My Road Trip to Stunning, Picturesque Szentendre, Hungary

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On a very hot day we decided to visit the small town of Szentendre, 40 minutes North of Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

The town is located right on the banks of the River Danube, the section known as “The Danube Bend”.

Szentendre is best know for its Mediterranean atmosphere, beautiful Baroque architecture and colourful artwork housed in museums scattered across the town. It also has interesting Serbian history. Know affectionally as the artsy town!

The Transdanubia mountains lie behind Szentendre making for some beautiful scenery to admire.

We parked the car on the river front and I took my camera for a wander around the town centre. The first thing I noticed was everywhere had cobbled streets and the centre was pedestrians/cyclists only…and there were plenty of those about! I had to avoid the numerous cyclists who were obviously having a bumpy ride on the cobbles!

There were many ice-cream parlours dotted around the main square, some themed around lavender, a popular ice-cream flavour here in Hungary.

As it was such a hot day the ice-cream parlours were busy. Not everyone opted for ice-cream though…

A large hand operated drinking fountain stood in the central square, perfect for thirsty people. Many people filled up their bottles with cold hand pumped water. Good idea! The drinking water in Hungary is perfectly acceptable to drink.

I walked slowly up the main street, admiring all the different stalls selling a variety of unusual hand made goods. I did notice there were stalls selling the usual touristy items, fridge magnets, keyrings, mugs etc.. not really my cup of tea!!

Reaching the top of the main street and I spotted the famous ‘lampshades’ always photographed and associated with Szentendre. They made a stunning sight, I was not alone as I photographed them!

I love people watching, so when I spotted these two young ladies I had to take a photo. They fitted in nicely with the surroundings sporting lovely colourful umbrellas to keep the sun at bay.

If you needed to eat there were plenty of restaurants, some in the shade and some not. It was coming up to lunchtime and the tables were filling up.

I ventured up one of the very narrow alleyways dotted off the main square. Mainly to find out where everyone was going…so, a steep incline and many steps later I arrived at the highest point of the town.

Looking out over the roof tops, I spotted the oldest church in Szentendre dating back to the 13th Century, its name – Belgrade Cathedral, a Serbian Orthodox church.

Also at the viewing point there stood another Serbian Orthodox church with a magnificent clock face.

The day was reaching high temperatures (30c/86f) and I needed to find some shade back down in the main square. I spotted an excellent way to stay cool in the form of a frame spraying fine water on hot tourists! Excellent idea and instant relief!

The main street had plenty of places to sit down and rest those weary tourist legs. I particularly liked the quirky deck chairs! It took me a while to get these photos as they were constantly in use!!

I was intrigued to know what was going on under the little bridge..people were coming and going all the time, so I made that my next stop. I was delighted to find an art exhibition lining the narrow stream, presumably leading to the River Danube. The church in the picture is The Reformed Church, built by the Serbs and the smallest church in the town.

I love to look at other peoples artwork, there were some unusual and colourful pieces. Two in particular caught my eye as I perused the many collections.

It was rather pleasant to look at the artist’s work with live music playing in the background, gave a lovely atmosphere. Here is a short clip…

Children played in the stream next to the artwork, fishing stones from the river bed to amuse themselves. Adults were also dipping their feet in the water to cool off!

Finally, and a bit reluctantly I made my way back to our car, passing yet another clock on the small bridge. Sadly it did not reflect the temperature accurately, 10 degrees out! It did however make a nice photo!

Making our way home, tired, hot but happy we travelled alongside The River Danube snaking its way through the city. We passed the incredible Parliament buildings, what a magnificent sight! Rumour has it Freddie Mercury of “Queen” fame wanted to buy it…

Our route took us past several spectacular historical bridges.

This is Széchenyi Chain Bridge and the first permanent bridge to span the River Danube in Budapest.

This is Liberty bridge the shortest bridge across the River Danube. It takes approximately 15 minutes to walk across and is popular with tourists.

This is Megyeri Bridge linking Buda and Pest and is an important part of the ring road around Budapest.

My final photo is of Budapest Balna an impressive looking shopping centre, translated to mean “Budapest Whale”. The building in front of it is a row of restaurants overlooking the Danube frequented by people eating dinner in the evenings and watching the sun go down.