Adventures in Hungary

Day 331
Esztergom to Budapest
Time: 4:48:00
Distance: 78.2 kilometers
Avg Speed: 16.2 kph
Terrain: Flat
Location: 47 29' 51.63" N, 19 04' 19.28" E

We left Esztergom at our usual time this morning and quickly found the bikeway along the Danube. We snuck out of town under the grandeur of the Basilica, a neoclassical structure that dates back to the 19th century. This area of Hungary actually bears some important and interesting history. From here to Budapest, the Danube Bend area was once a popular place for the kings of Hungary. Way back in time, Esztergom hosted the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century. It was while he stayed here that he wrote is famous work, Meditations.
We had quite the mix of riding surfaces today. That, coupled with our sub par route finding skills, had us going in all directions. One of us would spot a trail with a bicycle sign and off we’d go only to find that the trail ended or diverted itself in the wrong direction. It’s always amazing what signs you find (to point you in the right direction) when you turn around.
About 15 kilometers out of Budapest we found a major trail route called the Euro Velo. We hopped on and figured we’d have a smooth ride into the city. In a matter of five minutes we were on singletrack dodging trees and potholes. Chris yelled back to me to see if I wanted to continue and I hollered forward to carry on. As long as we were heading south and along the river, I was ready for whatever terrain lay ahead. The trail soon turned back to hardpacked dirt road and didn’t pose too many challenges after that.
The first glimpses of central Budapest definitely took my breath away. Sometimes I feel like I’m traveling through all the movies I’ve watched in the past about Europe. The magnificent parliament buildings set on the left bank of the mighty Danube River is a memory I think I’ll have forever.
We made our way to the Szechenyi Lanchid (bridge) and crossed over into Pest. You see, Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest (I didn’t know this before reading my Lonely Planet book). Buda is the more relaxed of the two, while Pest is the commercial center. Anyway, we crossed the bridge and then did the usual zig-zagging to get to our apartment.
Tonight we are tucked away four doors in and four floors up. Tomorrow we explore the city…

Here’s to Viennese coffee houses,
LK

Day 330: Komarno, Slovakia to Esztergom, Hungary

Time: 3:45
Distance: 61.6 km
Avg Speed: 16.3 kph
Terrain: flat
Location: 47 47' 25.4" N, 18 43' 58.4" E

After a little respite off the bike we got back on the road this morning. Our two days in Komarno were great. The city offers a lot of great old architecture, nice people, good food and ease of access. It was nice to roll out in the cool morning air watching all the café owners setting up their wares for the day.
We quickly found the Danube bike route and rolled on out via the mountain bike route. We enjoyed double track dirt roads on top of the levies all the while keeping track of the flat farm and pasture land to our left. The right side of our route was the river and all the people who cruise its waters daily. We dipped toward and away from the river throughout the day, but if you kept an eye toward the high earthen levies, you could always pick it up.
We arrived in our last Slovakian town around lunch time and decided to do just that. Sturovo is a nice little tourist town right on the river and we were content just to eat our bread and nutella sandwiches and people watch for an hour. After we had our fill we quickly located the bridge heading east and rolled on into Hungary. We switched the last of our Slovakian Koruna for Hungarian Forint and came away with not as much as we had hoped. So much for having faith in the money changers for a good deal. There are three campgrounds in town and we seemed to have located the one with the most cyclists. I would imagine that there are just as many cyclists as other campers in this park. You can really tell that we are on a major bike route.
We have now had announced over the loud speaker in the campground, in German, Hungarian, Slovak and English that the pool is closing and rolls for breakfast should have been ordered. The fact that we picked a site right below the loud speaker has me hoping that they are done for the evening. Who knows, they may announce that the restaurant is out of beer around midnight.
CK

Danube Hustle

Day: 328
Dolna Streda to Kormarno
Time: 4:33
Distance: 80.4 km
Avg Speed: 17.7 kph
Terrain: flat
Location: N 48.272055, E 17.747325

After riding through mountains and hills for the first part of our trip we emerged to the flatlands of Slovakia. Kilometer after kilometer of corn and sunflowers guided us on down the road.
We left our little haven in Dolna Streda this morning with a little cereal and coffee in our veins and settled in for a little riding. After the first hour we hit a sizeable town that had a grocer and grabbed a little more brekkie and some snacks. Leslie found a tasty little juice that gave us a great sugar high for a kilometer or two. Another couple of hours down the road we stopped in a park near a church where we tried to reintroduce some bread and cheese into our diets. It all worked out ok, but it just didn’t hit the spot like the first couple of days. It was here at the church that Leslie turned into Rambo and took photos of passing cyclists from the shelter of some trees in the park.
More corn, more kilometers brought us into the Danube River town of Kormarno. Across the river to the south is Hungary, but our route will take us further east on the Slovakian shores. We checked out the local camping ground and ended up finding a penzion in the city center. Most of the penzions are attached to restaurants so it is always fun trying to rent a room from the waitress as she is hustling between tables. Add the language barrier in there and the fun is compounded immensely. We were very fortunate at this place in that it had a menu, with pictures and prices to choose from. Very painless, pretty quick and pretty affordable. Leslie and I later went back to the restaurant for dinner. A two course dinner with beers and cappuccinos for dessert set us back $20. Earlier we had ran into two Spanish cyclists riding the Danube who replied that the western part of their ride was so much nicer, and that Slovakia is so poor and hard to get around in. Leslie and I haven’t been out west, but if Slovakia is as backward as the Spaniards made it out to be we should just float on through Western Europe.
CK