Cycling in Budapest's drinking water base

Itinerary

• In Szentendre, on the opposite side of the 11 road HÉV station, you can reach the Templom square, i.e., the city center, by cycling along Kossuth Lajos street. From here, you can roll down any of the small streets to the Danube promenade, where you must turn north (towards Leányfalu-Visegrád).
• Follow the bike path along the Danube up to the northern end of Leányfalu, then cycle on the busy main road 11 towards Tahitótfalu! In the center of the settlement, turn right towards the Danube bridge (i.e., Vác/Kisoroszi/Szigetmonostor)!
• On the island, at the first fork take the direction towards Kisoroszi, then in Kisoroszi turn left in front of the church onto the road leading to the island tip! From the tip, return along the same road to the village, then cycle back to Tahitótfalu on the asphalt road.
• In Tahitótfalu, where the Kisoroszi road ends, turn left (Vác/Pócsmegyer), then after a small curve, turn right at Hősök square towards Pócsmegyer. From here the road leads straight to the Szigetmonostor ferry landing, which takes passengers to the Szentendre Danube promenade.

Detailed description of the route

World of Serbs, Dalmatians, Greeks

Szentendre deserves a whole day: everyone knows its open-air museum, old town, the Danube promenade, but the news about the public transport museum and the city’s thriving cultural life is probably known to many. The settlement, once populated by Serbian, Dalmatian, Slovak, German, and Greek settlers, nowadays mostly reminds us only of these peoples’ memories. For example, the Serbian Orthodox church and the Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum, which holds the most significant Orthodox collection in Hungary. Naturally, a Serbian restaurant can also be found among the many catering facilities on the Danube promenade.

We leave Szentendre on the bike path along the Danube, which leads all the way to the northern end of Leányfalu by the riverbank. Along the road, you’ll encounter resorts, residential houses, restaurants, as well as boat houses and water sports facilities. At Leányfalu, the gravelly Danube bank and the beach bath invite you to stop—not just in summer, but also in autumn or winter thanks to the thermal water, which keeps the facility open year-round. On a cooler autumn day, you might even move the starting point from Szentendre to Leányfalu, so after cycling you can warm up in the thermal pools or saunas after hours spent in the saddle. At the border of Leányfalu, the bike path suddenly ends—the most unpleasant few kilometers of the route must then be cycled on the busy 11 road to Tahitótfalu. An alternative is a path winding through the floodplain, but its use can be affected by high water levels, dense summer vegetation, or swarms of mosquitoes. Sooner or later, the missing sections of the bike path along the Danube will probably be built, as this is also part of the international Eurovelo 6 route.

In Tahitótfalu, we cross the island over the Tildy Zoltán bridge and head towards Kisoroszi, the northern tip of the island.

The Island Tip

In Kisoroszi, it’s just a short jump to the Kisoroszi island tip, the northern tip of the Szentendre Island, from the Ráczkert buffet near the island’s end. In summer it is a perfect place for swimming; on an average July or August day, many enjoy swimming and picnicking while admiring the amazing panorama overlooking the Danube Bend.

Those seeking adventure can also go on a canoe trip organized by the Duna-Ipoly National Park: a guide will introduce the river section between Kisoroszi and Tahi, the values and curiosities of the floodplain flora and fauna. On the calm water of the Szentendre Danube branch, only motorboats disturb the peace of the tourers—the barges and winged ships sail on the other side of the island. During the canoe tour, you can observe the birds living and nesting here, such as the little bittern, which nests along the entire length of the Danube and whose presence or absence very well indicates changes in the quality of the shoal habitats. Frequent guests of the floodplains are the little egret and the great egret. Winters are spent here by species preferring calmer waters, like the little grebe, mallard, or cormorant, and the island is also an important station on the migration routes of various migratory birds.

At the dock, especially children enjoy identifying types of snails and shells, as well as the material of the smaller and larger pebbles found on the shore. Apart from getting to know the Danube pond snail or andesite transported by the Danube, you might also encounter beaver habitats and beaver dams, luckily. The floodplain’s water contains snails, crabs, dragonfly, damselfly and mayfly larvae, water bugs and water scorpions, nearly twenty fish species, twelve amphibian and three reptile species. The floodplain’s riparian willows and shrubs can also be explored on bike tours organized by DNPI, which can be combined with canoeing.

On Szentendre Island, in addition to public roads, it is also possible to cycle on the waterworks’ riverside road; on this tour, we chose the former option. This way, you can explore more settlements, and on the other hand, we did not have entrance permission to the Fővárosi Vízművek operational roads, i.e., the water base. Budapest and its surroundings have excellent conditions, possessing the largest riverbank filtered drinking water capacity in Europe. As the Danube leaves the Visegrád Gorge, it slows down and deposits its sediment: the gravel layer is capped at the bottom by clay and on top by sand, thus serving as an excellent water filter and purifier. The water filtered by the shore passes through a sandy-gravel layer providing natural physical-chemical-biological filtration to the wells. Therefore, the riverbank zones are considered water base protection areas and are under increased protection. Entrance permits can be requested from the Fővárosi Vízművek; the application form is downloadable from the company's website. The island is actually a relatively young formation, taking its current shape about 3000 years ago.

Indians and Romans

After returning from the island tip in Kisoroszi, it is worth visiting the hidden, atmospheric small Calvary, under which the remains of a Roman watchtower were also discovered. Remains of the former limes can be found on both banks of the Danube in the area, for example in Horány, Verőce, or Dunabogdány. An interesting highlight is the Baktay Ervin Indian-Cowboy Museum: the renowned indologist was interested not only in India but also in the Wild West, organizing Indian camps annually with his friends, whose permanent location was also a nearby island. From Kisoroszi to Tahitótfalu, we cycled on a low-traffic road flanked by meadows, pastures, and sometimes forests. Horses watch the passersby from roadside paddocks—there is also the possibility of horseback riding at several riding schools. Tahitótfalu is primarily famous for its strawberries: after the phylloxera epidemic at the end of the 19th century, the wild strawberry took over the place of grapes—a whole festival dedicated to the fruit is held at the end of May. Local specialties include strawberry wine and strawberry pálinka; it is worth tasting both.

The road from Tahitótfalu to Pócsmegyer reminded us that, besides being a popular resort area, the island is part of the Budapest agglomeration, so the only north-south asphalt strip is quite busy in this section. At Pócsmegyer’s border, the Pázsit pond beach and buffet attract tourists—but you won’t go hungry or thirsty on this trip. Numerous restaurants, buffets, and pubs offer their services, and public wells operating in most settlements can also be found for the thirsty wanderer. The next settlement, Szigetmonostor, hosted a Benedictine monastery in the Middle Ages, and earlier was an important station of the Roman limes here: the remains of a bridge have also been found between today’s Horány and Dunakeszi. Nowadays, the Horány part of the settlement is mostly holiday homes, and the village center is on the Szentendre side.

Heading south, the gate of the Vízkelő nature trail suddenly appears beside the road. The thematic path runs in a circle along the shore of a lake formed at the site of a former sand mine pit. From here, it is just a short jump to the small boat dock connecting the island to the Szentendre promenade. On weekends, the boat crosses the short distance between the two banks once an hour, but if six cyclists gather, a special trip is arranged to the far shore. A small buffet makes the wait more comfortable, but there is also an option for those who do not want to spend too much time on the ferry: from the ferry dock located at the northern end of Szigetmonostor, a shuttle boat constantly sails to the right bank of the Danube, with which you can return to your starting point of the tour.