Visegrád Castle

I had an amazing day today!  A fellow English teacher at my school offered to take me to Visegrád, which is a small castle town in Pest county, near the Slovakian border.  I was NOT disappointed!  We started off with a beautiful drive through the countryside:

Horse-drawn carriage that we would eventually meet up with again today.

Then, when we arrived in Visegrád, he took me to an old palace where the king and royalty would stay, located at the bottom of the hill that the castle sits on top of.  It was mostly destroyed when the Turks invaded Hungary, but they are working hard to rebuild it.

After milling about and viewing the ruins and some amazing ancient stonework and carvings that is being recovered and reconstructed, we started the hike up the hill to the castle.  I don't know what possessed me to basically RUN up the hill, but I left my poor teacher friend in the dust, and it looked like he was gonna have a heart attack.  At any rate, we got to the top and started exploring Visegrád Castle.  It had one of the most stunning views I've ever seen, overlooking the Danube river and the Slovakian border.

Danube River from Visegrád Castle.  Beyond the hills is Slovakia.

Lower castle gate

Cool wax sculpture of an historic meeting between the Czech, Hungarian, and Polish kings to propose cooperation between their countries.

Wax sculptures demonstrating the opulence of royal dancing

After the castle, we walked over to a downhill, summer bobsled track.  That's right--summer bobsled.  It had a little track like a roller coaster for the slower cars, and it had a deeper "trench" if you will for the braver souls who wanted more speed.

Summer bobsled course.

Walking back down the hill from the castle

Castle gate going down

Amazing little cobblestone street going up/down from the castle

Cool cable bridge

I also bought a printer today, so I can start to print stuff at home instead of trying to use the Hungarian language Microsoft Word and the German language Xerox machines.  I love technology, but this I just can't figure out.  It's just gonna be way easier to print at home and make copies at school, and it will save me a lot of stress.

Overall, it was an outstanding day, and I wish it could have been longer!  Oh, and did I mention that the weather was PERFECT?  Seeing old castles like this and learning about the history of the country is fascinating and MUCH more interesting than just reading about it in a textbook.