In most of the languages of the world identical names are used for the country Hungary and its inhabitants; They originate from the Latin term hungarus. This, in turn, is due to the name of a late-riding cavalry of the Black Sea, that of the Onogurians who, in the Middle Ages were, perhaps erroneously, mistaken with the Magyars.
The longest river in Hungary is the Danube (Duna), which is home to the entire Hungarian territory. The main cities of Komárom (Komorno), Esztergom (Gran), the capital Budapest, Dunaújváros, Baja and Mohács.
This year, Hungary was partner country of the CMT in Stuttgart and as our Central Balkan route leads through Hungary, especially to Budapest with a stopover at the campsite Zuglegeti Niche Kemping, it is obvious to deal with the history of Hungary a bit, which we want to do now.
During the exploration of the Budavari Siklo cable railway at the castle mountain of Budapest we had noticed the mighty pillars of the bridge construction, which leads over the Danube. Similar to the Tower Bridge in London, the architecture of the pillar system suggested a construction period before the 20th century.
From a distance we had noticed some crowds of visitors who had gathered on the eastern bank of the Danube, not far from the Hungarian parliament building, whose focus was clearly visible on the ground: metallic shoes were fixed here.
Our tour through Budapest also brought us to Margareten Island, the famous Danube Island in the center of the Hungarian capital Budapest, which is situated between the two municipalities of Buda and Pest.
After some informative days at the New Danube campground in Vienna, we drove along the Danube Canal towards the Hungarian border, where we registered our vehicle in the electronic toll system.
Lake Balaton is located in western Hungary as it is the largest inland lake in Europe and next to Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland also the most important steppe lake in Central Europe with a pronounced fauna and flora.
In the area around Győr, once being the Roman military camp Arrabona, and along the Danube, traces of settlement of various cultures were detected earlier on.
The term "City of Rivers", as the Hungarian city of Györ is sometimes called, caused some ideas / trouble in our mind, because when we were looking for a parking, we got the first view to one of the rivers, which was diked very high.
After a first, morning recovery phase of the exhausting descent with coffee and typical pastries of the region, we had set out for a first tour of Györ.
Actually, Budapest was again thought of as a stopover of our travel to the Caravan Salon Dusseldorf, but the significant delays on the border between Macedonia and Serbia, and between Serbia and Hungary had completely thrown our plans over the pile.