Alfa Hotel Gyor

... of Pozsony although I had no idea that they were the same city. I check Student Agency which I have used twice before. Bingo. Gyor to Budapest. Takes 50 minutes direct and only costs E5. Only 2 buses per day so we leave at 6 PM.

The abbey's church is quiet impressive. Significant parts of it do go back to 1000 AD. The monastery is still active and the views from the top of the hill are excellent. Well worth the day trip.

Surprisingly to me ...

Over coffee, Sharon and I compare experiences in Prague and Budapest. We both feel that we have had excellent ones. For me, I could have spent a week more in each going to the many museums in depth while Sharon has obtained the feel of the city and seen the main sites so feels sated.

By 10:00 we are on a train for 2 hours to the small town of Gyor. It has a large pedestrian area with a ...

... very industrial. Others are quite picturesque with farmhouses and town squares that look like they would have looked in the middle ages. Most of these towns have little iron crosses with a silver or gold Jesus hanging on them. Our guide said these were put up in the 1800's, and some of them had to be taken down during communism, but they were put back up again afterwards.

The highlights of our bike trip have been the little picturesque town of Telec, which was ...

yikes... i wrote this entire section and the computer shut down... here is the cliff notes version: Yesterday I slept til 3...no more jet lag! Today I am heading 2 hours west by train to visit kornel, a friend i met in panama - also friends with karolina, my budapest host. I arrived with no problems and we walked around for a bit. Too bad i did not take any photos of the small town. It was very pretty! Kornel and ...

... last 1,000 years or so and as such the artistic and architectural styles run the gamut from baroque and rococo all the way back to romanesque statuary in the cellars that was defaced by the invading Ottoman Turks.

It's also one of the biggest wine producers in the region, making some pretty tasty stuff.

... som sa poducil tajom 'Petrzalskeho parkovania'. Povodne som si myslel, ze sa ideme len tak previest do mesta ako to robievam, ale Fero navrhol hradzu na lavom brehu Dunaja, kde som bol naposledny pred vyse piatimi rokmi. Co som ale netusil bolo, ze do obeda prejdeme na korculiach 24 kilometrov a posledny kilometer bude naozaj ako na maratone - neuveritelne dlhy. Na zaciatok to bola samozrejne velka sranda, lebo sme isli povetre a sil sme mali na ...

... around (in the rain) until we found someone who worked there. He said that because the museum was open the day before for the holiday, it was closed today. Wonderful. So we hopped back in the car and drove to the southern outskirts of Budapest to Szoborpark or Statue Park (where it was no lobger raining -- Yay!). Statue Park is another outdoor museum; one where an enterprising collector has stored a vast number of ...

... Overview

The historical town of Mosonmagyaróvár, crossed by a number of rivers and creeks, full of green and monuments. There is a good thermal bath attended by many Austrians from nearby Vienna. Being an univeristy town with a very old center, Mosonmagyaróvár has lots of romantic cafes and restaurants. There are quite a few bike roads leading even to such distant places as Györ and Bratislava. The Danube coast ...

Last night I partook of the television, as Max would say, but even a beautiful production of Swan Lake couldn't keep me awake and I had to turn out the lights before the end of the third act. Then slept in, if you can say 9:30 is sleeping in, but only got out into town at 11. I took the bus to Pannonhalma, a little town which boasts an ancient monastery that's a Unesco World Heritage site. It's like I end up at these places without even trying! Anyway, not quite ...

... in a bend on the river I stopped to photograph the old castle on the hill top. Seconds later a huge bird of prey soared past. I dug in the bag for my binoculars and got a reasonable look at it. I'm sure it was an eagle, it was several km away and still impressive. I'll claim that as a possible Golden Eagle. I went into the petrol station there and topped up my water bottles and refueled myself with a bar of chocolate. Two bikers on high ...