Andrássy Avenue is Budapest at its most confident. It was laid out in the 1870s as a grand boulevard from the city centre to the City Park, lined with neo-Renaissance mansions, embassies and the State Opera House, completed in 1884, and it runs straight and wide under rows of plane trees. UNESCO listed it in 2002, together with the first underground railway on the European continent, the Millennium Underground, which opened in 1896, a few years before the Paris metro, and runs just beneath the avenue.
The little yellow trains still run, with the stations kept in their original tiled style, and a ride of a few stops is a delight. At the northern end of the avenue stands Heroes' Square, with its colonnade of Hungarian kings and the statues of the seven Magyar chiefs, and beyond it the City Park, with a castle that seems out of a fairy tale, and the Széchenyi thermal baths, where old men play chess in the steaming water. The avenue also holds sadder memories, notably the House of Terror, which documents the era of fascist and communist rule.
For a rider, Budapest is a lively and often hectic city. Trams, rails and cobbles demand attention, and the traffic on the big ring boulevards moves in waves. Be careful of wet tram tracks, which are slippery. The city's bridges over the Danube are the best part: crossing the Chain Bridge at dusk, with Buda Castle lit up on the hill, is a ride worth taking. The roads out of town toward the hills of northern Hungary are quick and pleasant, and the ride that begins here heads for Hollókő, a preserved village of the Palóc people, and the Roman fort across the Danube in Slovakia.
Fuel is easy throughout the city, and the avenue itself is full of cafes, many of them in old coffee houses with marble tables and chandeliers. A slice of Dobos torte, a layered sponge with caramel on top, is the proper way to rest. In summer, evenings stay warm and the terraces are packed. Leave the bike in a guarded car park, since street parking can be tricky, and enjoy a walk beneath the plane trees.