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Hungary 2008 - Budapest
and Balaton
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We had managed to pick a very hot day for
our trip to Budapest and despite having a multitude of leaflets and guide
books we probably missed the best bits on the tourist trail (or they are
overhyped!). The day didn't start too well as we walked to the metro
station southbound entrance (towards the city centre) to find that the
ticket office was at the northbound side, so once we had crossed the busy
main road and waited for the clerk to finish his phone call, we asked for
one-day travel passes, surely a common request, but it seemed to take an
age and by then a queue of commuters had built up. Luckily the train had
audio and visual station indicators so we managed to change lines and
alighted at Moskva Ter where we promptly misread the street map and road
signs and headed south instead of north to get the cog railway. Luckily a
tram came along going to our destination.
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Once at the cog railway upper terminus, we walked a short distance to the
Childrens' Railway run by youngsters (but with adult train drivers). We
bought return tickets but after a slow 45 minute journey mostly through
woods with none of the expected views across the city, we decided to head
back to the city centre on the tram which was a more interesting journey
passing through initially leafy but then more densely built up suburbs. We
got off at Erzsébet Híd (Elizabeth bridge) and walked alongside the
Danube and a busy road passing a few buildings in desperate need of
renovation below the Buda Palace, crossing the Chain bridge, with every
surface covered in more graffiti. We passed the impressive Parliament
building, but there were hardly any tourists and no cafés and kiosks
(apparently they were a couple of blocks away from the river.)
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Budapest Cog Railway
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Budapest Chain Bridge
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Budapest Childrens' Railway
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Budapest Parliament Building
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There was an interesting sculpture of metal shoes embedded on the river
bank - what had happened to their owners? We could see the Fishermens
Bastion and other sights on the hill across the river but our legs were
beginning to suffer in the heat, so we walked on to Margit Híd bridge negotiating
the trams, cars and courier cyclists everywhere, and found the green oasis
of Margitsziget (Margeret Island), the equivalent to Hyde Park in London.
Having bought ice creams at a kiosk (and been given a hand written receipt, as
everywhere in Hungary), we enjoyed sitting and watching the locals at play
in the musical fountain.We had been advised at the campsite that a public
ferry boat travels along the Danube and is a lot cheaper than the tourist
boat trips, so we waited for that to take us back to a jetty just by the
campsite.
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Riverbank shoes sculpture
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Fountain on Margeret Island
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Public ferry near the campsite
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That night a French motorhome pulled in to the campsite at about 10pm. The
next morning they told us they had parked in the city centre and had
virtually everything stolen, so they only had the clothes they were wearing,
and they were going to head back home. We certainly felt sorry for them
but were glad as always to see our van was safe on the campsite when we
returned from our day trip to the city.
Reading up about Budapest afterwards I think a quick one day visit may
need to be more planned out with the architecture and intricate interiors
of the old buildings the main attraction.
Having seen enough of the city, we set off the the next morning on the way
out of the city intending to call in at the Statue Park where a collection
of relics from the Communist era have been assembled, but after a
horrendous one and a half hour crawl through the city, we were glad to hit
the motorway and head out into the countryside towards Lake Balaton.
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We arrived at the immense Lake Balaton, 46
miles long by 7 miles wide but mostly shallow, late morning and discovered
the main road on the northern shore doesn't go very near the water's edge,
so drove into Tihany on a small peninsula. After a circuit of the town and
finding nowhere to park, we stopped by a boarded up hotel with some kiosks
selling tat, and children's rides by the lake and took a short stroll
through the shady woods after lunch. It wasn't very busy, no doubt
different at weekends and most of the lake edge was covered in tall reed
beds so wasn't really accessible.
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Lake Balaton at Tihany
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Tihany from the lake
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From there we continued along the northern shore to Kesthely where we
found the lakeside Camping Zala just to the south of the town.
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Heviz Spa
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Floatation gear
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The next morning was overcast as we headed west to the spa town of Heviz,
where virtually everyone was walking around with plastic floats and inflated
rubber rings. We took a short walk to the spa complex in a pleasant park, and there
was an amazing sight of many bathers floating in the warm and apparently
slightly radioactive open air lake. It was a lively town with many shops
and boutiques selling swimwear and other fashions. We did a bit of
shopping to use up our Hungarian Forints (and an excuse to buy some
Magnums) then drove through pleasant wooded countryside to the border with
Austria.
Hungary - a summary
Maybe we didn't spend enough time in
Hungary to appreciate its attractions although there are plenty of guide
books, in particular for Budapest. Obviously it doesn't have the range of
natural scenery compared to Slovenia and the Czech Republic but we found a
few sights that interested us. We thought that Budapest isn't as well
developed as Prague as a tourist destination, and there is a lot of work to
be done in tidying up the streets. Looking at the guidebooks on our return
home there is an emphasis on the details of the historic buildings such as
the spas and museums.
Balaton again has a few interesting places but we didn't visit the
southern shore where there are more resorts.
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Heviz fashion parade
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<< Hungary - Back to the Danube
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Through Austria to Bavaria
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