A Little Adversity

Komarno, Slovakia to Budapest, Hungary — 62.7 mi, 12.5 mph, 1900 ft

It’s always good to have a little adversity during the day to make you feel like you earned it. I’m not totally sure if Meg would agree.

The day began with us zigzagging through town to get back to the Danube where there was a nice smooth asphalt bike path waiting for us. There are always a lot of starts and stops early in the day. Today, Dex had run out of gum so we made a couple stops until we found a gas station. Anyone that knows Meg may also know she is particularly anti-gum. I guess that was the rule in her house growing up so that’s been our rule. In any event, she has acquiesced so this a new habit that keeps Dex from constantly chewing on the camelback bite valve.

 

Stop for gum

Along the Danube

The first couple of hours passed quickly by. Kylie and I started listening to the NPR podcast Serial. It is about a high school girl being murdered, but once you get beyond that, it’s pretty interesting. You’re often shaking your head from the inconsistencies, or apparent ulterior motives that seem never to be questioned.

In any event, after a couple hours, Komoot said “turn right”. If there was supposed to be a ferry crossing, it wasn’t there. As a result, we just kept to the path until it turned to gravel, weeds, then bushes. Ok, new plan. Off to the main road we go. Funny how you lose your desensitization to traffic when you’re not exposed to it for a while. Oh well, if we want to get to Budapest, we’d have to keep going until we found a bridge across the river. Fortunately, Sturovo, sitting on the banks of the Danube, fit the bill and would serve as our final stop in Slovakia.

 

Turn right here?!

End of the road

Last meal in Slovakia

After a fine lunch and some more hands of Oh Heck, we headed off across the river for our last 55km. We knew we had some climbing late in the day, but Komoot was being sadistic and routed us on to a quarter-mile hiking trail. There didn’t look to be any great alternatives and the good news was it was all downhill from there. 

Entering Hungary 

A little adversity

I was really amazed at the size of the homes as we rode down into downtown Budapest.  I joked it was the Los Altos Hills of Budapest. It took a while to make our way to the center.  It's always a challenge riding through a busy city; bike paths, if they exist, jump from one side of the road to the other; tram lines and electric buses crisscross intersections, sometimes with roads coming from five or six directions.  A final tunnel and one impressive bridge brought us into the heart of Budapest.  Wow, I had no idea this was such a tourist haven.  Narrow streets, lots of people, and tons of restaurants and shops.  

Buda to Pest

This is odd

Too many rough roads

To top it off, we learned that our good friends from home, Reka and her kids, Katia and Martin, just happened to be here in Hungary on vacation, and they'd be able to visit us tomorrow!  Great news and something to truly look forward to on our rest day.