Day 28, June 30
Hallo readers, Today was another rather mixed day of riding for us, roads rather challenging at times in regards to heavy traffic on main roads as well as very poor road surfaces. As a result I had my second flat tire! We stopped to patch the hole in a place called Esztergom and when the job was done we had a look around the town and it's historic sites. The most impressive building in the city is the huge Basilica dedicated to St. Adalbert. Apparently it is the largest church in Hungary.
Franz Liszt composed the Grand Mass in this church. We later stopped for lunch Visegrad where we had a chat with another Aussie couple who were having lunch as well. It was nice to speak some English again and to catch up with people from 'home'. No sooner had we got back into the saddle or the sky turned black and before too long we were in a large thunder storm but with luck on our side we could shelter under an old bus stop cave. But the weather remained miserable so the final 10-15 km we cycled in the drizzle rain (not much fun on these roads, I can tell you). These last couple of km are rather challenging but we are now only 25km from Budapest.
I don't think I have spoken much about the accommodation we have stayed in along the way, nor will I as most of them have been good. But, as most of you may have remembered me saying that it was our intention to take a tent and to camp along the way. Before we left we decided against that as it was quite a lot of extra luggage to carry and as a friend said were we still interested at our (young) age to be sleeping on a thin foam sleeping mat? So, we have slept in hotels, pensions, B&B's etc which as I said were all good (some were better than others mind you) but when Graeme and I spoke about this yesterday we have both felt that we have missed opportunities of meeting other people , which is often a lot easier when you camp Staying in the above mentioned accommodation does not give you the opportunities to have a chat which we both find regrettable.
1 July, It is now a day later and it would normally be Graeme's turn to write but I thought we would just tack it onto to today. We did not ride today. We are staying in Szentendre, which is about 25km from Budapest. It is a gorgeous village on the Danube a bit touristic as it has many tourist shops but still very pleasant , there are lovely restaurants lining the foreshore of the river, it all has a pleasant and relaxed feel.
We decided to stay here and take the train into Budapest to sort out how to best get ourselves and our bikes back to Holland. And, here is where we find out how adhoc we are in planning our holidays (we don't plan). I wanted to cycle so we just loaded up the bikes and we went and would see where we end up. Good, that is part of the adventure but it also leads onto some frustrating times as it becomes more stressful to sort something out when you are put on the spot. Yes, you can put bikes on the plane and yes, you can put bikes on the train but each comes with cost and restrictions, ++++++!!!!! So, after stress and frustration we have now booked ourselves, plus bikes, on the train to Vienna on Sunday at present but are still not sure how we go about the next stage. Graeme is checking the internet for further options as I write this blog (but he rather be doing something else), and he just reports back that we can not book on-line the rest of the trip by train as it is too close to date of departure., so it looks like we will be flying from Vienna.
After we had booked the train trip we did wonder about Budapest for awhile, also a bit challenging as we did not have a map and there was not a tourist information centre to be found. Anyhow, we did end up at the Turkish baths for a bath and a massage which was well deserved after all these km of cycling! We plan to do another sightseeing trip into Budapest tomorrow and then cycle on Sunday the last 25km to Budapest railway station on our way back to Holland. I'll will inform you of our safe arrival (hopefully bike and all) and how that trip eventuated. Till then.
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