Day 2: Sun 11th – GÖDÖLLO & The Bulls Blood of Eger

Sunrise 6:16am – Sunset 7:04pm

Weather Forecast:   30c and sunny

Steps:                        11,313           7.81 km

                                   

Awake & up at 5:45am.  Down to breakfast at 6:30 and back in my room before the wake up call at 7am.  We were all on the bus and away shortly after 8:45am.

It’s now almost 11pm at night and I’m beat.  I’ll try and get this updated tomorrow evening.  We will be on the road at 8:15 tomorrow morning, so I’m going to try for a good nights sleep tonight.

Laszlo “The Bear” is our driver on this tour. He is a Hungarian who lives in Budapest and has been driving coaches for 21 years, speaks excellent English and loves his job.

We had arrived at Godollo and were at the Baroque  Palace before it opened at 10am. The palace in Godollo is the former summer retreat of Emperor Franz Joseph and Queen Elizabeth.  The tour there took approx. an hour but no photos were allowed inside the Palace.

From there we continued on to Holloko, a UNESCO listed village, which is a living example of rural life. We had our first Insight ‘flourish’ here, where our lunch was paid for. Palóc soup, which is very similar to goulash soup, only lighter. Then a turkey dish (I didn’t get the name of that. (I’ll have to start taking photos) and pancakes for desert.

Finally we arrived in Eger, where a local guide took us on a walking tour through the town. Many Baroque buildings here. We visited the Castle grounds.

There is a book written about the siege of Eger by the Turks back in the 1500’s.  We also visited the Minorite Church, the Basilica of St. Anthony

and the Basilica of St. John the Apostle.

We then checked into our hotel shortly before 6.30pm.  First up was a wine tasting in a cellar.

The red was the only one I really liked, and then dinner.

A very spartan room,

compared to others but has all the basics and is air conditioned.  My light was out by 11.00pm.