On 9th June, we packed up at Club Tihany after breakfast and got on the road at about half past eleven, driving the 175km (about 2 hours 20 minutes) straight to Sopron, punctuated only by a short Aldi supermarket shop en route where Tiger was delighted to find that Aldi also have the little kids trollies! We had headed North West almost right to the Austrian border in an area called 'Western Transdanubia'.
We checked into an Airbnb (2 nights for £102). The 'Zwinger apartment' also has a listing on booking.com but for some reason it was more expensive on there but over £15! We parked as intructed at a big multi storey car park at Árpád str. 4 (called 'Parkolóház Árpád utca). It was really easy to wheel the suitcase from there, but we did the trip in two goes. The location is actually within the old Roman ruins (Sopron used to be an important stop along the 'Amber Road') and you have to go across the street, bear right and go up the street to a passageway at number 90 (Vár kerület 90) and up a few steps. It is actually behind the Zwinger Cafe. There were so many things that we loved about the apartment, it was large and spacious, had everything we needed (including some toys) and - drum roll - a washing machine so I was finally able to wash just about everything we had apart from the clothes on our backs!!
Sopron is known as Hungary's 'most faithful city' because in 1921 it had a referendum when it decided to remain part of Hungary rather than being absorbed into Austria. It has the most intact medieval centre in the whole country, complete with cobbled streets lined with Gothic and/or colourful façades everywhere we looked! Inside the castle walls, the buildings all around were incredible and it was a really lovely place to just wander around and admire.
In the middle of the main square (called Fő tér), which actually isn't a square shape at all, has the Trinity Column built in 1701 right in the middle. The Column is surrounded by the 'Goat Church' (apparently named as it was founded by a goat herder), Storno House (where we saw a wedding party) and the 'Firewatch Tower' (which looked amazing but after recently being too scared to go up the Minaret in Eger - me not Tiger! - I concluded not to climb its 116 steps).
We had lunch at the Forum PIzzeria for around 8000 HUF (£17) but Tiger was starting to flag a bit and we headed back to our apartment for a sleep and a bit of quiet time.
In the afternoon, we headed out in search of green spaces to run around in (!) passing by the wooden horse at Papa Joe's Saloon (we didn't go in!), and found ourselves at Széchenyi Square (Széchenyi tér) which has a statue of Count István Széchenyi (the first honorary citizen of Sopron) and further onwards to another strip of green boulevard which had Deák Téri Elementary School at one end of it.
All in all it was quite a long walk for Tiger and it had suitably worn her out. She had a snack of some bits we had picked up in Tesco Express (yes there is Tesco here, but this was the first one I had been into) and was fast asleep and in bed for 7pm!
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