Városlőd – Zirc (OKT-08)

The K trail arrives in Városlőd from Nagyvázsony and Úrkút, and the tour stamp can be found next to the German Nationality Country House, at the Fenyves pub on the corner. If the hospitality venue is closed, stamps can also be found on the sign across the road. 

Leaving Városlőd, we walk on an open, meadow-lined country road to Csehbánya over asphalt. After two kilometers, we reach a junction: the Blue Trail turns left, and the KL sign turns right off the asphalt. On this latter, with a one-and-a-half kilometer round detour, the modest ruins of Hölgykő castle can be reached. Little remains of the 13th-century building, only the cistern is recognizable; the real attraction of the site, the rock cave, was not part of the fortress.

The Blue Trail leads for a short time through forest, then along a fenced, elongated meadow heading north. We must cross the fence with the help of a ladder, and for a while, we continue through an electric fence corridor. Leaving the meadow, we turn into the valley of the babbling Torna stream – in the densely overgrown valley, bridges and fords make stream crossings possible. Shortly, we are in the valley of the Vámos stream, following the Töredék-ditch and accompanying the watercourse, moving slightly away from the riverbed. At this section, the engineering regularity of our route may become noticeable, which is not accidental: in the past, the France Cut–King’s Gate–Városlőd narrow-gauge railway ran here. The railway used for logging had a 36 km long track at its peak and carried passengers for a short time in the 1960s. It was dismantled at the end of the decade; today, only the embankment reveals its former presence.

Over the Töredék-ditch, we proceed through dense hornbeam-beech forest with a gentle ascent. Gradually, we move away from the ditch, finally reaching the comfortably flat clearing of Szénpajta with a rain shelter, located at the junction of the marked bauxite transport road. The name Szénpajta preserves the memory of the now-defunct charcoal burning that exploited the mountain forests. Looking at the map, we can also discover the place name Érclyukak nearby, also referring to past industrial activities: bauxite mining was carried out here in the 18th century, the extracted raw material was smelted in Kislőd’s iron forge mixed with Úrkút’s manganese ore.

From the forest rest area suitable for camping, we continue toward Németbánya. The Blue Trail leads to Németbánya along a gravel road and a path overgrown with vegetation in the stream valley – on the way, we pass a covered rest area equipped with a fitness trail.

Németbánya is bypassed by the Blue Trail; however, for stamping, a small (150 meters) detour from the trail is necessary: we find the stamp near the village sign. Németbánya is an 18th-century settlement where German settlers operated a glassworks that consumed the surrounding beech forests. The business produced 200,000 items annually, providing livelihoods for the glassblowers of Farkasgyepű. The farming population cultivated good soil on the loess cover spread by Ice Age winds, but most left during the 20th-century relocations. Several characteristic old German houses remain: the settlers originally built door-only buildings without verandas. In contrast to the Hungarians, whose every room faced the courtyard and had a small porch in the same direction, Germans gradually "got used" to the porch, among whose columns a low wall with some openings ran – the 1957 tourist guide calls it a typical Bakony house due to its uniqueness.

Németbánya – Bakonybél

The steepest part of our journey follows; we climb up in beautiful beech forest. After a while, we again follow the old railway embankment toward Bakonybél and notice stone blocks arranged regularly on a clearing. The Sun Stones were erected in 2021 with the goal that forest visitors could experience the harmony of nature through relaxation exercises. 

Semi-circling the steep hill of Pápavár, we continue on a wide gravel road in peaceful beech forest. The captivating atmosphere is again radiated by the contiguous dense forest; approaching Bakonybél, lovely sunny clearings brighten the path. Nearly at the end of our route section, beside the road, we can spot a special small building. It is worth spending a few minutes at the restored lime-burning kiln, an important industrial heritage of the mountains: lime was burned in the region for 250 years. The final product was mainly used for disinfection, cleaning, and as a construction binder. In Bakonybél, lime burners last smoked in the early 1990s; one of their kilns was reconstructed here in 2018.

From the bench-equipped spot, we can admire a beautiful panorama of Bakonybél’s small inter-mountain basin and the mountain central peaks. The K trail finally leads into Bakonybél through a nice grove crossing the Gerence stream, circumventing the Gerence guesthouse. The popular resort village is known for its Benedictine monastery, founded by King Stephen in 1018 and an important center of early Hungarian Christianity. Many hermits lived in the narrow valleys and caves of Bakony, and the monastery was named after their patron saint, Saint Maurice. The monastery flourished under Árpád dynasty kings, was abandoned during the Turkish conquest, and monks returned by the end of the 17th century; a new golden age followed in the first half of the 19th century. For its thousandth anniversary in 2019, the monastery was beautifully renovated; inside, an exhibition presents monastic life and the lives of two of Bakonybél’s famous saints, Saint Günther and Saint Gerard.

One of the stamps can be found near the main street on a directional post, the other hangs on the entrance door of the Vadszőlő restaurant.

Bakonybél – Kőris-hegy

Leaving the village eastward, we face a tougher challenge, as Bakonybél lies among the highest mountain group of the Bakony, the Magas-Bakony (or Old Bakony), and the K trail heads directly toward the main peak, Kőris-hegy. Initially, we follow the narrow valley of the Száraz-Gerence on asphalt. The karst area’s namesake disappearing and intermittent stream is a tributary of the Gerence, one of Bakony’s largest catchment area streams. The forestry road with canopies and clearings has a nice atmosphere, but the ascent on Kőris-hegy soon interrupts the stroll, dominating the next approximately one and a half hours.

The ascent is fairly predictable: initially, we climb alongside a water erosion ditch on a path, then progress on forest bike path, winding asphalt road going uphill, or a narrower trail – yet there are few breaks in the climb. The landscape is not particularly diverse, mostly walking through windberry bushes interspersed with sunny clearings and young forest patches in cut areas. Near the top, the forest becomes more natural, and the namesake ashes appear, and finally, using the access road, we reach the base of the peak, then a trail leads to the small clearing around the lookout.

The 709 m high point, equipped with benches and a table, is the highest peak of Bakony, so already in 1920, a lookout tower was built here, rebuilt in 1962. It has been renovated since, but by the mid-2020s, the wooden tower bearing the name of writer, poet, and naturalist Péter Vajda is in a worn condition. Climbing the stairs, a double view welcomes: the neighboring radar is blocked by a wire mesh but through the grates, the Balaton Uplands and easily recognizable Somló and Kab hills are visible. In the other direction, behind the Sokoró hills, Győr and the undulating plateau of Bakony with wooded ridges are seen.

Kőris-hegy – Borzavár

We find the stamp on one of the tower’s legs. We descend from the peak on the most beautiful forest section of the entire Bakony Blue Trail. The path and later a forestry dirt road wind down through ash-beech forest, but not just any kind: green carpet covers the undulating terrain beneath tall, straight-trunked trees, and reaching the edge of the hill, we can look out between the trees toward the pastures of Szépalmapuszta. According to a sign, due to the spread of the fungus destroying the ash and the death of the tree stock, forests had to be cut in patches – which also opened the views.

Through young woods, we reach a meadow in Kisszépalmapuszta where a rest area with a rain shelter stands. From here, we continue on an asphalt road joining opposite, then turning off onto a dark forest path until we finally reach one of the most beautiful points in Bakony, the idyllic Szépalmapuszta. The pasture delimited by pens lies under the highest peaks, offering pleasantly decorative surroundings, with rescued horses running on the gentle pastures.

Looking back, the block of Kőris-hegy is visible above the hills before the Blue Trail turns right toward the hotel building. The gently English-style manor atmosphere is enhanced by an arboretum created at the beginning of the 20th century, featuring Atlas cedar and sequoia, plus graves of famous horses can be visited.

Szépalmapuszta was originally the orchard of Bálint Török, then in the 17th century passed to the Esterházy family, who engaged in horse breeding. An interesting episode of its history is that in 1862, Esterházy Móric, Apponyi György, Majláth György, and Deák Ferenc secretly met here to discuss possibilities for the later Compromise. The area passed from the Esterházys to Count Mikó Endre Pejacsevich, who established the arboretum, and his son Pál is buried in the nearby cemetery. From the 1960s, the complex belonged to the Bábolna State Farm but fell into disrepair before being bought by a Swiss owner in the mid-1990s – afterwards the hotel opened and the current "farm" form was realized.

The hotel building is bypassed by the Blue Trail; on asphalt (briefly among the trees), we descend gently into Borzavár. We turn right on the main street and can choose between two stamps: one is on the fence to the right after the convenience store, the other hangs at the entrance of the presszó across the street.

Borzavár – Zirc

‘Borzá’ used to mean elderberry here, but the inhabitants mainly earned income from coal and lime burning, as well as broom making and wood carving; genealogically, besides Hungarians, Germans and Slovaks (settled by the Esterházy counts) lived here. On nearby Templom Hill, the pink limestone was quarried which was used in decorating many local buildings.

The Blue Trail follows along the street to the outskirts of the village, descending again next to the previously followed stream. Although the road climbing the hill opposite beckons, the K trail turns right and cuts through the scrub meadow beside the road. We pass former lime kiln sites before beginning the climb: crossing low mounds near Zirc, we initially do not notice the dense young forest patches, but we are already on the edge of the city park forest.

Descending into Pintér-ditch, the forest changes; we enter a beautiful, dark beech forest, separated from the beech forest of the Zirc Park by a long passage through young trees. The well-developed favorite local hiking spot is marked by a rain shelter to the left beside the forestry road. Nature trails and many rest stops color the dense, atmospheric beech forest, and we even cross an old ski trail clearing – although no longer functional. Passing beside a smaller rain shelter, we descend on steps to reach Zirc. The stamp is found on the left at the Blue Trail sign. Although no mining took place here, the stylized mine entrance erected across the meadow recalls the Bakony’s stone, coal, and bauxite mines.

From here, we walk through the streets of the "capital of Bakony", where there are plenty of shops and dining options, but the most important is the Cistercian Abbey, which the Blue Trail also passes by. The monastery was founded at the end of the 12th century but was destroyed by the Turks. Like the city, it was resettled with Germans in the 18th century, when the present church and monastery were built. It houses the Bakony Natural Science Museum and the Reguly Antal Memorial Library, and next to the abbey is the Zirc Arboretum founded by monks, containing nearly 600 species of trees and shrubs.

The section ends at the junction before the railway station; the stamp is found at the station building’s track-side entrance at the end of the blue seal marking.