Hotel Raba Gyor

Our focus is the Unesco sit of Archabbey of Pannonhalma, a thousand-years-old abbey. It is 40 minutes by local bus.

One concept that we have been pondering is at what point is the historical nature of a building lost such that rather than a refurbishing of a palace or bridge does it become a reconstruction. We have seen many photos of historic structures in which virtually nothing is left. Perhaps a few bricks at the foundation. For example, many churches ...

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 ...

... You could hear everyone's hysterical laughter bouncing off the walls outside the little underground hut.

The other day, we also got to go to the ruins of Devin castle, which is an Irish-sounding name to me. Anyway, it sits on top of this giant rock right where the Danube and Moravia rivers meet. It was in operation from the 800's or 800 bc's or something like that until 1809 when it was destroyed by Napoleon I. It had a commanding view of the rivers and valleys and ...

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 ...

After spending the night in Sopron we headed back to Budapest, stopping along the way to take a tour of the Abby of Pannonhalma. This is one of the oldest Christian monuments in Hungary, actually pre-dating the conversion of the country. It's a massive building that has been built and rebuilt over and over again over ...

Dnesny den sme zacali na korculiach a unavu zo seba striasli vo vodach kosarisk v Dunajskej Luznej. Ja som z Bratislavy, ale jej juhovychodne okolie teda poznam velmi malo. A preto ked ma dnes Fero vytiahol na vylet na Kosariska, tak som nevahal. Jednak som tam nikdy nebol a za cele letom som na Slovensku pri vode vlastne ani nebol. Rano sme si ale dali dotela a v trojici sme vyrazili rano o 9:00 na korcule. Pridal sa k nam aj Ferov kamos Gejza od ...

... is located a vast underground bunker system and fortress, first built by the Austrians, but later used by the Nazis to house people on route to the concentration camps, and later still by the Russians in their occupation of the region. The complex was cast, and we could explore virtually any any we wanted... but the rooms were all completely empty. It has the potential to be a wonderful museum, but as it stands ...

... 7km od Komáromu zastavujeme na čerpacej stanici a dávame si teplú bagetu s minerálkou. O 22:30 prichádzame na hraničný prechod v Komárne, kde nám vyjavený colník kladie otázku "kam ste sa vybrali". 23:15 Komárno, Pokojná 7 Pripíjame si na to, ze sme to zvládli. Valérovi som omylom dal nealkoholické pivo ;) Pozeráme film "Demolition Man" so Silvesterom Stallonem. No comment. "Taký ten sivý sprchovací sampón Adidas" sa proste nenasiel.

... had a paper round will know that October can be one of the worst months to do that job. Not only are the mornings colder and darker and with the taunting memory of summer still fresh, but spiders seem to spend all night spinning webs between fenceposts across driveways, deliberately to capture sleepy paper boys. I don't know if the sensation of walking into a spiderweb is as irksome to others as it is to me- so subtle and gently clinging, combined with the vague worry about the precise ...

... 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 ...