Another day of walking on a busy road with cars whipping by. Not what I would call relaxing. The closer I get to the nation`s capital, this is the way it`s going to be. I`ll see how it goes tomorrow but if it is much the same, think I`ll take a bus the last 50 km to Budapest. For some reason, my step temporarily lost its bounce so I was dragging it all day. Reached Esztergom and not a moment too soon. While the town is sweet, I just didn`t have it in me to pound the pavement. I hit the essentials and that`s what counts.
The largest church in Hungary towers on a hill and can be seen from miles away. This was the seat of Roman Catholicism for over 1000 years. The Turks made a valiant effort to put an end to it all when they flattened the church in the 12th C but it reemerged like a phoenix from the ashes. They say Marcus Aurelius finished his Meditations nearby in the 2nd C. Also, Hungary`s first king St. Stephen was born here in 975 so the area is awash in rich history.
Danube, mighty Danube and so we meet again. This area is referred to as the Danube Bend for the river veers southward in its flow toward Budapest. The coolest part about this spot is that Esztergom sits on one side of the river and its sister town sits on the Slovakian shore separated only by a short walk across a bridge. Again, no such thing as border checks and passport lineups. It`s just that easy!
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