Szentendre

Szentendre is a cute village just 19 km north of Budapest and it is the southern gateway to the Danube Bend (Dunakanyar) which is considered the most beautiful stretch of this longest river in Europe.  These photos are only of Szentendre, not of the Danube Bend, which I hope to show in a later post when we will take the boat to Visegrad.  We did this when we were here 5 years ago and plan to do it again.  This time we spent a day at Szentendre, arriving by HEV train and we hired bicycles for the day and rode around.  The town has been an art colony and there are dozens of art galleries, art museums, churches and many classy boutiques.

Fo Ter the central square in the town.

The square again from another angle where we had a leisurely cup of coffee before embarking on our bicycle ride.

Couldn't resist snapping this cute dog getting a ride.  The town is all cobbled.  Not as beautiful as Bruge but it has cobblestones in common with that beautiful city.

Szentendre for some reason attracted many settlers from Balkan states and there are numerous Serbian churches.  This one is the Pozarevacka Orthodox Serbian Church.

I am great fan of narrow laneways and I could not resist taking this shot with Andrew at the other end.

This is not a photo of the Danube Bend I am afraid.  The Danube splits into two past Visegrad forming the long Szentrendre Island and this is the narrow part of the Danube right next to the town.

It was a very hot day and we rested at this shady part of the Danube which formed a strand (beach or swimming opportunity for Hungarians).  You can just see me sitting by my bicycle in the right hand corner.

We were surprised to see so many people swimming.  In Budapest nobody swims in the Danube, it is too polluted.  But I guess people at Szentendre judge that the pollution is less of a hazard in this narrower part of the Danube where no large vessels sail past, only kayaks and the odd jet ski, as above.