Day 15. The knee of the Danube

It rained last night and I thought we might take a day off, but by 7.30 it had cleared so off we went. Just down the road there was a long que, mostly trucks,, accident!

That should have been a warning ! This section of the trail had a 'busy traffic' warning in the guide. What it didn't say was the traffic was mostly trucks. It was worst than the road to Tauranga. There's still reminders of the old communist days like this carved sign on the front of a factory

It says "pull finger or see Siberia"

An early hydrofoil, you still see them in use.

 Esztergom was the first goal. A Roman outpost once, there are relics everywhere. It also has the biggest cathedral in Hungary and the 3rd biggest in the world. Mmmmm

The Marie Therese bridge into Slovakia was bombed during ww2 and only reopened in 1992. The trail is hot mix again now and runs beside the river. 

  We had to take the ferry to the left bank at Szob

The current is so strong here that the tug rammed the barge onto the ramp then let go and pushed sideways on it to hold it straight. The other cyclists were an Austrian group on a 3 day ride from Vienna to Budapest. 

The castle of Visograd guarded the narrows. The beaches are nice and there's often groups like canoeists out on the water. We were aiming for Vac but Christine got a puncture so we booked into this hotel for the night.

Beautiful room with a big BATH. Trail boss was ecstatic. I liked the shipping with lights blazing passing in the night. $65 NZ with breakfast !

The mountains are the reason the Donaj takes a sharp turn south here and gives it the name . 'The knee of the Danube'