Budapest northeast to Slovakia

The first time we cycled the Danube cycleway I thought it was quite exotic to cycle in Slovakia and Hungary. As it turns out, we were in a very tame and well-touristed part of Hungary. On this trip, after leaving Budapest we were really to get off the typical tourist route. However, the cycling was good, with many small and sparsely trafficked roads, great scenery, and very hospitable people. So here is how the next few days went...

Budapest back to Szentendre Island, near Vac, 44 km.
It was easy to cycle out of Budapest on the Danube cycleway, so we headed back north to Szentendre Island, back on one of the funny little ferries, and back past the strawberry stands. Although this route took us straight north, instead of northeast, it was a relatively easy exit from the big city. However, when we stopped at a tiny grocery market for dinner we were told our planned camping ground had been closed for years. So much for maps. We backtracked again, across the Danube to the west or south side to camp for the night, again in a fairly unsalubrious camping ground. Yes, the camping is getting pretty tiresome.

Vac to Gyongyospata, 83 km
Fom Vac we headed north and east, skirting the Matas hills, which are the highest hills in Hungary, although they are not that high - about 1000 meters or 3000 feet. It was raining and a little cold, and we ended up eating our sandwiches under the roof overhang of a grocery store. The manager came out and looked at us, and I thought she'd tell us to get out of the way, but she just smiled at us.
We cycled up and down the rolling hills, through farmland, getting wetter and wetter. At one point I stopped to walk up a hill, and a man came over from across the street and started speaking to me in Hungarian. I though maybe he was inebriated, but, no, he wanted to offer me some chocolate. He pulled out a big bar of chocolate from his pocket, broke off a piece, and handed it to me. Then he waved goodbye and walked back to his house. Maybe I looked kinda bleak at that point.
After a long, cold afternoon the sun peaked out and we arrived in a little town with a small market consisting of two aisles of groceries, mostly alcohol and sweets. Pasta again. At the campground, it turned out that the last Americans had been there eight years before. The owner and her family invited us into a bar area for a free "welcome drink" of Hungarian brandy and candy bars for Erich and Shea. They seemed genunely excited to have us there...great fun.

Gyongyospata to Eger, 66 km
Eger and its surroundings area in a big wine producing area of Hungary, and are famous for the Egri wines including one called "Bull's Blood." Although we did not sample that one, we have been having a bottle of wine with dinner, and 4.00 USD buys a pretty good bottle of wine.
Eger is a small town of about 60,000 people and has a castle, big churches, and a pedestrian street. We went into town for dinner as grocery stores were all closed on Sunday. Then we went back into town the next morning, when a thunderous downpour causd us to seek shelter in a covered cafe, where we had coffee and hot chocolate and waited out the worst of the rain.

Eger to Szilvasvarad, 31 km
On this leg we passed through the Bukk Hills, beautiful forested rolling hills. We were headed north and gaining altitude. The region was still rolling hills but now more oak and conifer forest with less vineyards.
We were clearly off the main tourist routes in this area, as townspeople looked at our train of bicycles Otwo tandems, two zsingles) with amusement, bewilderment, curiosity, lots of funny looks and smiles. This has been previously called the "Tandem Effect," on which pedestrians or folks on the street gawk at the tandem as it goes by, even stepping out in the street to look at it, thus stepping out right in front of the next bike, which is usually me. Fortunately there have yet to be any casualties directly related to the Tandem Effect, althoug I sometimes have to do some fancy maneuvers to avoid running over the gawkers.

The "S" town to Aggtelek, 70 km. Our last point in Hungary was the Aggtelek National Park area, which has alot of limestone karst and caves. The area is lovely. On the way to the campground we stopped at a ery small grocery store, and were waited on by a grama and her son. They clearly were not used to the amount of food consumed by hngry cycle tourists. We kept putting food on the counter, pasta, yogurt, beer, chips, apples, cereal, pretzels, hungarian waxpeppers and onions, and on and on. The Grama kept asking if that was all, and we kept saying not yet, and putting more stuff out there. Finally she decided we were easy marks, and started trying to sell us bottles of alcohol, vodka, scotch, brandy, she kept pointing to bottles and looking at us expectantly. We settled for wine and a couple of bottles of beer.
We went on a one hour tour of the caves. The tour was in Hungarian, but they gave us a small brochure in English which included the fact that there are some twenty species of bats living in the caves. The strangest part of the tour, therefore, was that we stopped in a large cavern where they played VERY loud new age rock music, much to the apparent discomforture of the bats, who flew around during the music. Wierd.

From here we headed north through Slovakia...even further off the regular tourist trail. Stay tuned. More from on down the road.

Where Is Erich Now

I am...

In Slovakia near the convergence of two rivers, the Vah and the Danube.

Where many troops have been: the place has been home to the Austro-Hungarians, Russians, and Slovaks, and withstood the siege of Turks. It was a very strategic point along the Danube.

And I'm in the biggest and most advanced military fortess of its time.

We had a great tour with Sylvia, our English-speaking guide. The history of this fortess is very interesting. And now I have a new email pen pal, George, who lives in Komarno.

This is Erich, reporting live from Slovakia.

Down the Danube: Vienna to Budapest

The same but different. That is how we found the area of the Danube from Vienna to Budapest. We had cycled this stretch of the Danube Cycleway eight years ago, in 2000, as part of a one month cycletour. This time, we were cycling with our good friends Muriel, Kelly, and their son Shea, who joined us in Vienna.
It was interesting how we did and did not recall parts of the trip, as we followed almost exactly the same route as before. We would ride along, saying, oh yeah, I remember this part, or, wow, I don't remember this at all. And since we were here in 2000, Slovakia and Hungary have both joined the European Union, which makes some very apparent differences in costs (everything was way more expensive), development (alot of new construction going on), relative ease of border crossings, and the amount and types of material good available. So....

Vienna to Petronell-Carnuntum, 56 km. We rode out of Vienna on the north side of the Danube, past the FKK or nudist area, past the area on which "grill zone" is painted on the asphalt path and folks were grilling meat to their heart's content, past numerous beer shacks, and past the sports area. We also rode past some sort of fireman's competition, where teams of firemen were competing laying out and connecting hoses on a big field. It was plenty hot, and their warm coats and metal hats with pointy tops added to the red faces of the competitors. I'm thinking of ecommending the metal pointy hats to the Ronan Fire Department.
We were riding into a stiff headwind, and it was hot, and after what seemed like an eternity of pedaling through the woods lining the Danube we came to a big bridge leading to the town of Hainberg, still in Austria. Up river we cycled to a very small campground that was actually the grassy side yard of the local tennis club. Warm showers and cold beers later, we were tired and ready for sleep.
Petronell to Bratislava 32 km. Border crossings just aren't what they used to be in the new EU countries. Eight years ago we had to have our passports checked on both sides of the Austria/Slovakian border, but this time there was no one at the station. We continued in to Bratislava (passing the pizza restaurant where we had stayed overnight eight years ago).
After finding a nice apartment near the river, we walked around the small historical part of the city, which seemed a little more prosperous and cleaned up than it did during our last visit.
Bratislava to Dunajska Streda, 70 km. On down the Danube on a multi use path along the river. The first ten miles or so there were many Bratislavans roller blading in rather skimpy clothing - well, it was a very warm day. We stopped at a beer stand where Tom and Kelly got to gawk at the girls in bikinis. Then, on down the river in a quieter section, past an oxbow lake. This is a very pretty section of cyclepath despite the presence of the ecological damage caused by Gabickova Dam and the concrete banks lining the Danube. We stopped at a small town just off the cycle path, and remembered that the last time we went in that same store there were a couple of cabbages, some bread, and some sausages and water on the shelves. This time there was a fairly well stocked Coop market. We camped at a pretty despicable and overpriced campground in Dunajska Strega, as there aren't many options around here.
Dunajksa Streda to Komarom, 83 km. And on down the river, along cycle path and busy highway, to the bridge from Komarom, Slovakia, to Komarno, Hungary. Not much of note on this section, as it is mostly flat and uninspiring. But the self-nominated campground hostess, an elderly German woman, brought us freshly brewed coffee in the morning n a tray complete with sugar and cream. She was amazingly kind to Erich and Shea, as well, giving them candy bars and letting them sit under her canopy while it rained. Some other Germans and Belgian couple loaned us a table and chairs to eat at...I don't know how we can ever possibly repay the many kindnesses we have been shown.
Komarom to Eztergom, 63 km. We started the day by returning to the Slovakian side of the Danube, where we toured around Komarno, a surprisingly interesting town. We ended up with a personal tour of the fortress in Komarno, which at the time it was built in the was the biggest and most modern military fortification in Central Europe. Our English-speaking guide walked us though the fortress and told stories of the various occupants. It was really interesting, as the fort had originally been built in the 1500s, and had included a big palace, which was then demolished as the fortress was expanded and remodeled. When the Russians occupied Slovakia in the 1950s and 1960s, 8000 soldiers were housed in the former barracks in pretty cramped conditions, while the officers lived out in the town in relative luxury. Our tour guide, who had grown up in the area, said the soldiers did not interact with the community at all. A huge amount of ammunition was stored in the old horse stables, and the fort was repainted with various Russian motifs and pictures of Russian soldiers, etc, which are still partially visible. When the Russians left in the early 1990's, about 200 Slovak soldiers were housed in a different building on the grounds, but the fortress was now in great disrepair and basically falling down, so much so that you have to tour with a guide to avoid the dangerous places. It was so interesting to hear first hand about the Russian occupation and exit, and then discuss this tume period with our children. The visit highlighted the many, many changes that Slovakia has experienced in a generation.
After the tour we headed on down following the marked Danube route to Eztergom, which has a castle high on a hill over the Danube bend.
Eztergom to Domos, 21 km, and the next day Domos to Szentendre, 33 km. The cycle route took us out on Szenendre Island via ferry, a funny old ferry with a boat lashed via metal cable to a small barge. The strawberry season was on, and after riding by several stands, the odor of fresh strawberries finally pulled us over. There was a smaall stand with a grama in head scarf and black wool skirt and rubber boots selling cherries and strawberries. Through sign language and a litle German she quoted us a price for small and large baskets of each. The son or son-in-law brought over a basket of freshly picked strawberries and cherries and gave us all some to sample. Delicious! Seriously delicious! We decided on a large strawberry box and a small bag of cherries, and gave her what we thought was the right amount of money. The grama kept asking for more, saying something in Hungarian and holding out 300 forints and shaking them at us. Her ? daughter came over and got in on the conversation, speaking rapidly in Hungarian and pointing to various baskets and the money box. The son-in-law shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and stayed in the background seeming to enjoy the situation. Finally after a lengthy discussion in three languages, pantomime, and writing down various costs and money that had exchanged hands, the grama and daughter said loudly, "OK!" and the son-in-law said "OK!" and we all laughed and said "OK!" and all was well.
After another ferry ride across the river we reached the town of Szentendre and our campground at about the same time as it started raining in great gobs. At the campground we cooked under a small shelter with ping pong tables. Ominous puddles started forming all over the grounds as the rain continued to fall through most of the night.
The next day we took a rest day in Szentendre, where we slept late, mosied around town, ate goulasch at a restaurant on the main square, and did some shopping. The town seemed more touristy than last time we were here. Heavy rain fell at times during the night, so we woke up to find the puddle near our tent had expanded greatly, and was starting to get close to the tent. Time to leave...
Szentendre to Budapest, 12 km plus a train ride. We decided to take the train in to Budapest to save some time and because it was still raining. We rented an apartment in Budapest - quite lovely, with two bedrooms and a nice kitchen/living room area. What luxury! We spent the next day touring all of the usual Budapest sights ,including going back to Gerbeaud's for Dobos Torte. The paliament and ther buildings alng the Danube are magnificent, and the art deco buildings in Pest were really great. See the picture of the happy Trickel-Sherwin family in Budapest at the castle overlooking the Danube and parliament building.
And, more from on down the road.

Where Is Erich Now

Mozart's grave is 400 steps below me
down below a blue river I see

In the park they are setting up for a soccer fan
I am going to eat a sacher tort while I can

We may not see the famous horses
but we may eat schnitzel in many courses.

On through Western Transdanubia.

Continuing our zig-zag across the area of Hungary known as Western Transdanubia, we spent two days riding on relatively flat terrain, in a headwind of course. If you follow any of these postings on a map, you will see we have been doing a circle of this region as we try to take in the sights and spend some time before we have to be in Vienna. A little zany, because a week ago from western Lake Balton we were told we could be in Vienna in a day. But....
Gyor to Hegyko, 78 km
Basically, at the end of a long day of riding, mostly on a fairly busy highway, we ended up in one of the worst campgrounds of the trip (it definitely made the Top Ten Worst List) and had to piece together dinner from a mini-store. The redeeming event was that a wine tasting event was going on in a small park across the street from the campground, where a quartet was playing American jazz. The local wine is called a Kefrankos, a red with a lot of tannin. But it was fun to have the vintners try to explain the local wines in a mixture of Hungarian, German, and English.
What puts a campground on the ten worst list? Well, it may be right on a main road -in this case our tent was along a fence, three feet from the main sidewalk and five feet from a main road. And the bathrooms may not be very clean, or may not have much hot water. Like this one. The campground manager may want us to put our tent in a muddy field. Also, there are often big overhead lights for security, and enough light in the tent at night to permit reading, like this site. However, as always there was a bright side, as the neighboring German campers, retirees again, were very nice and even loaned us camp chairs to sit on.
Hegyko to Sopron, just 21 km.
Are we looking like we're starving, or what? Once again, for the fourth time recently, as we rolled out of camp the retree Germans and Dutch gave us chocolate bars. We have been given apples, granola bars, cookies, hot chocolate mix, and other goodies. One lady was practically throwing food out her motor home window as her husband drove out of the campground.
We ate the chocolate as we reached Sopron, a medium sized town at the foot of a major wine producing area. Sopron was relatively wealthy in the 1300s, when it was made a roayl free town, which meant craftspeople were able to work without oversight and taxation by a feudal lord. The town's medieval center remains within circular stone town walls. Unfortunately many of the medieval buildings were destroyed in WW2, although alot has been restored. We mostly just wandered around and looked at buildings and the town walls, but also had some delicious cake in an outside cafe. It was a pleasant town, but maybe we were tired...do Tom and Erich look tired in the picture? We tried to find a room, and ended up in a huge apartment with four bedrooms, for the same price as a double room. Now that was luxury, especially after last night's camping.
Tomorrow we move on to Austria.

Lake Balaton to Gyor, Hungary

Camels, a "neoclassicist" library, and lots of ice cream: a few of the memories from the three days of cycling north from Lake Balaton to Gyor as we headed north in Hungary.
Balaton to Vezprem, 36 km. We left the cyclepath around Lake Balaton at Balatonalmadi, another small tourist village along the lake. Tom checked with the tourist information about routes, as it looked like we wuld be riding highway. However we followed the directions, riding smaller and smaller roads, uphill of course, thinking we were about to be lost again, when we saw a rail trail sign and ended up riding a very nice dirt road up to the town of Szentkiralyszabadja. (Really!). Rail trails, or old railroad beds converted to hike/bike trails, are great because they usually ascend using a gentle grade. So although I had been dreading the uphill climb on a highway, we ended up riding a great section along farms and fields. We had a little more uphill to the town of Vezprem, which has an old medieval center including ramparts from an old castle. King Saint Stephen, who christianized Hungary about 99. AD, came here with his wife Gisella - see the picture of Erich in front of their statues. On a more gruesome note, apparently in 1996, a bishop had the rather strange idea of reunitin King Stephen and Queen Gisella by bringing together their preserved hands... So King Stephen's handbone was brought from Budapest and Gisella's arm was brought from Germany and there was a ceremony in which their hand bones were fit together to commemrate the anniversary of their wedding. The holy relic thing is still a little outside of my realm of understanding. Anyway we ended the day at a camping ground right next to the zoo, so we could hear camel groans and see rhinos and zebras from our campsite. These particular camels seemed to be experiencing a great deal of indigestion...you get the idea.
Vezprem to Pannohalma, 78 km.
Lots of up and down through forests, along a fairly busy highway and then cutting off on a quieter side road - all beautiful countryside. We stopped to eat lunch at what looked like a Veteran's Memorial statue, which we see in almost every town. A man was raking and sweeping up newly cut grass , and at first I thought he was going to be upset at us for eating there. Instead he came over and talked to us in Hungarian for about five minutes. I think maybe he was explaining the memorial and that sort of ceremony was going to happen, or maybe he was critiquing our lunch. But he just kept smiling and talking very sincerely, even though we didn't understand a word of it. He refused our offer of a sandwich, indicating he was already full by patting his stomach. He kept working and talking to us, and we kept eating and smiling back, and we all waved like old friends when we pulled out.
We were headed to see Pannohalma Abbey, which is an old Benedictine monastery set on a hilltop. We had to ride up a steep uphill past the abbey and then down the other side to find camping. Note: Beware of campgrounds called "Scenic" or "Overlook", or in this case,Panorama Camping" turned out to be a stiff push uphill.
Pannohalma to Gyor, A short 24 km. We started the day by touring Pannohalma Abbey. This is another UNESCO world heritage site, established in 996 by King Stephen and still housing a small number of monks and an elite boarding school. We had to take a tour rather than just wandering, and the church and courtyards were pretty, but the library was stunning, with thousands of old books as well as globes and other antique items. Since Tom is a library fan, it was hard to get him out of there.
We then rode the short distance to Gyor, a nice city. Since we celebrated our 5000 km mark here, we stayed in a hotel which was a converted convent, very nice. And had two ice cream cones each, as well as dinner out at a restaurant on a barge on the river.
We then push on through Hungary...more from down the road.

Navigating across Hungary

Trying to navigate is always one of the challenges when cycletouring. The maps rarely seem to match the highway signs, which in turn do not match what we actually find. Even having several maps and trying to triangulate doesn't always help. Add to that language difficulties. The Hungarian language seems completely indecipherable, amd has 44 letters including 4 letters for u. The names of Hungarian towns are long and difficult to pronounce, adding to the confusion. So, route finding goes something like this.
We reach an intersection of several roads. We pull out the maps, usually figuring out where we are, but not sure which way to go next. So we look around for a friendly looking individual who looks like he or she is from the area, such as a cyclist, someone walking in the street of a town, or someone in their garden. Sometimes this is a grama in long skirt, wool socks and heavy shoes, and scarf. Or a middle aged man gardening in a speedo.
We pull up on the bikes, and Tom pulls out the maps and starts to walk over. The person or persons looks up a little suspiciously ('who are these people and what do they want?'). Stacey and Erich hold the bikes and try to smile disarmingly ('just another family of lost American cycletourists, no threat here.') Tom walks over with the map, folds it open, and points to where we think we are, speaking in English and saying, we think we are here. The person(s) peers at the map, and sometimes discusses it with other bystanders, and after a minute or so there is general agreement that indeed, that is where we are. They all nod their heads. Then Tom says, "and we want to go to (names place, at least how we think it might be pronounced)" and points to the place on the map. The people scratch their heads, looking confused, look at the map, and say something which must mean, oh, such and such a place, with the real pronunciation. This is followed by much discussion or thinking, and then an attempt at giving diections. If there are two or more Hungarians giving directions, they often have a discussion about something...('Which way should we send them? What is the best way to get them out of here?') The directions usually involve waving of hands, pointing to the map, tapping on the pavement or dirt to indicate road surface, sometimes waving of fingers or headshaking or drawing pictures in the dirt. They speak to us in fast Hungarian, combined with a few words of German, and peer at us to see if we appear to understand. If we look confused they keep talking, adding more gestures, finger wagging, arm waving, and pointing. At some point Tom tries to repeat the directions in English, gesturing right, left, drawing circles in th air for roundabouts. When we appear to have it, our direction consultants smile and nod. And we smile and nod, say thank you in Hungarian (one of the few Hungarian words we have managed to learn), get back on the bikes, and ride off. Everyone waves goodbye...ah, another successful intercultural encounter.
And so we made our way from Lenti to Heviz (80 km). We rode both small windy roads and the highway. The highways were lightly trafficked, mostly semis driving west toward Slovenia. Tom already recounted our encounter with the Bulgarian truck driver who stopped to ask us directions to Slovenia. The terrain was gently rolling hills and forests, very peaceful. We pulled into Heviz in the late afternoon with clouds threatening rain. Heviz is a resort town with a thermal lake...the whole lake is warm, with floating pink water lilies and long walkways out into the water from turn of the century bath houses built right on the lake. Again, the campground had lots of German and Austrian retirees there to take the water. We didn't swim as the weather was cold and windy.
At this point we were close to Lake Balaton, a very large freshwater lake in western Hungary. For two days we rode the cycle path along the northern shore of the lake, whichwas quite nice. There are some cute resort towns, such as Tihany, a small picturesque town set on a peninsula jutting into the lake. There are many campgrounds and hotels along the lake and it obviously a hugely buy area in high season. The area has many vineyards on the surrounding hillsides and is known for its Balaton white wines. However the lake itself didn't seem that great. It is very shallow and cloudy, with mostly reedy beaches. Many of the businesses were still closed for the season although it was almost June, giving a ghost town appearance to many of the villages, although during the day there were busloads of tourists in places like Tihany. The weather was cold and raining when we left Heviz, so we stayed in a room one night, then camped the next as we worked our way along the lake. (Heviz to Badascauny, 39 km, Badascauny to Balatonfuhred, 52 km)
From the northeast corner of the lake we turn north and continue working our way to Vienna. More from down the road...