Danube Bend tour - full day (visit of Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom)

This excursion gives a complex impression about this important region of Hungary in its history and arts. It contains a visit to Szentendre, Visegrád and a visit to Esztergom with lunch in a good-atmosphere restaurant. Szentendre is the Danube Bend's most visited tourist centre, a small town sited on the bank of the Danube with narrow streets, church towers, colourful houses and special Mediterranean atmosphere. It also has a great variety of museums (famous Kovács Margit Ceramic Museum), famed restaurants, cafés, confectioneries, small shops and handicraft stalls. Visegrád lies to the north of Szentendre, at the centre of the Danube Bend where the river swings north for a short distance. This small, riverside village is the former site of one of the most sumptuous royal palaces built in Hungary. The reconstructed Citadel ("Fellegvár") at the top of the hill has a small exhibition about the life of the Middle Ages and offers perhaps the most splendid view of the surroundings (the Danube Bend). Esztergom (today the seat of the Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church) was a Royal Seat and Hungary's first capital for 250 years. Our state-founder and first king, St. Stephen was born and crowned here on Christmas Day in the year 1000. Today the town is home of 35,000 people and it is famous for its Basilica, the Library, museums, churches, chapels and monasteries and a thermal spa. Esztergom also a town on the frontier between Hungary and Slovakia: the other bank of the river Danube (Stúrovo) belongs to Slovakia and there is a ferry-connection between the two countries. Return to Budapest, crossing Óbuda - the oldest roman part of the town.