On a Roll through Hungary

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We have spent the last five days biking from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Compared to the neatness and manicured presicion of Germany and Austria, rural Hungary feels raw and rough around the edges. The roads and trails are certainly rough with patches of pavement missing, more dirt trails, and rougher areas everywhere. The bike trail signs are not so plentiful and finding the route is sometimes a challenge. And even though Hungary is officially using the Euro, many vendors only take Forints, the old currency, and give a very unfavorable exchange rate if they do accept Euros. But the people we have met are warm and welcoming and we have managed to communicate with English and a few words of German.

For most of this leg, all the way to Esztergom, the Danube is the brder between Hungary and Sloakia. This is due to the way that Wilson et al. remade the world in 1918. They called it "self-determination", but by putting the border of Czechoslovakia where they did, they cut the Hungarian city of Komarom in half. Not sure if that's what the residents wanted at the time. We stayed on the Hungarian side for our ride, actually inland a bit and away from the river for a lot of it. We took an alternative route through some hills through Tata, a pretty town by a lake and a favorite retreat for the Hungarian kings in the old days. At Komarom, back on the river, we ventured over the bridge back to Sloakia briefly to check out Komarano. Not very different, but lots of money changers on both sides of the bridge.

As soon as we got into Hungary we started seeing bicycles congregated at bars and various other establishments, and we thought that this section of the route might be as popular as the Austrian one for tourists like us. Soon, though, we realized that these were locals. Our first day was Sunday, and we were onserving the tradition of the Sunday beer, or so it seems that such must be a tradition here. Later we saw many locals cycling for work, shopping, and socializing. These are old bikes, and it seems clear that most of these people would rather be driving if they could afford it. But there seems to be a high level of local cycling and perhaps that acounts for what bicycling infrastruture there is here. We did have a few fellow travellers on this section, a German couple whom we ran into in several towns and who helped us find our way a few time because their German language route guide was more up to date than ours, and a group of four from France with whom we were able to comunicate a bit in remembered high school French.

In Moson-Magyarovar, our first overnight stop, we happened up a local festival of some sort, which was fun to walk around. There was a beauty pagent, some bands, and lots of wine consumed. The biking guides and some warning signs on the road indicated that we'd e likely to see horse-drawn carts in this area, but we saw none. Perhaps that's a thing of the past now.

The rain was heavy during our last day in Vienna and for the first several days of this leg of biking. The Danube is over its banks and even muddier and faster now than when we began riding alonside it. We had to follow several wet weather modifications to the trail recommended in our map guide and, even so, had to take a few more detours due to high water covering the trail. We negotiated one dirt back road with so much deep water that we were not sure if we could make it through. We rode two ferries across the river yesterday, experiencing the force of the water and marveling at the skill of the pilots bringing the ferry into its dock. Farther upstream the ferries were simpler, some with outboard motors steered by long oars and one on a powered cable across the river. On this lower and much wider part of the river the ferries are more substantial. One ferry yesterday was actually a barge tied to a tug alongside it.

Coming into Budapest yesterday afternoon was a challenge as we lost the bike route repeatedly and found ourselves stuck on busy roads or on dead ends in the country. At one point we hauled our bikes and gear up over a stone wall into a train station where we could cross the tracks to a quieter road. The reward was reaching our lodging for the next four nights - a wonderfully comfortable apartment. We enjoyed breakfast in the sun on our rooftop patio this morning as we began to plan our exploration of the city.

The unofficial total of our official daily mileages is 545 as of this point, the midpoint of the trip. Not too shabby. The bikes are still in good shape, with only a little preventive maintenance required. Same for us. We have a slight change of plans for after we leave here, which you will find out about in due time.

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Photos

Looking down the Duna (Danube) from Esztergom Basilica
The Danube bend is in the backgroud. Budapest is right around the corner from that.

Signs for Eurovelo Route 6 in Hungary
They are colorful, but not plentiful enough.

Locals' bicycles at church
We saw many other congregations of bicycles, and people, at bars. The Sunday moning beer seems to be a tradition as well.

Rest stop in Rajka
The brick cycle paths were great when they were available in towns

Local beauty pagent in Moson-Magyarovar
This was at the local fair, or whatever. Later there was a rock band and a band playing Latin style music. Much wine was sold and consumed during all events.

Fountain in Gyor honoring the supposed inventor of soda water
According to the local tourst map, a Hungarian mnk from Gyor invented soda water, although Wikipedia says it was Joseph Priestly.

Bike path, maybe a rail trail
This was a welcome relief from riding on the road. Not the same quality as the German and Austrian paths, though.

Handy guide for saying "Chinese Restaurant" in several languages.
In case you need to write it in Sloak, Hungarian, or Chinese. This was in Komarno, on the Slovakia side of the river from Komarom.

Coronation of Saint Stephen
This modern statue fit in well with the older architecture at Esstergom basilica. Szent (Saint) Stephen brought Catholicism to Hungary. Esztergom has always been the headquarters of the Roman Catholic church in Hungary.

Packed up and ready to leave Esztergom for a long ride to Budapest
Note the lack of rain covers on the panniers. Yay!!

Cliffs below Esztergom
This is at the beginning of the Danube bend where it turns south for awhile.

Ferry from Vac back to the right bank
The ship in the back is one of the few cruise boats we saw this far downriver. It was flying the Ukranian flag and from Kiev.

Quiet dinner in our Budapest apartment
A much needed rest after a rough day biking into the city

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Water troubles
Have fun and stay safe. Stay out of deep waters.

[Troy]

I'm really enjoying the travelog - this is a part of Europe I haven't traveled in. The photo of Kathy at the beginning of the bike path with the telephone lines receding into the distance looks like a shot out of a cold war film.