HUNGARY

The Danube River continues from Bratislava along the Slovak-Hungarian border before turning southwards, through Budapest and into Serbia. We drove along the border to where the river bends, the area known, not surprisingly, as the Danube Bend, through Szentendre and Esztergom before stopping in Visegrad - a small town of less than 2000 people with very little happening, but with a few huge hotels; it must be a popular summer spot I think. Perched above the town is the actual Visegrad (castle)...another one. Built over the original 4thC Roman fortress, the castle survived the invading Mongols only to be destroyed by the Turks and the replacement castle destroyed by the ruling Habsburgs to prevent Hungarian independence fighters from using it. What remains is still very impressive, strategically set on a cliff on the bend of the river with great views.

We continued into Budapest but didn't intend on going into the city centre so booked a hotel on the northern side. As the GPS directed through an industrial area in middle of nowhere we started to worry. After rechecking the GPS we realised there were two 'Szonyi' streets and the one we were approaching was not near our hotel at all. I should have used the co-ordinates instead of the street name! We got there eventually well after dark (although it's dark at 4.30pm so probably not too late).


The next day we visited "Aquaworld". The Hungarians are really into swimming and water sports, there are lots of pools and thermal baths here. Aquaworld was the most amazing pool complex I've seen. I wish the Victorian Government had built something like this instead of billions on a failed public tranport ticket system!
There was a lane pool, a pool with jets, a wave beach, outdoor thermal pools, water slides, kids pools with slides and a simulated surfing section. Needless to say we were there for hours.

From Budapest we drove to Sopron - almost on the Austrian border. The Turks never got this far so the town had a different feel. Apparently this is a popular spot for Austrians to come for cheap dental and cosmetic work - there were a lot of dentists is town. It was only 90 minutes back to Bratislava.