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NAGYMAROS |
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Twenty kilometres west from Vác along the bank of the Danube,
NAGYMAROS , the home of nobles in the age of royal Visegrád, is a
quietly prosperous village with an air of faded grandeur - an unlikely
focus for years of environmental protest. The cause is not Nagymaros
itself, where a drunk's ejection from an italbolt (local bar) counts as
a major disturbance, but a short way upriver, where extensive
environmental landscaping has been employed over the remains of the
aborted dam .
The village lies across the river from Visegrád, with a superb view of
the latter's citadel: "Visegrád has the castle, but Nagymaros has the
view", as the locals have always boasted. The railway line cuts the
village firmly in two: above the line, whitewashed houses straggle up
the hillside, while below is the main road, and beyond that the river
and ferry to Visegrád. From the Nagymaros-Visegrád Station, duck under
the bridge and walk past the Mátyás Király Restaurant to the main road,
Váci utca; 100m to the right is the leafy main square, Fo tér. At the
bottom of the square, across the main road, is the ferry, while at the
top, on the other side of the rail line, is a Gothic church, parts of
which date back to 1509. After 1500m, the path divides at a car park -
one fork heads south to Hegyes-teto, where you can enjoy a panoramic
view of the Bend , while the other heads up into the Börzsöny , towards
Törökmez, a five-kilometre walk away along a footpath marked with red
signs.
Private accommodation in Nagymaros is best found on the spot by
wandering the streets in search of Zimmer frei signs. Alternatively, you
can stay at the Feketesas Udvarház (tel & fax 27/354-045, www.hotels.hu/feketesas
; 10,000-14,000Ft), a magnificently kitsch hotel and restaurant complex
just north of the ferry station, complete with garden gnomes, tinkling
waterfalls and a view of the Visegrád Castle opposite; or you can head
up through the beech woods to the Törökmezo Hostel (tel 27/350-63; under
3000Ft). For food , try the Feketesas , whose garden restaurant backs
onto the river bank, or the Mátyás Király Restaurant on Magyar utca,
near the train station, which serves goulash soups and poultry dishes.
Both are open daily till 10pm.
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