This weekend we went to Esztergom, Hungary and Štúrovo, Slovakia.  Esztergom is small city located about 30 miles north of Budapest.  It took us about an hour and a half to get there via train.  This charming little town is home to the Esztergom Basilica, the largest church in Hungary.  It is also home to the largest Christian museum in Hungary (which we unfortunately

forgot about and did not visit).

Our visit started off by crossing

Sign on the Mária Valéria Bridge indicating entry to Slovakia

the Mária Valéria Bridge to see Štúrovo, Slovakia.  We were shocked to find that there was no border protection whatsoever, people were free to cross the bridge back and forth. Štúrovo is very underwhelming, it’s just a normal town with many pastel colored apartment buildings.  It’s an ancient town that’s been inhabited for at least a thousand years but being a border town especially one on the Danube will bring war and destruction.  Becuase of this much of the town is not very old and the biggest attraction in the town is a large thermal bath resort (which we did not visit but saw on the map).

Apartment building in Štúrovo, Slovakia

View of the Basilica from Stúrovo, Slovakia

We ate lunch at a restaurant in Štúrovo and then crossed back for the night.  The next morning it was raining but we hadn’t walked around Esztergom and we wanted to see the Basilica and another cool looking church we had spotted while searching for dinner.  All of my pictures from inside the Basilica didn’t come out very well because I was using my phone.  But the Basilica is much much bigger than it looks unfortunately the dome and a third of the church were under construction and we were unable to see many of the paintings.

Church on top of hill in Esztergom, Hungary

We made the trek across town to this church which was nothing special, but it did give a spectacular view of the Basilica.

View of Esztergom Basilica from other side of town

The town was small and homely.  We took this trip to seek reprieve from city living and we certainly got it.  We have a lot more trips in the upcoming weeks and months we will be going to Lake Balaton (wine country in Hungary), Athens, Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Italy with more to be planned.

Stay tuned,

Zack