We are home, the weather is wet and stormy, and we are already planning the next trip. We had a marvellous time, highlights including seeing a deer in Austria, crossing many borders, the welcome in The Sheraton in Bratislava, the delight when we arrived in the lovely town of Győr and spinning around the Danube Bend. We owe a lot to 3 or 4 random strangers who, without prompting, pointed us in the right diection; this includes the man who had no teeth, 2 milk churns, a lovely smile, the lady in Hungary who was cutting her garden and pointed us onwards and the chap who poked his head out of his garage, waved his hand in a big circle to show the way, then disappeared back inside. Downsides were few and far between and not worth mentioning. The scenery was, at times, breathtaking and the weather was perfect (if a little hot) and we enjoyed every minute of our travels. We saw three capital cities : Vienna was classy and elegant, Bratislava was new, vibrant and proud and Budapest was exotic, beautiful and exciting. We visited numerous towns, and stayed in a few – we loved them all; but I think that all three of us agree that Győr was the most perfect.

So, until the next time …. Auf Wiedersehen, zbohom and búcsú !

So, it ends. We have reached our destination, slept like logs and woken up without needing to ride those bloomin’ bikes again ! We breakfasted well (8.5/10 on the Andrew breakfast scale), and booked ourselves onto a city tour. After another shower, we joined about 8 other people on a minibus tour of the city. Yolander, our guide, was good – a little mechanical in her delivery (she must have done this 100’s of times) but perfectly fine.

We saw the sights – Hero’s square, The castle, The rather marvelous Parliment building. Lucia visited a marzipan museum, which inluded such delights as Snow White, Harry Potter and Lady Di (I made that last one up) made out of marzipan and declared it wonderful, Belinda and I had an espresso instead.

We lunched in The Hard Rock Cafe, which was surprisingly good, and Luce bought a T-shirt. Then we wandered around the centre of Budapest which is very lovely and then circled further out where it is less lovely and more like any other European city with dark, slightly menacing looking shops intersperssed with Gucci and other bright, luxurious option.

We arrived back at the hotel drained, and had an afternoon nap (well I did, not sure what the other two did…).

We skipped out for dinner around 9:00pm, wandering down into the area around St Stephens church, where we feasted on pizza and salad and desserts. Then a taxi back to hotel and straight to bed: Tomorrow we fly home….

56 km (35 miles) – Total so far: 348 km (217 miles)

We left Esztergom early after breakfast, we had three ferries to catch and the last one, the one taking us to Budapest we were already booked on to we HAD to make it. So, at 8:00am we zipped out of the hotel (breakfast 6/10) and pedalled our merry way to Szob where we caught the small ferry over to the other side of the Danube.

Once there we admired the view then zipped off towards the famous Danube Bend and Nagymaros, a rather posh village with plenty of villas, some more ornate than others, and some just wonderful. We stopped around here for a cooling drink, and found that we were in Hungary, we had thought that we had crossed back into Slovakia, but it seems we have finally left Slovakia behind and therefore paid rather a lot or Euros for some icecreams ..

After reaching Vác we stopped again, grabbing a very nice lunch as we hid in the shade, and waited for the 1pm ferry sailing to take us, yet again, across the river. The ferry was quite full of cyclists and we chatted to a German couple who we have seen many times over the last week. We then went to the most Polynesian of sounding places , Tahitótfalu, where the driving was by far the most dangerous we have encountered.

We did, however, mange to survive and after almost missing the turn off, proceeded on a quiet cycle path into the town of Szentendre, a veritable haven for Hungarian artists, it seems, and a most beautiful of towns. It even had a natural spring that produced the COLDEST water in human history.. (that may be another lie, but only a small one).

We picked up our ticket for the ferry, boarded it, found out the batteries for the camera had died, listened to some Americans chattering about their day, and swanned gracefully into Budapest, the most exotic and exciting of the capitals we have visited.

Finding our hotel was a trial, the traffic was murderous and the map pointless, but eventually we found our way to our refuge. We checked in, had a drink and a very nice meal, then flopped, exhausted, into a deep sleep.

64 km (40 miles) – Total so far: 292 km (182 miles)

Breakfast was nothing to write home about (even though that is exactly what I am doing – in the words of our American cousins “Go figure!”) so we scoffed what was available and departed. We wandered out of Komárno and quickly found the route along a dyke on the edge of the Danube. It was hot, very hot and we suffered for our sport.

We had a cold Cola after about 8km and then toiled under the merciless sun until we stopped for lunch. The trip was good though, varied scenery and a lovely path next to the river with secluded beaches for playing, swimming, canoodling…we stopped to have a biscuit and a drink of tepid water … very idyllic.

Lunch was in the interestingly named “Fish Boat Paradise” – a sort of house boat that sold fish dishes, so the name has logic if nothing else. The food was carbohydrate rich and vitamin poor, but we didn’t care we were hungry and hot. After lunch we made very good time, mainly because, to avoid a poor surfaced bike path, we stayed on the road.

The threat of being squished by an un-observant lorry driver was enough to get us above a 20kph average for the first time. We stopped once, in a bus stop (they have Arriva buses here!) and just melted… if only there was a way to generate ice while you cycle, a sort of dynamo connected to a freezer… hmmm…

When Esztergom came in sight we beathed a sigh of relief since the heat was oppresive by now, and we were stopping continually for fluids. We zipped down the hill into Esztergom (did I forget to tell you there were hills today, not big admittedly but long .. oh so long ..), stopped at the first cafe we found and drank some very welcome cold lemonades. We then, after admiring the Basillica, wended our weary way to the hotel. (You may by now have noticed that today was a tad warm ?)

The hotel has two very important things … a swimming pool and a lift ! The room is nice, has a balcony, firm mattresses, firm to the point of being rather like a slab of marble and all the normal things a hotel room has. We went swimming almost immediately, then retired to the, sadly unmanned, bar. The barman turned up once I realised I had to press the button, and I savoured a tall, cold beer. Dinner was a buffet style thing which was OK, and afterwards we pre-packed for an early start tomorrow then closed our eyes…….

56 km (35 miles) – Total so far: 228 km (142 miles)

We left Győr round about 9:00am after a rather average breakfast. The hotel was nice and the people lovely, but the breaskfast was meager .. oh well back to Slovakia this evening, so we shall see. We meandered out of the back of Győr, past, we think, a huge Audi factory and crisscrossing over the train tracks many times. We met cyclists we had seen before and also new ones, it is nice to see familiar faces – it confirms that you are probably going the correct way. Once fully out of Győr we began to climb uphill on some rough roads.

We stopped a few times, mostly to gulp down a mouthful of drink, before continuing onwards. There were many dogs here, all of them safely behind fences, but the barking was a cacophony of sound occasionally. We also spotted a trio of kittens .. awwwwww….

After plunging back downhill, we turned onto a main-ish road and plodded our way through Bőny, Bana and Bábolna. We stopped in the final one, slurping a cold Sprite and eating an ice-cream that the owner gave us for free – which was very nice of her. Bábolna is famous as the seat of Hungarian horse breeding, but other than a couple of shops selling riding gear, we didn’t see any evidence of this. We also gained anoth “scalp”, we overtook a post-lady on her bike, she may or may not have been delivering mail at the time, but that is immaterial, it is another victory !

Hungary has acres upon acres of corn growing in huge fields everywhere we go. Together with sunflowers they are the stand-out crops so far in our trip.

After leaving Bábolna we climbed a rather steep hill and then decended into Ács, a town which looked positively wild-western with dusty streets and low buildings with barriers outside the shops…we didn’t stop, but it looked lovely.

After Ács we went “off road” through some magical woods. The path was a little rough in places, but it was cooler than the road even if a little more humid. It was a very pleasant break from the roads we had been on for most of the last 30km and caused a few “moments” as we wobbled our way around puddles of mud. Sadly, no one actually fell off into one .. but there is always tomorrow.

We arrived in Komárom, which is the Hungarian half of Komárno-Komárom a city that was split down the middle after WWI. Our hotel is on the Slovakian side so we scampered over the Elisabeth Bridge, which is known as the Friendship bridge, and arrived at our hotel feeling very, very hot. It has become apparent that hotels that have lifts seem to put our luggage in our room, but hotels that don’t leave the luggage in reception and expect us to heave it up flights of stairs .. hmmm …

Anyway, we all showered, bathed, and generally became more fragrant and then slipped out of the hotel into the town. Like all the places on the trip so far it looked nice, but was very, very quiet. Hardly a soul was out eating so we trapsed around for half an hour or so then eventually found somewhere to eat. After this we had a very nice and extrememly cheap ice cream, returned to the hotel and fell asleep.

43 km (27 miles) – Total so far: 172 km (107 miles)

Well, Győr is a gem of a town, but I will come back to that later…
We awoke, refreshed, in the Mosonmagyaróvár hotel and,after packing, wandered down to breakfast. Compared to the luxurious, sumptuous repast that we had encountered in Vienna and Bratislava, the breakfast here was disappointing. The eggs had all gone, the pastries had all gone and to top it all the hot water for the tea ran out before I had poured two cups. Oh well, not to worry.

We started out on our bikes, pedalling happily through the quiet Sunday streets (though the click from my bottom bracket is getting louder by the day) onto the cycle path bound for Győr. It was, actually, very uneventful – we didn’t have any adventures other than stopping in the garden of a lovely old house for a snack of warm ribena and biscuits and so arrived, after an ice cream stop, in Győr about 2pm.

We got a little lost but eventually found our hotel tucked away in a back street. Our luggage had been delivered, so we put our bikes in the lockup over the road, the hotel proprietor wondering what Luce was doing with her parents rather than out looking for a (Hungarian?) boy, then we walked the 50m or so into the town square – and what an elegant place it is !

It has a beautiful main square with fountains, historic building, open-air cafes and very, very large ice-creams – a superb place.

After devouring the over-large ice creams we went for a stroll around the town, buying a few souvenirs and gernerally being charmed by it all.

Later in the afternoon the weather took a turn for the worse and with rain threatening we made a dash back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap.

The weather brightened later, so we ventured back out and after a swift half in the hotel bar we settled down in the square for dinner. Luce had a Hungarian gulashy thing, I had a pizza and Belinda had a chicken dish. They were very nice and just what we needed.

Our travelling friends from Belgium turned up so we had a nice chat with them for an hour or so. Antoinette and Andre are from Brussels and often cycle tour – more to Andre’s liking than Antoinette’s I think. We chatted until it got dark and then we returned to the hotel to catch the second half of the world cup final …

49 km (30 miles) – Total so far: 130 km (80 miles)

We awoke early after a poor night’s sleep and packed our luggage ready for it to be “magically” transported to our next destination. After filling ourselves at the breakfast buffet we eventually began our trip from Slovakia to Hungary. It was, for the most part, an uneventful trip; we cruised down the dykes that are built to stem any flooding of the river and made our way to Čunovo were we met a couple from Belgium who we met in Vienna – they arrived at the hotel as we were leaving. They are travelling the same way as us so no doubt we shall meet again. We also passed a couple of proper looking cyclists at this point, however, when they arrived at Čunovo they ordered a pint of beer each and lit up a couple of cigarettes – so maybe out for a Saturday morning pedal rather than an epic tour like us, still, we are adding them to our slowly growing list of “scalps”. There were a huge number of cyclists at this cafe, a veritable ” Eureka – Two Mills” of central Europe – no pints of tea on show though !

After Čunovo we made our way through the flat Hungarian landscape (rather like Norfolk, to mis-quote Noel Coward “Very flat, Hungary.”) to Bezenye where we had lunch. It was very hot by this time and the cold lemonades were gratefully received.

We detoured over some rough terrain and eventually made our way to Mosonmagyaróvár, our stop for the night. The hotel is nice, not as big as the previous ones, but very pleasant. The view from the window, you will be pleased to know, is not dreadful – not good – but not dreadful.

After a refreshing shower we explored the entertainment on offer – which isn’t much to be honest. The town seems to exist solely to service the dental needs of neighbouring countries. There are more dentists and dental surgeries in Mosonmagyaróvár than anywhere else in the world (I made that up, but it might be true !) The town’s name comes from an amalgamation (or maybe amalgam – there’s that dentistry again) of Monson and Magyaróvár but locals tend to call it Óvár which means “Filling” – (made that up too, but this is less likely to be true)

Anyway, we had a nice meal, met the Belgium couple again, and then retired to the hotel to check the trip for tomorrow and get some sleep.

The next day, we awoke, a little aching but immeasurably better than we felt when we went to bed. Today was another non-cycling day, a touristy day in Bratislava. The view from the bedroom window was, if anything, worse than Vienna, but we were not complaining once we got down to breakfast – a huge smorgasbord of delights that we devoured.

After a post breakfast rest, we ventured out into Bratislava and jumped on a city-tour bus. This took us around the city and then up to the rather splendid castle that looks over the city and the Danube.

Once we returned back to the town we had a nice Italian lunch then wandered the streets looking for souvenirs and other objet d’art !

Returning to the hotel, we made use of : (in no particular order)

• the sauna
• the swimming pool
• the bar
• the steam room

Life is tough sometimes !

We had an excellent meal in Mercado, a feverishly “organic” and “gluten free” restuarant on the banks of the Danube. Then back to the hotel to sleep.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we ride !

80 km (50 miles) – Total so far: 80 km (50 miles)

We checked out of the hotel and met Christoph, our rep from the cycle company. He showed us the (very red) bikes, gave us a brief overview of the route, left us hotel vouchers and maps then drove away with our luggage. He was bound for Bratislava to drop it off at the hotel there; we were going the same way but I have a sneaking suspicion that we may take a tad longer than him !

We filled our panniers with various things – wet weather gear, maps, sun glasses, drinks etc. and began our journey along the Danube towards Slovakia. We made good time at first, positively whizzing along the cycle paths, our speedometers registering 20+ kph.

For anyone who has read about previous trips along this part of the Danube, you will be expecting us to mention the naked Austrians that throng this part of the route. Well, don’t worry, they are still here in numbers, wandering the paths and sitting sun bathing on the grass verges – this caused some hilarity among the girls, but was treated with European sophistication by yours truly.

Soon, of course, we lost our way and arrived at a dead-end with a watery crossing of the Danube our only option. Looks were exchanged as we turned back and retraced our route about 3km. After gaining the assistance of a passing Austrian on a Scott bike, we soon found the correct route and resumed our travels. It was on this segment of the path that we over-took our only fellow cyclists.

1. 1) A chap who had dismounted from his bike and seemed to be eating the grass on the verge
2. 2) A man who had slowed down to enable him to be able to light his cigarette … and ..
3. 3) His son

We felt VERY proud !

After an hour or so, we stopped for a much needed drink at Schonau an der Danau and rested our increasingly sore posteriors. My saddle had been worryingly wobbly from the beginning of the trip but I did manage to fix it, the saddles themselves however, where over soft and spongy and were less than ideal – oh well, cannot be helped. Also, only my bike had a bottle cage, which was rather annoying since we had been told that they all had them and had each brought bottles – still they fitted in the panniers so again, we coped (isn’t cycling touring SO hard ?)

We continued on along the very, very straight cycle path, eventually veering off to Orth an der Donau, where we stopped for a well deserved lunch.

After lunch we remounted our trusty steeds and made tracks towards Bratislava. The cyclepath was long and straight but the wind was mostly behind us and I assume it must slope ever so slightly downhill given that the Danube decides to go this way, so we made reasonable time towards Hainburg, our planned mid-afternoon halt.

We met a pleasant Austrian woman on a Specialized bike who spoke only a little English (still more than our German though) but we gathered that she was travelling the same way as us and had an equally sore bum – must be the bumpy, gravelly tracks !

We soon re-crossed the Danube over a spectactular bridge at Bad Deutsch-Altenburg and zipped along to Hainburg, our legs getting rather weary now. Deciding not to stop there, but to push on to Bratislava, we crested the hills out of the town, dodged road works in Wolfsthal and cruised tired, but content, into Slovakia and thence into Bratislava.

We meandered through the city until we found our, stunningly posh, hotel (If anyone asks in a year or two, we will probably tell them we roughed it, wild camping in an old Soviet era bunker, but for now, we admit that its The Sheraton, Bratislava). The doorman looked after our bags, the receptionist looked after our check-in, and the luxurious shower looked after the rest of us. We nipped out for a quick snack, and collapsed into our beds at 10:00pm for sleep………

Another lovely day in the Austrian capital. We wandered in via the metro after another sumptuous breakfast (true cyclists would call this calorie intake “carbo loading”, we just call it “pigging out”) and slipped into a clothes shop where Belinda bought a very nice denim jacket/coat on the advice of Lucia. As soon as we left the shop Lucia tried on the article and declared that it fitted her perfectly and henceforth would be wearing it – Belinda could borrow it occasionally ! After this we spent a superb hour at the Spanish riding school.

We watched some carriage driving and saw the latest batch of foals – it was very well done and the place itself looks spectacular – just like on the TV.

We also wandered the trinket shops and antique emporiums looking for nothing in particular before going to the Modern art museum – The Albertina – and declaring, as we always do, that “a five year old could have painted that!” – still culture is always good for the soul.

The butterfly house was our next stop – very nicely done, very humid and tropical as you would expect

Then we stopped at a cafe for an apple strudel and an espresso before we returned to the hotel tired but content.