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 …