Camping on the Danube Bend, that most beautiful of European waterways. Sadly, we picked a campsite that was also home to an unruly mob of yoga lovers! I thought these chaps were into peaceful meditation and sitting quietly in odd positions. At 5am I was awoken to loud bell ringing as the yoga master summoned his flock. Then just as I was returning to my beautiful slumber the laughing began. What worsened the situation was that this large group of obviously insane people, maybe 30 in population and only 8 metres from Napoleon and his two soldiers, were forcing themselves to laugh and at 5 in the morning too. There was no laughter inside Napoleon for a while.
At a more sensible hour we emerged and cycled up alongside the Danube to Szob, a mere jaunt at 13 km either way. Szob almost bordering Slovakia should be twinned with Lands’ End in Cornwall for its theme park and emptiness.
Across the Danube we could make out the ruins of the Citadel of Visigrad perched high and lofty on ‘the bend’, while the upper class cut up the river in happy abandonment. No need to fear for the frog population in this area, the males are singing a song of love and loneliness at night time, they even answered my singing they were so desperate.
After a day or so we caught the ferry across to the western side of the river, and headed for Budapest, with a little detour at Szetendre and its ethnographic museum. This is well worth a visit. Essentially it’s a large 10 acre site, displaying remnants of rural Hungarian life of the last millennium. The Hungarian state has moved cottages, farmsteads and other vestiges of rural life to this site in order to preserve them and educate people. Ironically, while life for the villagers then would have been difficult at times, these villages and the rural life on view seems so appealing to me now! the little cottage industries of bee keeping, fabric making, gardening, a few hens, and houses made of local resources. I can see Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs nodding along in approval at the manner these homes were constructed.Onwards to the ancient city of Budapest.
At a more sensible hour we emerged and cycled up alongside the Danube to Szob, a mere jaunt at 13 km either way. Szob almost bordering Slovakia should be twinned with Lands’ End in Cornwall for its theme park and emptiness.
Across the Danube we could make out the ruins of the Citadel of Visigrad perched high and lofty on ‘the bend’, while the upper class cut up the river in happy abandonment. No need to fear for the frog population in this area, the males are singing a song of love and loneliness at night time, they even answered my singing they were so desperate.
After a day or so we caught the ferry across to the western side of the river, and headed for Budapest, with a little detour at Szetendre and its ethnographic museum. This is well worth a visit. Essentially it’s a large 10 acre site, displaying remnants of rural Hungarian life of the last millennium. The Hungarian state has moved cottages, farmsteads and other vestiges of rural life to this site in order to preserve them and educate people. Ironically, while life for the villagers then would have been difficult at times, these villages and the rural life on view seems so appealing to me now! the little cottage industries of bee keeping, fabric making, gardening, a few hens, and houses made of local resources. I can see Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs nodding along in approval at the manner these homes were constructed.Onwards to the ancient city of Budapest.
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