Cave Baths via Bükk National Park

This afternoon's vacation destination: Barlangfurdo! And how do I plan to get there? The Bükk Hills of Bükk National Park.

Hungary is known for its thermal baths. And one of them is located in an actual cave. The Barlangfurdo located in the town of Miskolc Tapolca, directly on the other side of Bükk National Park from Eger. And that made for an easy decision on how to get there.

I got the Mercedes out of its cage and took off for points east. It took me awhile to get directions on how to get through the national park. I presumed there would be signs for the cave baths once I got on the other side. The drive was up the side of a hill (mountain for the folks back east), through a winding canyon of green trees:

The Mercedes handled the incline and the bends perfectly adequately. I had to downshift a lot because of the combination of grade and curves. It only creeked a little on the sharp turns.

Perhaps you'd like that shot with the Mercedes in it:

The nicest scenery in the Bükk Hills is further off the road, but some nice sights are right alongside the roadway:

Finally, when I hit Lillafüred, I knew I was just about through the park:

Lillafüred is the tourist mecca of the Bükk Hills region. And soon I was in Miskolc, which is the third largest city in Hungary. Which really emphasizes the drop off after Budapest. I knew I should head south. And I had a general idea of which direction was south. I figured there would be signs for the Barlangfurdo.

Actually, the plan worked. I headed south through the city and began to see signs for Miskolc Tapolca. I followed those and soon enough I saw the sign for the cave baths. I paid 1000 forints (about four bucks) to park in the parking lot of the Hotel Kitty:

It was a short walk from there to the cave baths. Because it was late enough in the afternoon, admission was a bargain 1000 forints.

I paid my money. I changed into my swimsuit. And soon enough I was taking to the waters. Inside a real live cave!




I took the less direct, but much quicker route back to Eger. It was a two-hour drive to the caves, but only a one-hour return trip. Just in time for supper.

Eager for Eger

Busy morning for me as I did walking tour of some of the major sites of historic center of historic Eger, Hungary, including the beautiful Minorite Church in Dobó Square.

Eger is not that big and most of the sites are a very short walk from my hotel room. How short?

When I walked out of the annex building that I'm staying in, I looked up and I could see that I'm just about close enough to the castle to touch it. That's a castle rampart in the top right side of the picture.

My hotel, the Hotel Senator-Ház, is at the north end of Dobó Square. After breakfasting up at the hotel, I started my wanderings. This is the Minorite Church, dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, with a statue of Mr. Dobó in the square that bears his name. I call him Mr. Dobó because I cannot recall his first name (which, ironically, is his second name because the Magyars, being a people of Central Asia, use the Asian convention of putting the family name first). Mr. Dobó, actually Dobó István (I googled him), is the hero of the Battle of Eger in 1552, where an Ottoman advance in Europe was thwarted. Here is seen doing what he did best. Slaying Ottomans:

Back to the Minorite Church. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is the color. Rum spice. Not pink. Who would paint something pink? But rum spice! Quite tasteful. Would make a nice house color.

This is Town Hall, with a statue of more Ottomans being slain. This time more anonymously.

This is Eger Creek, which, since it separates the castle from the rest of Eger, functions as a sort of moat.

Not particularly daunting, is it? Next up, the Minaret:

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Minarets are associated with Islam. And I just told that in 1552, the men, women, children, and farm animals of Eger successfully repelled an Ottoman invasion. Alas, the victory was temporary and about 40 years later Eger fell to Radical Islam in the form of the Ottoman Empire. That's what you were thinking, wasn't it? Or were you thinking that the tower looks a bit crooked:

You can climb the 97 steps to the top of the Minaret. All's in takes is a few forints. I declined. I didn't note the crookedness of the tower at the time. Look how narrow it is:

Look closer:

A climb of97 steep, windy stairs in a dark confined space in order to look out from a high point. That is not my idea of a good time. But this is:

The Kopcsik Marzipan Museum! Where the great works of western civilization are reproduced ... in marzipan! So i'm walking from the Minaret and the Marzipan Museum toward the Cahtedral for the 11:30 a.m. organ concert. I'm in the general vicinity of my hotel (but, then again, Eger is small enough that I'm ALWAYS in the general vicinity of my hotel). And what do I see? Locked in a cage?

No! It can't be. But it is! The Mercedes! The cage is the private parking area for my hotel, so the Mercedes is where it should be. (I feel that what I should call it is the "Mercedes," as that is what sarcasm quotes are for.)

Anyway, off to the Cathedral. In front is a gentleman exuberantly knocking out the tunes on a zither-like musical instrument I cannot identify:

This is the cathedral:

Very impressive, ornate interior. I like the Minorite exterior better, but the Cathedral's got it going with the interior. The organ concert lasted about 15 minutes and really filled the room. Exiting the Cathedral, you face the Lyceum. It is best known for its camera obscura, which dates back to 1776.

I'm not quite sure what a camera obscura is. I know it is some sort of rudimentary projector of some sort. The Lyceum was being renovated so I did not tour it.

A good morning walk through Eger. I did not even ned to take the tourist train:

It goes to the Valley of Beautiful Women wineries. This time of year it does not run nearly late enough into the wine drinking hours, so maybe next time in Eger.

Arrived in Eger! How I Don't Know

I managed to make it to Eger. I'm staying at the Hotel Senator-Ház somewhere in the city, near the castle. The room is great. Huge and wooden. I got here and they offered me a choice of two rooms. A tiny room up two very winding flights (fun climb with my 800-pound suitcase), overlooking a bar that might be the only noisy spot in Eger, or a giant two-room suite in another building down an alley from the main hotel.

I choose to go big.

I just don't know how I ended up here.

After an afternoon in Győr on the factory tour, I headed across the breadth of Hungary for Eger, the next destination on this tour of Central Europe. I wasn't too far out of Eger when it hit me. I really hadn't gotten much of any sleep last night. Once again I questioned my appalling lack of judgment.

I was already dog-tired and I had a three-hour (or so) drive across a foreign country. I stopped at a McDonald's -- they have those upscle McCafe's here in Hungary, too -- and loaded myself up with diet Coke, or as the natives say, "Coca Cola Light." It helped some. When I hit the beltway around Budapest, the M-Zero, it was under construction. Two narrow lanes. No shoulder. Lots of trucks singularly uninterested in lane integrity. Once again, I questioned my appalling lack of judgment.

I finally got to the actually-constructed M-3, chugged down that road and saw the exit sign for Eger. Eger is not just off the freeway. It's another 20 to 30 minutes north of the exit. Luckily it was well-marked. Until I hit Eger city limits. I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. Yes, real men do that, but only in foreign countries. Of course, the fact that there is not a ready supply of English-language speakers in rural Hungary was a bit of setback. I questioned my appalling lack of judgment.

I showed the women at the station at a small map of Eger from my Rough Guide, pointed out the location of the Senator-Ház, and made a gesture denoting confusion. They somehw figured out I needed a larger map, which they had one hanging in the station. I was able to see that I was still a little south of the downtown, I had to turn right at a street named Deák Ferenc, which was actually easy to remember because that's the same name as the square in Budapest where all three subway lines meet. And I had turn right off Deák Ferenc when it ended onto Kossuth utca. This too would be easy to remember because precisely 50 percent of all streets in Hungary are named Kossuth. This would be easy because I would only need to follow Kossuth until it crossed a river, and then I would turn left at the very first street after the river, which I would then follow to its end and there would be the Senator-Ház. So simple. What possibly could go wrong!

Well, the fact that Kossuth turned into a one-way street heading in the opposite direction from the river. That's what could go wrong. Again, my thoughts turned to my appalling lack of judgment, thinking that I could find a small hotel, down a small alley, after dark, in a foreign country where I barely know how to say "thank you" in the native tongue. (By the way, it's "köszönöm, pronounced for some reason as if there are r's after the vowel in the first two syllables.

Except, bizarrely, I actually found the hotel with no problem. I turned left onto a street that I could see on the map would dead-end into Kossuth utca, made an immediate right down the narrow one-lane alley (presuming there were no cars coming the other direction) and, sure enough, at the end of the alley, I saw "hotel" and then I saw "Senator-Ház." What I did not see was parking. So I did the European thing of just parking the car where I stopped, got out and went into the hotel. I asked where I should park and someone who worked there (I think) volunteered to park my car for me. So I let him.

So I have no clue where the Mercedes is as I type this. Thank God it's an A-class.

I Got a Mercedes Benz for a Rental Car!

OK. So it's an A-class. It's a Mercedes in the same way that La Toya is a Jackson.

They don't even sell the A-class stateside. This one's got about 109K kilometers on it. And all sorts of sensors continually go of. And it's scratched up like it was the last alley cat standing. But I got a Mercedes for a rental car!