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Hungary 2008 - Back to the
Danube
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Our first full day in Hungary we drove the
short distance to Esterházy Chateau, a beautifully restored stately home
now partly a hotel, before continuing along empty roads being a weekend so
no lorries. bypassing the large town of Gyor on a toll free section
the motorway we turned off at Junction 119 (they are named as the
kilometre marker distance rather than consecutive numbers as in the UK so no
problem when adding an extra junction!), and continued on minor roads to
Pannonhalma, a massive abbey on a wooded hill and another UNESCO World
Heritage site. In the village at the base of the hill we found the
pleasantly rustic Panorama Camping. After a lazy afternoon enjoying the
sun we took a short walk into the town, a mixture of old semi derelict and
modern but unfinished buildings. We discovered all the shops were
closed on Saturday afternoons which explained why the place was deserted.
Luckily we found a tourist office open in the community centre. No one
spoke English but we managed to get some useful brochures. From there it
was a steep walk up a track to the monastery where we arrived just as it
closed but were able to walk around the grounds with views across the
countryside.
The next day we drove on bumpy back roads
through many small towns some with impressive churches to Kocs, where
apparently the coach was invented, then after being surprised by a bright
yellow bird, a golden oriel we think, flying across the road, we continued
to Tata, a larger town with a lake and a few scruffy ruins of a castle.
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Esterházy Chateau
Pannonhalma abbey
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We eventually joined the main road along the southern bank of the Danube (Duna
in Hungary), and after driving through a heavily industrial area with huge
cement works, arrived at Esztergom and a large but virtually empty
campsite on the road alongside the river in the town centre. There were
only a couple of campervans, some cyclists and a family with a traditional
ridge tent (weren't the old Relum brand tents made in Hungary?).
Esztergom is noted for its fine basilica (Szent Adalbert Föszékesegyház)
so in the evening we strolled into the town and around the parkland by the
civic buildings which were interesting if you ignored the graffiti
everywhere. There were many statues including a "skateboarding"
warrior, and we watched the sunset over the Danube by the bridge to
Slovakia which took years to get rebuilt after being bombed in WW2,
eventually being reopened in 2001.
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Esztergom Basilica
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Maria Valeria Bridge to Slovakia - now
completed
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Continuing along the Danube we drove up to the castle at Visigrad but
didn't go in, but instead stopped for lunch at a nature reserve and
sculpture park nearby with views over the "Danube Bend" where it
heads south. From there the main road was busy with a long queue as we
approached Szentendre, due to a car crash outside a open-air lido packed
with bikini clad sunbathers! (A bit of a distraction maybe?) As we were
near the outskirts of Budapest, we decided to find a supermarket and seeing
Auchan signs on the lampposts, headed towards the city with no evidence of
its location so we gave up. As we returned along the busy dual
carriageway we spotted a French Cora hypermarket, not as well signposted of
course, but as it was 40+ in the middle of the afternoon, we enjoyed a
break in the air-conditioned shop. We got back to Szentendre to book in at
the Pap-Sziget campsite which had welcome shady pitches and many youth
groups staying in raised chalets, presumably as it is subject to flooding,
but at least you couldn't miss the location of the amenities block .
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We drove to Szentendre early the next morning finding free parking on the
road to the north of the centre, and walked around the cobbled streets,
full of gift shops as it's a main tourist trip destination for visitors to
Budapest. The marzipan museum is worth a visit to see the intricate
tableaux and models including a scary full sized Michael Jackson.
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Szentendre main street
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Traditional Papa blue clothing shop
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The Marzipan Museum in Szentendre
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We had read about the Skanzen Open-air
museum of old buildings so headed there, well signposted off the main road
south of Szentendre. It covered a large area of parkland with many
traditional buildings rescued from the countryside all over Hungary. Most
of the buildings were furnished with some beautifully decorated carved
furniture and with tour guides in many of them who were pleased to meet
visitors and demonstrate their weaving, candle making and woodcraft skills
although perhaps we should have purchased the English guidebook to gain
the full experience. As it was so hot we were wilting by lunchtime and
would have happily joined the pigs wallowing in the cool mud in the
farmyard!
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pig in mud bath
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Skanzen museum decorated bedstead carving
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Skanzen museum old wooden church
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From there Budapest beckoned. We don't
enjoy city driving and after a few wrong turnings despite the sat nav
(which usefully covered Hungary) we arrived in the district of Budapest
where we had been told to head for by the owners of the Szentendre
campsite. Turning down a side road we drove onto an island in the river
past derelict factories and arrived at Orion Camping with more
handpainted signage, but usefully a short walk from a metro station and
the modern shopping complex of Duna Plaza complete with M&S and many
other shops. To orientate ourselves in the evening we walked over a
scruffy footbridge past some half-completed luxury apartment blocks to
the metro station where overcome by the language differences we took a
photo of the route map so we would know at least in which direction to
travel the next day, maybe.
Budapest Metro stations
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