Visegrad

Last Saturday was a rare blue-sky-beautiful sunny day. Cold, yes, but beautiful. We couldn't waste such a day on staying home, so we spent the morning trying to decide where to go. We settled on Visegrad, a city about 45 minutes from Budapest. It is known for a huge castle on top of a mountain overlooking the Danube. The fortress dates back to the 1200's.

We arrived in Visegrad and began our ascent up the mountain. The mountain road was a snow covered and a little treacherous. I wasn't sure we should continue, but Larry assured me as long as we saw cars coming down, we would be fine. Okay. We wound around for a bit and suddenly came upon a ski area! There was one ski run with a tow rope lift. A sledding hill was next to the ski area. Larry had thrown the sled in the car just in case - perfect! We thought about trying to ski, but there were no rentals. So, sledding it was.

The video is deceiving - the hill was steep. People flew down in the sleds. I saw one bad crash where a dad didn't stop until he was about to hit some cars. He and his child flipped off the sled and were both hurt. Yikes! So, I was a bit nervous watching Chelsea fly down the hill. She thought it was great, of course. Cade hasn't changed his opinion of snow.


After we tired of sledding, we continued up the mountain towards the castle. A few more turns and we came upon a bobsled place. Fun! We stopped and investigated. It cost a whole 400 forints ($2) to go on this ride. Chelsea called it a snow coaster. It was like a bobsled on rails. Living here, I have to try not to be too paranoid about safety standards and just go with the moment. Good cheap fun!

After our bobsled adventure, we were freezing. We got some hot drinks at the bobsled shack, and continued up the road another few minutes. Finally the castle! It was huge and beautiful sitting on top of the mountain. The views were amazing.....from the car, that is. As we pulled into the parking lot, both kids were crying and tired. Daddy was whining and tired. We turned around and headed down the mountain. I was bummed. It was my turn to whine....so much for our castle adventure!