Green and blue cave marking in the Buda Hills

The green cave trail starts from the green triangle marking leading to Ferenc Hill, at the intersection of Ferenchegyi Road and Barlang Street. From here, we go down Barlang Street to Felső Zöldmáli Road, where we turn right and walk down to the Pusztaszeri Road intersection about 100 meters away. On this section, the green and blue cave markings intertwine. Here you can already see the artificial hillside at the foot of which the Szemlő Hill Cave visitor center opens. It is worth buying a discounted combined ticket at the visitor center if you want to visit both caves. There is also an interactive exhibition and a screening room in the visitor center where you can usefully pass the waiting time. The exhibition presents the Buda thermal karst, the Buda caves, and provides insight into caves and cave research. The cave visit takes less than an hour. The modern cave passages with excellent lighting reveal the characteristic formations and features of thermal caves. Typical are high corridors and pot-hole erosion forms. The most characteristic formation is the so-called 'pea stone,' which covers almost the entire wall surface. Stalactites, the best-known cave formation, are not typical of the cave.

A staircase leads up to the hillside above the visitor center, where children can spend time on the playground before or after our cave tour, while older children can orient themselves on a geological nature trail about the area's geology. Near the hilltop, the Cave Researchers' Memorial Garden commemorates members of the community of cave researchers and climbers who died in accidents.

Our next stop is the Pál Valley Cave. Now following the blue cave marking, we go back on Felső Zöldmáli Road, then Zöldmáli Road down to Zöldlomb Street. We cross at the zebra crossing and continue on Szépvölgyi Road to the Szépvölgyi Road intersection. At the wide and busy intersection, Mátyás Hill rises before us, with its spectacular golden-yellow quarry on the side. Our next stop entrance opens on the left. The Renaissance quarry that deepens here has been the home, center, meeting, and entertainment place for cave researchers for more than a hundred years. This cave also has a visitor building with a buffet and ticket office. Like all caves in the area, the Pál Valley Cave owes its discovery to the quarry. Or rather, we owe the quarry that we can get to know it. The also thermal-origin cave system is now part of Hungary's longest cave, the Pál Valley cave system. It became part of the now 32-kilometer-long system when it was only 13 millimeters old. Its passages are spatially more complex than those of Szemlő Hill. The wall surfaces are pot-hole eroded, subdivided by spherical pots and niches. Twisting passages sometimes lead through high fissures. Typical formations here are stalactites. The tour takes about an hour, ending at the quarry foot where we return to the surface, daylight. Here in summer, we discard outerwear; in winter, we put our coats back on. Walking around the nicely reclaimed quarry, we see numerous cave entrances that are closed and all lead into the Pál Valley cave system.

Returning to the blue cave marking, we continue from Szépvölgyi Road on Mátyáshegyi Road. We pass below the quarry and slowly ascend the road along the hillside. After a few hundred meters, we arrive at the blue cross marking. The marking comes from Mátyás Hill on the left, via a wood-reinforced staircase. If time and energy allow, run up the stairs to the southeast quarry of Mátyás Hill. The quarry yard offers a full view of the Pest side and the Rózsadomb area. Walking around under the quarry wall, numerous thermal water cave entrances can be seen.

After an exhausting day, the shortest way down is to return to the Szépvölgyi Road bus stop. If going down the hill on foot, the blue cross leads you down via Kiscelli Castle to the Amphitheater.