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 Part
1 News - across Europe, and round the Danube Bend:
It's almost
1000 miles from the Channel coast to Hungary, 3 days' travel in constant
rain. Our route through Belgium, Germany and Austria, allowed
time for a brief visit to Vienna in passing. Camping Wien Süd
was the usual crowded city site from where a combination
of bus, tram and Unterbahn took us into the city. A day visit
gave merely a sampling of the historic sites; it was clear however that
the Habsburgs had for centuries bled the subject peoples of their Empire
to adorn their capital with elaborate palaces and churches.
Click on map for details
In continuing rain, we
visited the Karlskirche, an architectural pot-pourri with 2 mock
Trajan's Columns, and built in 1725 in thanks for Vienna having been
spared the plague (Photo 1). The mighty Gothic extravaganza of St
Stephen's Cathedral is certainly worth a visit, if only to ponder from the unsteady
catwalk of the bell-tower how medieval technology managed such lofty
construction.
Our route followed the course of the Danube (Donau
in Austria, Duna in Hungary). Europe's 2nd longest river after the Volga
rises in the Black Forest and flows for 1,770 miles, on through Hungary
and Romania to the Black Sea, a navigable trade route since medieval
times. Buying our motorway matrica (vignette) and using our first
Hungarian word - köszönöm
(pronounced ker-ser-nerm) - thank you, we crossed the Hungarian
border into the Kisalföld
(Little Plain) flat-lands of the Danube valley. Suddenly
all the signs seemed bewilderingly
strange and place names unpronounceable. Our first stop was at
Győr
(pronounced Dy-ur). Although an industrial city with suburbs of high rise
appartment blocks and factories, the attractive buildings
and monuments clustered around the central square of Széchenyi
ter showed the town's historic
significance. The cathedral's prime treasure is a gilded reliquary bust of
the 11th century canonised Magyar King Lászlo. Of the 3 campsites, we
chose Kiskuti Kemping; the short bus ride into the town passed the Raba
Engineering Works, one of modern Hungary's most successful industries. The
campsite was, shall we say, a real experience: something of a
retro-glimpse into Hungary's Communist past, with tiny chalets for
workers' holidays and antiquated plumbing. If you plan to camp in Hungary,
an essential piece of kit is a plastic shower hose/head from Poundsaver,
modified to fit showers with no heads. Another pre-requisite is a good
supply of Moontiger coils or Bagon to protect against biting midges.
This
stretch of the Danube forms the Hungarian/Slovak border, but the Börzsöny
and Cserhát Hills cause the river to loop south, forming the so-called Danube Bend.
The towns of this region which we visited over the next week are steeped
in significance for Hungary's history. We
camped for the St István (Stephen) Day national holiday fittingly at the
historic town of Esztergom. It was here that the grandson of Arpád (who
had led the Magyars into Hungary) Christianised the tribes, choosing
significantly the Western Catholic rather than Eastern Orthodox church.
His son, Vajk was crowned King Stephen (István) by the Pope's legate in
1000 AD in Esztergom where he later founded the Cathedral. The modern
Basilica, a grandiose gilded marble neo-classical structure, dominates the
town (Photo 2), and the Archbishop of Esztergom is Primate of
Hungary. The Hungarian Church was persecuted during the Communist 1950s,
but Esztergom's Basilica was spared, it was said, since Khrushchev's wife
liked it. It was here that Cardinal Mindszenty was buried. He had
defiantly opposed the Communists who imprisoned and tortured him, and in
the 1956 Uprising, he sought asylum in the US Embassy in Budapest where he
spent the next 15 years in internal exile. He died in Vienna in 1975, but
willed that his body should not be returned to Hungary until the last
Soviet troops had departed. The sweeping views from the Basilica dome
across the Danube were truly inspirational (Photo 3). We
shopped for provisions at a Tesco hypermarket - familiar surroundings but
unfamiliar and unintelligible voices and signs. A little girl in the car
park offered to return our trolley in exchange for the 100 forint coin;
she'll do well in the new enterprise culture of modern Hungary. Gran
Camping down by the Danube bridge was a comfortable base for the weekend;
8,100 forints a night sounded a huge amount but in fact came to just Ł12.
The St Stephen's Eve firework display reflected along the Danube was a
memorable experience, as were the celebrations around the Basilica over
the holiday weekend.
We
moved along the Danube to the equally historical town of Visegrád,
to camp close to river at the straightforward but welcoming Kék Duna
Camping. Before the royal residence moved to Buda, Visegrád
had been the seat of the early Magyar kings. Béla IV had built
fortifications here in 1241 on the hill overlooking the Danube as
protection against invading Mongols. Later rulers established the Royal
Palace down by the river, The apogee came under Hungary's enlightened King
Mátyás Corvinus who brought Renaissance art and culture to Hungary
before his death in 1490. Whereas the Renaissance flourished in
western Europe under such rulers as François
I in France and Henry VIII in England, Hungary's Renaissance came to an
abrupt end with the barbaric Turkish invasion of 1526 ushering in a 150
year dark ages for the unfortunate Hungarians. King Mátyás'
Royal Palace, with its sensitively restored Italianate artwork and
gardens, and the citadelle on the hilltop above gave a fascinating insight
into Hungary's short-lived Renaissance.
But
then the rain started. We moved on to Pap Sziget Camping, set on an island
in the Danube at Szentendre (pronounced Sent Endray - St Andrew). And the
rain continued for 2 days, turning the campsite into liquid mud and the
roadways into mini-tributaries of the Danube. No wonder all the facilities
were raised on stilts 10 feet off the ground. Although Szentendre had some
interesting 17th century churches, founded by Serbian refugees from the
Turks, the town was a disappointment being an over-commercialised tourist
trap. Of greater interest was the nearby Hungarian Open-air Museum, or
Skanzen. During a lull in the rain, we drove out to find what Rough Guide
called 'steeples in a field'. On a large site, samples of rural
architecture from Hungary's different regions have been reassembled into
mini-villages to show traditional building methods and materials,
way of life, social structure, and working practices for the varying
communities. We had seen similar last year in Slovenia, but this was on a
huge scale and very worthwhile. And of course being Hungary, the
farmsteads had paprikas hanging up to dry (Photo 4).
We
have now been in Hungary over a week. The utterly unintelligible language
is beginning to yield some of its secrets, but the multi-accented vowels,
each with a unique sound, which if mis-pronounced can result in blank looks of
non-comprehension. We are also getting used to distinctly Hungarian
driving conditions - what would you make of this road sign? It is now time
for us to follow the Danube further as it flows towards Hungary's capital,
the combined cities of Buda and Pest. See our next edition in a week's
time.
Sheila
and Paul
Published: Saturday 27 August
Music this week:
Ferenc Liszt (1811-86)
Hungarian Rhapsody |
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