Flat and Rough

Budapest to Dunafoldvar, Hungary — 58.0 mi, 13.2 mph, 880 ft

What we got to experience today, heading south out of Budapest, was not a great endorsement for biking in Hungary. In many ways, it was very much like biking in the US except there were some dedicated bike paths, just not many. The asphalt paving is by far the worst we’ve encountered, though I’m not sure what Croatia and Serbia have in store. When we’re on the road, there’s no line, no shoulder, and plenty of cracks, potholes, bulges, and ripples. I realized later that I have no pictures that show the miserable state of the roads. It turns out, not surprisingly, that I am rarely enticed into letting go of the handlebars with one hand, grabbing my camera, turning it on, and snapping a few pictures while riding. Nor does stopping on these stretches seem like a great idea. 

In any case, there was lots of banging around, so stopping to reconnect the panniers was a regular occurrence. On the plus side, it was really, really flat. Although we rarely saw the Danube, it was not far away, sometimes just beyond a stand of trees or behind a row of houses.

For lunch, we had a chance to try a nondescript little restaurant in the middle of a small town. We took advantage of the camera feature on Google translate to get some idea of what was on the posted menu.  We settled on two bowls of goulash and some sort of bratwurst. The goulash was good, thick, fatty pieces of beef, beans, potatoes, and carrots with a few thick slices of hard crust white bread. The heat, however kept our appetites at bay. Instead, we raided the cooler for drinks.

By 2:30, we were in Dunafoldvar. We ordered drinks and amazing gelato before slouching into some chairs outside. It was less than 90F today, but a layer of salt still coated our bodies (Meg’s and mine). We were in the second half of our Oh Heck tournament. This is the part where you bid on the number of tricks you think you’ll take before you know the trump suit. For some reason, the kids take this game much more seriously than the others and there is much anguish when things go unexpectedly, which is generally the case.

We also decided to abandon our family book, which, in this case, is a book on tape. It is a murder mystery set in communist Eastern Europe in the years after the war. We still have three hours left and debated taking turns listening to it just so we could finish the damn thing! In the end, we decided It was a little too dark and depressing for our tastes. The new book (Incarceron) is a fantasy featuring an enormous prison so large it encompasses metal forests and dilapidated cities. Much more uplifting, I’m sure.