Hungary . . . Ega-shega-dra (Or something thing that . . .)
Budapest, Eger, Gyor, Sopron, the opera in Vienna & lunch in Warsaw June 13 - June 29 2007
Budapest, Eger, Gyor, Sopron, the opera in Vienna & lunch in Warsaw June 13 - June 29 2007
Sopron
Day 13 Tuesday June 26 - Thursday June 28
A cloudy day. Yes, that's right a cloudy day. And cool. This is different. We have had a continuous heat wave since we arrived in Budapest almost 2 weeks ago. It has always cooled at night for some relief, but the days have been brutal.
We had planned to go the the Belvedere this morning, but we changed our minds & decided to head for Sopron a little earlier. The 1st task was to get an Autobahn sticker. When we drove in & passed the border, I wondered why everybody seemed to exit at the roadside plaza just inside Austria. It completely slipped my mind that we should have too, to get a pass. Now we needed one again. A 10 day sticker for a 1hour drive. But finding one was a challenge. The concierge sent us down the road in search of a 'Tabac'. The 1st one didn't sell them & the 2nd only had expired ones. So we aimed the car toward the gas station on 227 where we had asked for directions. No dice again. Down the road a couple of kms we stopped again at a gas station. No. This was not easy. But they suggested an Audi dealer next door who was sure to have them. And they did. For 7.60€, which was a euro or two more than the Tabac that had the expired ones, but at least we got one.
Now legal, we followed the signs for Linz, then Graf & then Sopron. A23 - A2 - A3. Another easy drive. One thing I noticed was that Austrians seemed to drive slower overall that the Hungarian drivers. I didn't expect that with all of the Autobahn stories you hear.
At the border the disinterested Austrian guard waved us through, but the Hungarian guard took our passports & wandered over to the other side of the car to stamp them while having a loud conversation with 3 other guards who were just standing around. We were the only car treated to this show.
After the border, a short drive on the 2 lane Hwy 84 brought us to Sopron. Once again, I'll deviate from the play by play since this time was spent with another cousin - Etus & her husband Imre. The difference here was that I parked the car & they drove us around to see all of the local sites. I actually got to look around rather than trying to drive & look around. And much to our consternation, they wouldn't let us pay for anything.
I'll confess here that I loved Sopron. It somehow just felt very comfortable. It is not a large town & it has maintained it's small town luster. A couple of industries are based there - Soproni Beer for one & a brick plant - but it also relies on its proximity to Vienna for tourist income. Wellness hotels are sprinkled all around the outskirts - in the hills & small villages in all directions. Dental clinics abound to feed the Austrian need for cheap dental work. And the lower stretches of the hill that rises to the east are dotted with their vacation homes. Most of the hill is a national park & from the lookout on top, you can see well into Austria. Since it survived the Mongol & Turkish scourges, it has a wonderfully old feel & its belváros is a maze of twisty streets with wonderful Baroque buildings. Of course there are also modern touches like supermarkets like Tesco, a football stadium & car dealers etc etc.
We drove up through the houses & hotels in the hills & had lunch at one of the restaurants that cater to the wellness crowd. Expect menus in Hungarian & German but they sometimes have an English one. We cheated & drove up to the Károly Lookout & admired the vistas. You can see snow-capped mountains in Austria in one direction & the Fertö-Tó beyond Sopron in another. We visited the old quarry at Fertörákos that started life as a Roman quarry & provided stone for Schöbrunn in Vienna along the way. Concerts are held in a massive underground gallery inside the quarry. We also went to the buffer zone between Austria & Hungary. When the Russians were around, Hungarian border patrol restricted access to this whole area. The Russians weren't allowed with 5 km of the border due to agreements. But nobody else was either. Nearby we passed the 'Communist' school & then stopped at an old miner's bar in the bottom of the local church for a beer. It certainly was a rural area. I started humming the banjo music from Deliverance.
A cloudy day. Yes, that's right a cloudy day. And cool. This is different. We have had a continuous heat wave since we arrived in Budapest almost 2 weeks ago. It has always cooled at night for some relief, but the days have been brutal.
We had planned to go the the Belvedere this morning, but we changed our minds & decided to head for Sopron a little earlier. The 1st task was to get an Autobahn sticker. When we drove in & passed the border, I wondered why everybody seemed to exit at the roadside plaza just inside Austria. It completely slipped my mind that we should have too, to get a pass. Now we needed one again. A 10 day sticker for a 1hour drive. But finding one was a challenge. The concierge sent us down the road in search of a 'Tabac'. The 1st one didn't sell them & the 2nd only had expired ones. So we aimed the car toward the gas station on 227 where we had asked for directions. No dice again. Down the road a couple of kms we stopped again at a gas station. No. This was not easy. But they suggested an Audi dealer next door who was sure to have them. And they did. For 7.60€, which was a euro or two more than the Tabac that had the expired ones, but at least we got one.
Now legal, we followed the signs for Linz, then Graf & then Sopron. A23 - A2 - A3. Another easy drive. One thing I noticed was that Austrians seemed to drive slower overall that the Hungarian drivers. I didn't expect that with all of the Autobahn stories you hear.
At the border the disinterested Austrian guard waved us through, but the Hungarian guard took our passports & wandered over to the other side of the car to stamp them while having a loud conversation with 3 other guards who were just standing around. We were the only car treated to this show.
After the border, a short drive on the 2 lane Hwy 84 brought us to Sopron. Once again, I'll deviate from the play by play since this time was spent with another cousin - Etus & her husband Imre. The difference here was that I parked the car & they drove us around to see all of the local sites. I actually got to look around rather than trying to drive & look around. And much to our consternation, they wouldn't let us pay for anything.
I'll confess here that I loved Sopron. It somehow just felt very comfortable. It is not a large town & it has maintained it's small town luster. A couple of industries are based there - Soproni Beer for one & a brick plant - but it also relies on its proximity to Vienna for tourist income. Wellness hotels are sprinkled all around the outskirts - in the hills & small villages in all directions. Dental clinics abound to feed the Austrian need for cheap dental work. And the lower stretches of the hill that rises to the east are dotted with their vacation homes. Most of the hill is a national park & from the lookout on top, you can see well into Austria. Since it survived the Mongol & Turkish scourges, it has a wonderfully old feel & its belváros is a maze of twisty streets with wonderful Baroque buildings. Of course there are also modern touches like supermarkets like Tesco, a football stadium & car dealers etc etc.
We drove up through the houses & hotels in the hills & had lunch at one of the restaurants that cater to the wellness crowd. Expect menus in Hungarian & German but they sometimes have an English one. We cheated & drove up to the Károly Lookout & admired the vistas. You can see snow-capped mountains in Austria in one direction & the Fertö-Tó beyond Sopron in another. We visited the old quarry at Fertörákos that started life as a Roman quarry & provided stone for Schöbrunn in Vienna along the way. Concerts are held in a massive underground gallery inside the quarry. We also went to the buffer zone between Austria & Hungary. When the Russians were around, Hungarian border patrol restricted access to this whole area. The Russians weren't allowed with 5 km of the border due to agreements. But nobody else was either. Nearby we passed the 'Communist' school & then stopped at an old miner's bar in the bottom of the local church for a beer. It certainly was a rural area. I started humming the banjo music from Deliverance.
In Sopron, we walked the downtown (belváros) & it's Baroque center. Wonderful old churches & buildings. Many are used as municipal offices and the residential ones are in high demand & price. A stone in Fö Ter marks it originally as the Roman Forum Scarbantiae, so it's seen its share of history. There are museums & cafés in Fö Ter & several shops sprinkled amongst the churches & buildings. Not a big area but a delightful one.
The main retail drag is just the other side of the old city wall & it's just as pretty with colorful old buildings. Watch for the parking cops, because they are diligent.
The main retail drag is just the other side of the old city wall & it's just as pretty with colorful old buildings. Watch for the parking cops, because they are diligent.
The old town of Sopron
Fertöd
About 20 kms from Sopron lies the village of Fertöd. It was the service village for the Eszterháza Palace which is off the highway in the east end of town. We took a tour - in Hungarian - of this once-upon-a-time playground for the rich & famous. Haydn stayed here for 20 years amongst other luminaries. It is slowly being restored after years of abuse. The main ballroom was used for agricultural storage after WW2 & tractors drove right in. The paint is peeling & the gilding is mostly worn off, but it is a magnificent building & grounds. I wanted to grab a paintbrush & dive in. Well worth a visit. We had the 1st rain of our trip when we came out after the tour. We didn't mind at all. We passed by the Széchenyi Mansion in Nagycenk on the way back but didn't have time to stop since more relatives beckoned.
About 20 kms from Sopron lies the village of Fertöd. It was the service village for the Eszterháza Palace which is off the highway in the east end of town. We took a tour - in Hungarian - of this once-upon-a-time playground for the rich & famous. Haydn stayed here for 20 years amongst other luminaries. It is slowly being restored after years of abuse. The main ballroom was used for agricultural storage after WW2 & tractors drove right in. The paint is peeling & the gilding is mostly worn off, but it is a magnificent building & grounds. I wanted to grab a paintbrush & dive in. Well worth a visit. We had the 1st rain of our trip when we came out after the tour. We didn't mind at all. We passed by the Széchenyi Mansion in Nagycenk on the way back but didn't have time to stop since more relatives beckoned.
Eszterháza Palace