Budapest is situated on the Danube river, which at this point leaves the Hungarian middle range and flows into the Hungarian lowland. The highest elevation in Budapest is the 527 meter high János mountain (Hungarian János-hegy), which belongs to the mountains of Buda.
The Danube is the actual main attraction of Budapest and is spanned by nine bridges that shape the cityscape. The most important, because it is the oldest and also the city's landmark, is the Chain Bridge.
Other Buda mountains are the Gellért Hill, the Várhegy Hill, the Rosenberg, the Sashegy, the Martinsberg, the Svábhegy and the Széchenyi Mountain (Széchenyi hegy). Geotectically speaking, the town is situated on a break site, so Buda is particularly rich in thermal springs.
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.
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.
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.