Although our main port of call was to be Budapest, we stayed at a
hotel in Gyor, mid-way between Budapest and Vienna: to make
the return trip to Vienna shorter when the time came. The town we
stayed at was pleasant enough, and the hotel offered us a splendid
room and facilities, although comparison between fellow travellers
indicated that the quality of room service was somewhat dependent
upon pot-luck. We, fortunately, had a reasonable pot! Although, I
guess Hungarians do expect shorter visitors than me. Certainly both
the bed and duvet assumed this much, and I spent one night dressed
on top of the bed. Apparently the hotel cloakroom madame managed to
lift our coach driver's wallet on the first evening: just after Dave's
warnings about pickpockets. I won't say what the driver was doing
at the time, other than to mention that his hands were not free to
defend himself at the time. When he told his sad tale to me, he also
spoke of one from another coach driver who, while cleaning his coach,
had been taken with a young girl who seemed to fancy his body but
whom, a little later, he discovered had rather more fancied his wallet.
With these stories ringing in our ears, we decided that it might be
asking for trouble to leave open the balcony doors, given that you
could step across to it from two adjacent balconies. So we closed
the doors, although warm, and slept fretfully with our passports.
Nearby is the Fishermen's Bastion, a strange, turreted building
teetering on the brink |
We did not have enough time to explore Gyor, except that I can say
that it seemed a very pleasant city. It stands at the junction of
the Danube, Rábca and Rába rivers. Although it is a
major industrial centre, there is no hint of this in the city centre
which has a pleasant pedestrianised street, and areas that are landscaped.
The Town Hall is one of many fine buildings in the city. On the top
of Chapter Hill is the cathedral and the Bishop's Palace. It is a
good motorway trip from Gyor to Budapest.
BUDAPEST
Like
Prague, Budapest has a castle across the river from the main (modern)
part of the city. In fact, the castle is in Buda, and across
the Danube is Pest; the building of bridges led to their merging
as Budapest (better than 'Pestabud', I suppose). We stopped on the
heights of Castle Hill first, and wandered round the sights, including
the Matthias Church. Nearby is the Fishermen's Bastion, a strange,
turreted building teetering on the brink, one of the landmarks from
the river below; it gained its name from the fishermen's town below,
and is merely a folly: but one with tremendous views. This is the
area for open-air cafés, souvenir hawkers and, above all, tourists!
The picture shows their colourful answer to a busker: complete with
dancing children, when I passed by! When visiting this area, it is
worth knowing that many places close in Buda in the late afternoon
- leaving the bustle to Pest.
There is also a furnicular up the hill from near the river, providing
an easy uplift to the entrance of the Royal Palace: now a collection
of museums, galleries - including the Hungarian National Gallery
- and courtyards. There are remnants of German defences up here, and
there are even subterranean passages to explore, should you be so-minded;
I was so-minded, but, short of time, explored a coffee and Danish
pastry instead. There was time, however, for photo opportunities of
the superb Danube views.
The
coach took us over a few of the Danube's bridges in an initial tour
- I think the driver thought we were a bridge convention - including
Elizabeth Bridge and the much-photographed Chain Bridge.
The latter was the first bridge to be built across the Danube in the
city, surprisingly as late as 1849; before that Buda and Pest were
linked only by boats and temporary pontoon bridges. The coach then
dropped up at a place were all the coaches drop people: a place where
the police don't like them to drop people. Everyone has to leap off
quick-smart! Then we descended a subway beneath a main road to the
bridge to enter the main shopping street. Gypsies begged in this tunnel
with poor children huddled on their laps to curry sympathy; I had
it, but not for the mothers, rather for the poor children forced to
lie, day after day, looking in such a pathetic state. We were much
happier bartering for a lace tablecloth from a pretty gypsy girl who,
with cut-throat expressions finally signified that we had reached
an acceptable target.
McDonalds lay straight ahead - along with cheap ice cream stalls,
clothes, and many modern shops. The girls were dressed in minis, and
looked very English. In fact, because we could have been in any city
in England, I was a touch disappointed. The miles to get there just
didn't seem worth it. (Prague, for example, has much more character.)
Having read a travel article in Britain the week before, about how
the poor Trebant cars cough and splutter around the city, I also felt
cheated that they were hard to spot. It was easier to spot a Mercedes!
But I did take a photo of a Trebant eventually: but only to prove
they still exist!
Then
we took a sight-seeing cruise on the Danube. Yes, I can confirm it
too: it was not blue! Quite pleasant, although we had to take
our own chairs up from the dining room to the upper deck it we wanted
to sit. Principal memories were of the dominant Palace of Buda and
the Fishermen's Bastion on the Buda bank, not looking nearly as high
they had seemed to be when we were up there looking down, and the
magnificent Houses of Parliament on the Pest bank: almost like
a glorious cathedral. It was all a bit like a Seine trip - or a view
across the Grande Canal at Venice. Frankly, I'd sooner have been on
the Seine - or even better, in Venice!
We were picked up again at the same difficult spot, in a busy square,
and during the brief pause for people to leap aboard, a driver tried
wrapping his already much battered car around the back of the coach.
Whether he was just trying to straighten it out, or claim on his insurance
for a new vehicle, I'm not sure, but the driver soon straightened
him out, and apart from a minor bruise, our coach continued unscathed.
