Day 236: Pannonhalma and Budapest

Loaded up the car and left Sopron around 9:30, stopping only briefly to pick up some breakfast croissants and coffee. First stop for the day was the UNESCO World Heritage monastery at Pannonhalma, about halfway between Sopron and Budapest. Arrived after about 90 minutes of driving and it was super impressive, standing on a high mountain and visible as soon as we came off the freeway 20 kilometres distant.

This is one of the oldest abbeys in Hungary, and played a crucial role in the development of Hungarian writing (bearing in mind that Magyar spoken language had been around for centuries, just not written with Latin characters before). We drove and walked up the hill to the top and bought our tickets, though we discovered that the church was closed until the afternoon due to Sunday Mass.

But we had a good look around the grounds and the incredible Baroque library, which thankfully we were able to film inside of! Makes a nice change, though I don't think they get a whole lot of tourists up here. The included audioguide was quite good too, though it was location-triggered and would occasionally skip to the next item if you wandered too far away.

Since it was midday but with another 90 minutes until the church opened, we went back down the hill and picked a restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a great choice, with local Hungarian food, a roaring fire and a nice cosy atmosphere. I had a bowl of game stew with potato, sausages and bread, while Shandos had a local dish of noodles, sheep cheese and fried bacon. I remember most central European food being quite stodgy, and this certainly didn't disappoint in that regard! I'm also forced to not drink with lunch which is good, since Hungary has a 0% BAC limit for drunk driving. They don't do sting operations like in Australia, but better to avoid it and not create problems. Interestingly, it's the same in much of central Europe (Czechia, Poland and Slovakia all have the same rule).

Finished our lunch at 2pm and headed back up to the monastery where we examined the church. The foundation stones go back to the 10th century and Saint Stephen, first king of Hungary who ordered the founding of the monastery. Also some interesting highlights of where monks had hid during invasions by the Mongols and later the Ottoman Turks as well. And we had a quick look around the botanic gardens since those were a specific part of the heritage site too - remember that monks were not just religious men, they were also scholars, teachers, scientists and doctors!

Back to the car where we rejoined the freeway and pointed for Budapest, one of our favourite cities from the 2014 White Christmas trip. This time we were staying in an Airbnb on the Buda side, in a building a street back from the river and directly underneath Fisherman's Bastion. And with free parking!

Met our host at 4pm who let us in, and were glad to find that the apartment was both huge and well-furnished. Lots of space in the living room, which was probably bigger on its own than some apartments we've stayed in! Bedroom a little small, but on the whole very comfortable.

Spent some time settling in and relaxing, then headed out for a local dinner. I had a pork schnitzel which was quite tasty, though prices are noticeably higher here in Budapest than in Sopron! Back upstairs where we spent the rest of the evening booking accommodation for the remainder of our roadtrip; we're now booked solid through until early November!Read more