A central Europe city break done in Budapest, Prague, or Vienna is quite common as all three are some of the world’s greatest cities. It is easy to spend long weekend in any of them. Some of the travelers may take a break in Bratislava, to discover the history and beauty that the city has to offer. How about Brno, Kosice, Trencin, Banska Bystrica? Probably never even heard of those. But still they have huge potential to explore something different than mass tourists do.
Győr
Győr is such city. No mass tourism, but great potential and atmosphere. Being the most important city of northwest Hungary, halfway between Budapest and Vienna, it is also the sixth-largest in Hungary, and one of the seven main regional centres of the country.
The city is nicknamed "City of Rivers" as the ancient core of the city (Káptalan Hill) is positioned at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába, and Rábca.
The town was most prosperous during 17th & 18th century. In 1743 Győr was elevated to free royal town status by Maria Theresa. The religious orders of Jesuits and Carmelites settled there, building schools, churches, a hospital, and a monastery. There are so many churches and religious sights in a small proximity of one another.
Parking
Huge free parking spot under some bridge can be found here
47.6924976, 17.6415995
Visegrád
Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary. It is north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube river. Visegrád is famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel.
In 1991 a cultural and political alliance of four Central European states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that are members of the European Union (EU) and NATO was formed here. Visegrád Group, Visegrád Four, or V4 was setup for the purposes of advancing military, cultural, economic and energy cooperation with one another along with furthering their integration in the EU. The name of the Group is derived, and the place of meeting selected, in the memory of a meeting of the Bohemian (Czech), Polish, and Hungarian rulers in Visegrád in 1335.
Parking
There is huge parking right under the castle with small shops and restaurants. The road uphill was bit too steep though.