Szentendre is the artists' town of the Danube Bend, a short ride north of Budapest, with narrow cobbled streets, baroque churches and a mass of little galleries and cafés. It has been a popular day out for people from the capital for generations, and the old centre fills with visitors on any warm weekend. But the town is small enough, and the houses colourful enough, that it keeps its charm, and the riverside promenade on the Danube is a pleasant place to rest.
The town's character comes from its history. In the late seventeenth century, Serbian refugees fleeing the Ottoman Turks settled here, and their merchants built a series of Orthodox churches with onion domes and richly painted interiors. Their baroque houses line the central squares, and the town's many museums include one devoted to the ceramic artist Margit Kovács, and another, rather charmingly, to marzipan. A few kilometres north of the centre is the Hungarian Open Air Museum, a large park of traditional village houses brought from across the country.
Riding here is mostly a matter of getting to and from. The road from Budapest follows the river along the foot of the hills, busy with commuter traffic, and the centre is crowded, with narrow streets and a lot of pedestrians, so park at the edge and walk. On weekday mornings, the town is calmer. The best riding starts beyond the town, where the road runs north along the Danube, with the hills of the Pilis and Visegrád ranges rising to the west and the broad river on the right.
Szentendre has about twenty-four thousand people, so fuel, food and supplies are straightforward, with stations and supermarkets on the approach roads. The centre is full of cafés and restaurants, and a plate of fish soup or a slice of cake in a courtyard is a fine way to pause. Pomáz, the next town along, has about fifteen thousand people and more services. Note that traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, so an early start is wise.