of the labyrinth was super creepy. They definitely took in up a notch with all the spooky sound effects and music. The heard-beat room was especially unnerving… =O
