The Road to Szentendre

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While in Budapest after a river cruise on the Danube River, we took a side trip to Szentendre.  Located about 13.5 miles up river from Budapest, Szentendre is another city with a beautiful old town.  Since it is located so close to Budapest, and it is connected with surface streets and a bike path, we chose to ride bikes there.  To be quite honest, the bike ride was the more important part of the excursion to Szentendre.

 

Szentendre (essentially means “St. Andrew”) has many different names depending on what language you speak, but from what I can tell, they all mean “St. Andrew”.  The original old town is built around St. Andrew’s church; which, sits on a hill over looking the Danube River.  It has become most famous for its museums and artists.  It’s location and close proximity to Budapest, its many museums, and its artist community all make it a very popular stop for tourists visiting Budapest.

 

The bike ride took us through areas that we otherwise would not have seen.  We were able to visit Margaret Island and the Dominican Nunnery Ruins, the Japanese Gardens,  and Obuda. The ride is relatively flat and not that strenuous.  The hardest part was making our way through Budapest traffic and across the bridge to Margaret Island.  If you don’t know the story of Margaret Island, I suggest you look it up.  It is really quite interesting and a little tragic.

 

Szentendre’s old town is full of narrow little streets and walkways.  Since it is built on a hill topped by the church there are also a lot of little stairways leading eventually up to St. Andrew’s church.  After seeing all of the magnificent cathedrals, St. Andrew's church was a beautifully simple white church.  It is made more beautiful in its simplicity.  The church yard is cobblestone dotted with some of the oldest trees I have ever seen.  The views from this church yard are beautiful and overlook the old town with some views of the Danube River.  I’m not going to tell you where it is, but if you look closely, you can find a very old sun dial!  

 

We enjoyed extending our river cruise on the Danube River an extra night to spend more time in Budapest and taking in the sights at Szentendre.  If you would like to learn more about our river cruise on the Danube river with Avalon Waterways River Cruise, click here.  If you would like to see some of our favorite photos from our outing in Szentendre, click here.  When you are ready to take your dream vacation to Budapest or a stunning river cruise, contact us, your river cruise specialists.  We are your land and cruise experts and we want to help your travel dreams come true.