10 September 2017: Esztergom to Budapest, Hungary
Mileage: Today-12; Total-590
After hearing stories about the great 4-hour Danube cruise into Budapest, we found there was no longer a boat until perhaps 5:30 pm, and bicycle might not be permitted. Today was pretty simple, get up, find the train station. My Garmin almost got us there, until we were close, then it failed or we had an incompetent operator. A good word to remember in countries where they might speak German is bahnhof. Their web page listed trains at 11 and 47 minutes after the hour, every hour, daily, but apparently not on Sunday. So we waited an hour, and all was OK.
Finding our hotel was difficult. I programmed my Garmin with the address, but it was wrong. We discovered that Budapest has 5 districts and an address is often repeated in another district. Ours was. We finally called Janos, who owned the apartment, and managed to find it after several calls. It's well located, once located, not far from the Elisabeth Bridge. Below should have been our route from the train station to our lodging, but we managed to turn it into an ordeal.
I have a car arranged to take me to the airport on Tuesday at 4 am for my 6:30 flight. Then I walked about for about 90 minutes while Stuart rested. We at at the restaurant our host recommended, in the heart of the Jewish quarter, and then stumbled across a bar serving Budapest-made craft brews and broadcasting NFL football live. The upstairs was filled with Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Who would have guessed it in Budapest.
Tomorrow I'll tour about on the older Buda side of the Danube on my bike and major sights on the newer Pest side, clean and pack the bike, and then early to bed.
As we returned, the Jewish community was having a festival at the synagog or temple.
Cycling Route to Train Station. Thinking it would be easy to find the train station, we cycled casually south, and then we had to repeatedly ask directions from people who seldom spoke English. Banhof should have been our first word. We did not know that the Esztergom train station was in Dorog, 7 miles away.
After hearing stories about the great 4-hour Danube cruise into Budapest, we found there was no longer a boat until perhaps 5:30 pm, and bicycle might not be permitted. Today was pretty simple, get up, find the train station. My Garmin almost got us there, until we were close, then it failed or we had an incompetent operator. A good word to remember in countries where they might speak German is bahnhof. Their web page listed trains at 11 and 47 minutes after the hour, every hour, daily, but apparently not on Sunday. So we waited an hour, and all was OK.
Finding our hotel was difficult. I programmed my Garmin with the address, but it was wrong. We discovered that Budapest has 5 districts and an address is often repeated in another district. Ours was. We finally called Janos, who owned the apartment, and managed to find it after several calls. It's well located, once located, not far from the Elisabeth Bridge. Below should have been our route from the train station to our lodging, but we managed to turn it into an ordeal.
I have a car arranged to take me to the airport on Tuesday at 4 am for my 6:30 flight. Then I walked about for about 90 minutes while Stuart rested. We at at the restaurant our host recommended, in the heart of the Jewish quarter, and then stumbled across a bar serving Budapest-made craft brews and broadcasting NFL football live. The upstairs was filled with Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Who would have guessed it in Budapest.
Tomorrow I'll tour about on the older Buda side of the Danube on my bike and major sights on the newer Pest side, clean and pack the bike, and then early to bed.
Hungarians like their rose colors.
Our Innkeeper. Yanos
Seemed symbolic of our tour. A man with a real version these kept pace with us on the parallel Danube bike trails south of Vienna.
Danube Cruise Ships
Building panel depicting heroic sailors
Typical Budapest building ornamentation
Street Sign
More pastries—everywhere.
. . . and Cakes.
Little Dog of the Day. I saw many larger ones, but most were guarding a compound or yard and growling at us.
Temple
Our Restaurant. Good, not great. We had 6 pm reservations. It was full by 7:30 pm.
Chicken Hungarian. The noodles were eggy, more like a mix of flour, potatoes, and scrambled eggs.
As we returned, the Jewish community was having a festival at the synagog or temple.
From Brew Your Mind. Local craft beer is catching on throughout Europe.
All of these craft beers are made in Budapest.
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