Blanca & Ian's Travels

Hungary

Trip Report - 2007

Aggie-sheg-a-dra
(Or something thing that . . .)

Budapest, Eger, Győr, Sopron, Vienna (Austria)
with lunch in Warsaw

Eger

Senátor-Ház Hotel
with terrace in front

Senátor-Ház Hotel - Dobó tér 11. Eger
 http://senator-haz-hotel.internettudakozo.hu/indexen.htm

Accommodations:  OK double-bedded room on the 2rd floor facing Dobó Ter.  Well, two twins shoved together as is common in Europe.   With dual comforters.  We had dual comforters everywhere in Hungary.  Strange.  Bathtub with hand-held shower thing.  The usual TV but it didn't work - mind you, we didn't complain either, Mini-bar, ice available from the restaurant, the in-house restaurant is very good & breakfast is included. Nice.  The staff were good.  English & German spoken too.

This 18th Century inn is superbly located a small square that is attached to Dobó Ter via a wide bridge.  The castle looms one street behind the hotel & their parking lockup is against the castle walls.  Many restaurant choices & lots of shopping were within a 5 minute walking distance.

The Negatives:   Finding it.  We drove around for an hour & asked at least 4 different people for directions.  Finally, we parked & walked to the hotel & asked them how to get to it.  And no one knew.  The area is a maze of one-way streets & pedestrian-only streets.  Hint:  get to the hospital & park near the Turkish Minaret.  Then walk to the hotel & ask.

The other negative is noise.  We slept with our windows open & you can hear the morning noise - church bells, people cycling by etc.  And especially the very loud American couple who parked in the same lot used by the hotel.  They were blocked in & woke the entire neighborhood at 5:30 AM bitching about it.  This lasted for an hour before the hotel staff arrived & solved their problem.  I can sympathize but they WERE loud & obnoxious.

Day 5 Monday June 18

We were up reasonably early, finished packing & grabbed breakfast in the lounge.  Then, with the car packed & maps at ready, it was time to go.  We didn't see every site in Budapest but we didn't try.  We came to see, feel & taste the city & we did all of that.  More Budapest commentary will follow in the conclusions at the end of this report.  If it ever ends . . .

I have driven in France, Italy, Spain, Cuba & all over Canada & the US.  For work, I fly into a city, rent a car & go.  So, suffice it to say, I am very experienced at driving in strange places.  I found Hungary fun to drive.  Budapest is busy but it actually flows well & the drivers aren't crazed.  Naples still tops my list as the most crazed drivers I have experienced & this was mild in comparison.  People mostly follow the rules & signs, so it was business as usual.  As always, round-a-bouts require some attention but once you figure out that the car going around has the right of way & you should signal your exit, they work well.  I did run into some multi-laned round-a-bouts which require you to choose a lane & stick with it for exiting.  You have to know the towns in the direction you wish to go but this wasn't hard either as everything is well marked.  The M-Series toll ways were fast & efficient but note:  they require a windscreen pass that you can buy at gas stations.  As in all European countries, stay out of the left lane unless you are passing & watch your mirror carefully.

Small roads were good to fair depending on where you were.  Many of them were crowned with bumpy sides, so just drive in the middle with caution.  Note that you must slow down to 50 km through towns & villages & this is not marked.  You just have to know.  People tended to signal when zipping around the numerous bicycles you will encounter.

In towns, finding the street names is the biggest challenge.  As I pointed out above they are plaques attached to the corner of buildings on corners.  Just assume you'll miss some.  Street names can also change if there is the slightest bend in the road or for no apparent reason actually.  And of course, asking directions can be a challenge I'm sure.  Even if you find a good English-speaking person, the Magyar pronunciation will have you mystified since they often sound quite different then how the word looks to us on-ga-lules.

And a big note:  Hungary is 0 tolerance & they mean it.  So skip that glass of wine or that beer if you intend to drive.  No, not even one.  Everyone we met respects this & you should too.

And no, I didn't get an International Drivers License.  Probably should have but I didn't.  Stone me now, but I never do anymore.  I doubt if it's translated into Hungarian anyway.

Anyway . . . we left the Buda Hill without incident & went through the tunnel underneath which exits into the round-a-bout in front of the Chain Bridge.  Sounds scary after only 5 minutes of driving, doesn't it?  But it wasn't.  Then it was over the Chain Bridge & into the Centrum or belváros (as the center of every town is called & signed).  We then followed the M3 signs through downtown Budapest, through Heroes' Park & out through the 'burbs when we finally got on the start of it.  You see, Budapest does not have any ring highways & the M-Series roads die at the 'burbs & dump you onto surface roads.  More on this later.  But overall, heading out was easy.

Chain Bridge from the car

Eger (eh-gair) is only 90 kms or so from Budapest but we decided to cutoff earlier & make our way through some villages & better scenery.  We exited at Gyðngyðs & headed east to pickup a small road aiming towards the village of Kisnána which had some historic structure.  It turned out to be a tower & it was closed on Monday.  The drive through the small villages made it worthwhile anyway.  One road was marked strangely on my Michelin map with arrows pointing both ways.  It turns out that this means a single lane road.  It was paved & wound through the forest & up & down hills & we didn't see a soul for 10 kms.  The approach to Eger was beautiful with lush, rolling hills mostly planted in vines.  Well worth the extra time it took to drive.

Turkeys
Note the thatched room on the 2nd barn

A village near Eger

Eger is not a big town but the core is a frustrating maze for driving.  As I mentioned above in the hotel negatives, we drove in circles for an hour before finally arriving in the side street behind the hotel to unload our luggage.  With the car parked however, the world was rosy once more.  All in all it was 3 hrs or so from our start in Budapest but we meandered & then circled.

Lunch was our 1st task.  Since we knew we probably eat dinner at our hotel, we went to the place beside next it for something light.  I had a wild boar cream soup concoction & I don't remember what my wife ate.  Berecz Andras is on the bill but it's straight out the hotel's front door on the right.  3190 Ft for 2  Just OK.

After this late lunch, we wandered the Dobó Ter & the shopping streets that run off of it.  This is the center of the town & it's main shopping area & therefore not just tourist stores.  Very attractive & clean with a few Romas that hang out for the cops to hassle.  Just like a typical Italian piazza, the people gather at night in the Dobó to socialize & observe.  This was a lazy day & we didn't even take any pictures.  Since it was Monday & the majors were closed we just relaxed.

That night, continuing with our lazy mood, we wandered to the Senátor-Ház's restaurant terrace in front of the building.  There were no tables available but a woman was just leaving & offered us her's.  We sat down & she didn't leave for over an hour.  Her name was Katherine & she was an expat from England & was currently living near Tokaji.  She had lived in Eger for a while too.  Kind of an earth momma type if you know what I mean but very nice to talk to.  I ordered a good bottle of Bikaver - 2003 Sike Tamás for around 5800 Ft which we shared.  A small combo was playing pleasant mood music in a gazebo that the local restaurants in the tiny square must finance.  The waiter finally came up just before 10 PM & said it was last call for food, so Katherine went on her way & we ordered.  I don't have the bill but it was around 4800 Ft for 2.  And very good.  A nice evening.

Day 6 Tuesday June 19

We woke to church bells sounding the hour through our open windows.  I didn't mentioned in yesterday's report that it had been another scorching day.  Mid-30C again.  But it always cooled at night.  The Senátor-Ház has portable AC units that sit in the room but are vented outside.  It seemed to work well.  The bed however was very hard.  Didn't bother me at all, but there were complaints from my travel mate.  It was downstairs for the breakfast buffet on the terrace.  Typical Continental although there were eggs the 1st day.  The public places of the Senátor-Ház are decorated with nice art, photos & knick-knacks.  Well done.  It's just a small place with only 12 rooms or so & the location can't be bettered.

Our 1st task was money.  Getting some that is.  Our ATM card was rejected the night before so we were starting to dream up contingency plans.  A visit to a bank was unrewarding.  They said to use the machine.  Maybe some begging in the Ter might be in order.  After a call to the bank later in the day, it appeared that we had forgotten to increase our weekly withdrawal limit.  Daily was fine, but weekly was the issue.  They increased it & solved the problem, but don't make the same mistake!

The castle looming above us was beckoning, so we made this our 1st destination of the day.  We had driven around it a dozen times the day before, so we were eager to see the inside.  A 5 minute walk brought us to the entrance.  As with many sites, there are a couple of ticket options.  You can get on the grounds for one price & the tour is another.  We opted for the whole enchilada & rushed up to attach ourselves to the next tour.

It was a disinterested group of Hungarian teenagers.  Our guide was a similarly disinterested woman.  The tour was in Hungarian so I didn't get a lot out of it.  And since I had read the history previously, my wide didn't bother to translate.  Brief synopsis:  Bad Turks come in 1552.  Siege.  Good guy Dobó István (first names are last in Hungary) & his buds drink wine & hold them off.  Womenfolk help them by throwing laundry or something down on the invaders.  The Turks leave.  Instant hero & instant wine trivia:  the invention of Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood), a blend of various local red wines.  Unfortunately, the Turks returned in 1596 & bulldozed the place.  But the incident produced a true Magyar hero & the main square in Eger - Dobó István Ter - and many other things are named after him.  The tour took us to his tomb & down into the fortifications, complete with a pretty hokey cannon firing & other AV spectacles.  But it was nice & cool in the depths of the fortress.

We then strolled the walls of the castle & took about a thousand pictures from this great vantage point.

Eger from castle

After descending from on high, we walked some of the backstreets & the Dobó István Ter.  It's a very attractive square with the 17Th Century Minnorite Church dominating the south with a wonderful Baroque building attached.  In our minds though, it is the statues that are the stars.  The principle one is Dobó of course but one of the other two is a graphic scene with the vicious Turks.

Slightly further a field (but only by a block)  the Cathedral sits above the street.  We timed it perfectly to catch an organ concert that takes place at 11:30 AM most days.  For a pittance we relaxed & listened to some Bach.  From the steps of the Cathedral, you get a great view of the Lyceum - a school - across the street.

Lunch beckoned & we settled on a café near the end of Széchenyi Utca which is the main pedestrian shopping street.  EgriEst Cafe at #16.  I had pizza & B had a sandwich.  It took so long to get it, we knew that my pizza must have been baked fresh.  1960Ft for both with drinks.  After lunch we spent more time just wandering the twisting streets & alleys of this small town.

Late in the afternoon, we hopped on the seriously dorky 'train' that leaves for the much-ballyhooed Szépasszony Valley (Valley of the Beautiful Women) with its wine caves.  The 'train' has no suspension & it is painful to take the bumpy circuitous route to get there & the surly operator was a real charmer.  I think he enjoys torturing his passengers.  After reading so much about it the wine valley in trip reports, I must admit that I thought this 'must see & do' was a letdown.  It's a small area in a bigger valley where caves have been built into the earth & fronted with patios & interior spaces for quaffing mediocre wine.  We stopped in one & the wine was cheap at 100 Ft.  About what it was worth too.  The barman & father-in-law of the owner was pleasant though.  The only partying we heard was one cellar that had some boisterous Germans singing drinking songs.  There is lots of parking for tour buses & there is construction ongoing to beautify the area.  The whole thing is some tourist board's idea of fun.  We ate dinner in one of the restaurants & it was as forgettable as the price.  We walked back since it's only about 20 minutes, although the first bit was uphill.  It was nice to see more neighborhoods of Eger, though.  But 2 nights was enough for this small town.

We then called it a night.  The next morning we were headed to Győr to see some family.