Day 18. Baja

What a day ! Looked out the window and not a cloud in the sky. The wifi wasn't working in the hotel so I crossed the road to the service station to send off yesterday's blog and got great news from home . Lee's got the all clear on her cancer . Yay! 

  We are always excited first thing in the morning, what will we see, where will we finish up ? It's the unplanned that makes bike touring so great . First up, stopped in Solt ,  3 Kms up the road ,for our usual breakfast,yoghurt , banana's and this morning some nice croissants 

And then to top it off some fat cherries this old dear gave us. Solt was a cute town with flowers everywhere. The Euro6 sign tells us to turn here and head south .

Most of the trail today was on hotmix along the top of the stop banks . Central Hungary is flat rich farmland and we could see for miles from up here. Tail wind again so we flew along. SOOO good .

We looked forward to a coffee about 10 as the villages were a long way apart. always with a pet stork family and lots of grazing on cherries.

It sounds a lot of hard work ,100 Kms, but we're as fit as buck rats and we arrived in Baja at 1pm, and yes my friends, we do have time to smell the roses.

   We've found this lovely pension on the Duna, $45 NZ incl breakfast

Day 17. Heading south

Boy oh boy!  There was a wedding reception in the courtyard here last night. Noisy as, until about midnight.. Slept in and didn't get away until 8

Now let me tell you about Hungarian toilets, I'm sure you're all interested.

   They're back to front ! The drain being at the front so the jobby sits up nicely for you on the tray part at the back. Very handy for checking for worms or recovering gold fillings, but the downside,?  MY GOD THEY STINK. And as they are usually next to the dining rooms , must make for interesting conversations

 "Oh my gootness Olaf , I tink da foreigner ad da pork"

Getting off this island has been a nightmare this morning,30 odd Kms of criss crossing tracks , some of the roughest yet.

The upside was it was often pretty and the wind blew ALL DAY from behind. Stopped and watched a fisherman land this beauty. 16kgs and good eating he said.

We left the island at Rackeve over this pretty bridge. 

Every town so far has had men and women on the roadside cutting the berms with scythes . I'm told they were working for the dole, AND, they had to bike to work

Just as you think the track is improving, you get a nasty bit like the grass track on this flood bank 

Called it quits at 88kms just out side Solt. This motel is part of a garage and is lovely. The owner made us a very nice Hungarian goulash for dinner. 

 That should provide interesting table talk tomorrow

Day 16. Budapest

 As I was loading up the horses this cruiser went past. Nice spot here.

We were supposed to catch a ferry at Vac to take us to Szentendre but quite often the signs were overgrown and we missed it. We entered Budapest on the left bank, quite often riding on bike lanes next to the main road.

There's serious money in parts of Hungary with lots of waterside development, in contrast you're likely to see men cutting their grass with scythes next door

Budapest Central is beautiful , with big open spaces and fabulous buildings. We were here 4 years ago so we didn't stay long. A city is still just a city...

Considering the number of bicycle tourists nowadays ,they might have spent a bit of effort cleaning up the mountains of rubbish we passed on the way out though.

The plan this evening is to get out in the  suburbs   and find a nice place to stay. The trail goes onto a Long Island and so we took the cable driven ferry across

 

 Well, we're out in the suburbs , but this hotel is basic basic basic . We'll have to start looking earlier in the day from now on as we leave the tourist industry behind

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'

Day 14. Hungarian hospitality

Bertha laid on a lovely ,cooked Hungarian breakfast for us.(yes we are still in Slovakia but the border shifted and this village is  still Hungarian )

"Bye bye Bertha "

  We climb back up to the dam wall again and the village of Vojka slips behind. 

I love great engineering and this Gabrickovo Dam is amazing. It was to be a joint venture between Hungary and Slovakia, but after the fall of communism, Hungary pulled out and Slovakia did it on their own. 150 million cubic metres of fill , 17 Kms long and 18 metres high. Magnifique !

After coming off the Dam the trail wanders through farmland and several small villages. A nice change but what I liked mostly was the fruit trees that have been planted on the roadside , not just in the villages but right through the countryside . We could eat as many cherries and apricots as we wanted. Great idea!

Its very common for each village here and in Hungary to have pet storks that live in the same nest every year. Villagers get to see the young ones born and grow up . Just lovely I think! 

BANG ! Shit shit shit shit another bloody spoke !   That's it, I have to fix this problem once and for all. Gave the wheel a quick straighten and we headed for Kormano on the main road. Busy but enough room for us , and a strong tail wind had us there in no time . We were recommended a little bike shop amongst the high rises of Kormano called Pikos. 

  My lucky day I tell you. These guys were  fantastic and in about an hour, had replaced ALL the spokes on the back wheel, fixed a lumpy crank bearing, and oiled and checked it over. I bought a new lock and water bottle and the whole lot only cost about €43 . Aaand while we waited ,Christine had a coffee and I had a pint of beer, all for €1.50.  I'm a huge fan of Slovakia I tell you.  

This is where we cross to the right bank and into Hungary so right on the border we changed our euros into Hungarian forints . $5 NZ gets you about 1000 forints so it takes a bit of getting used to

Anyway we've stopped just out of Kormaron as it's called over here, at a hotel with a squash court next to the lounge bar. Modern , and very nice for 6000 forints ($30 )