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.