Getting up as far as I can

Yesterday I did the ultimate tourist thing in Pecs. I took the bus up to the TV tower. I had been promising myself to do this when the weather go warm. First I did a whole group of errands including a stop by my office to see if any of the doctoral students had turned in their necessary work.

I got to the train station at 1:05 only to find out the next bus to the TV tower would be 2:05, so I had a good long wait. The bus trip up the Mescek Hills took 30 minutes. Above is the last bit of the road as seen from the top of the tower. You can see this is good long climb even on a bus.

Here's a view of the tower from the ground. Thankfully one gets to the top by riding an elevator! From where the elevator stops one has to climb another 20 steps or so but that's not too bad.

The view is wonderful, even on a muggy summer day. I thought the parking area for cars made an interesting pattern when seen from the top of the tower. The bus actually stops at just a bit higher level than the parking lots.

To the north one can see some of the smaller towns in the area. The strange area in the middle of the photo is an abandoned coal strip mine. Coal and uranium were both mined out of the hills. Coal was mined for nearly 200 years until it was termed uneconomical in the late 20th century.

To the south one sees Pecs. Perhaps you can see a green done in the middle of the photo somewhat to the right side. That is the top of the Mosque Church in Szechenyi Ter. I live about a 3 minute walk to the left of that. I tried and tried to see the double steeples of the nearby church but was unable do so.

There is a small museum in the tower as well. One intriguing thing is a piece of phonolite stone. When one strikes the stone with the hammer, there is a charming tinkling noise.

Dinosaurs were once in this area too. Coal fossils show some evidence.

The next bus to the tower arrived 2.5 hours later. I had a good long wait for a bus down the hill, but I'm glad I went. Otherwise next winter I would have been "kicking myself" for never going up to the tower.