Fulbright trip to Gyor, Day 2
The second day in Győr began with a drive through wine country at Nyúl. We got off the bus and walked past a bunch of old wine caverns used by different wineries. It was a very pretty walk.
Toward the end of the road was a path that took us on a short hike. I was glad we wore tennis shoes, because some who were wearing fancier shoes had difficulty on this part. We made our way to Lila-hegyi Kilátó, a lookout tower at the top of a steep hill. It was pretty slick because of the wet leaves on the ground, and the walk up and down to the tower was pretty steep, particularly the last few hundred meters. Unfortunately, the view from the top of the tower was less than exciting due to all the fog!
From here we went to lunch (I think I ate more in these two days than in the past two weeks!) and then made our way to Pannonhalma Abbey. The abbey originated in the year 996 and is still in use by monks who reside there. It is now a boy’s school, a tourist attraction, a winery, a lavender producer, and a working abbey.
The inside of the abbey has several components, including the basilica, which is a dark, sparse, and cavernous room with stone columns, the crypt (which we didn’t get to go into), the treasury and the cloister with lovely windows to the gardens and beautiful archways. The tour guide showed us part of the cloister where soldiers coming through the abbey graffitied their names on the stones, forever immortalized.
We then went to the library, which was of course my favorite and earns an entire entry here in my blog! The books are extremely old, and only the monks and others with special permission can access the books. I could have spent a lot longer here in the library just soaking in the awesomeness.
Next we walked to the winery, which was a short walk through the woods and some rose gardens that were actually still in bloom. There were some equipment stacked up outside beside the winery, and when we went into the building we had glasses, wine for tasting, and Pogácsa, or small cheese biscuits (they are really good!).
The tour guide took us through several floors of winery equipment, but nothing was in use at the moment since it was out of season. I liked the bottom floor with the wine barrels that looked like the quintessential winery. We got to try several wines, which we enjoyed, and the kids got to eat a bunch of Pogácsa, which they enjoyed. It was a win-win all around.
The bus took all the Fulbrighters back to Budapest, but instead we took the train from Győr to Sopron, a town another hour and a half west of Győr. The kids were super excited because we got a personal cabin with six seats, meaning they could play a little louder than normal. We walked about 15 minutes from the train station to get to our hotel, which was right in the middle of the town. By now it was pretty late but everyone was hungry. Because the kids absolutely could not wait to eat walked about five minutes to Forum Pizzeria, which was recommended by Allan Allday, a colleague who had completed a Fulbright in Sopron two years ago. It was yummy and inexpensive, just right for our family of five.
