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.

The Last Fifteen Feet

Bratislava to Komarno, Slovakia — 68.5 mi, 13.0 mph, 880 ft

Finally, a 100+ kilometer day. It was a good day for it too — exceptionally flat and 90% on bike paths along the Danube. This meant we rarely had to think about cars nor worry about left or right turns, which made my job pretty easy. Getting through big cities is always a bit of a challenge around here, we’re in the road for a while, then on a sidewalk, sometimes we cross traffic to make a left-hand turn, other times we pretend to be pedestrians and use the crosswalks.

Outskirts of Bratislava

By a bit before noon, we had almost reached our halfway point and found a nice little restaurant next to some little log rental cabins — kind of like a KOA. The heatwave of the last couple of days had thankfully broken late yesterday, so we were definitely enjoying the cooler weather. And the skies were blue and the path was smooth. What’s not to like?

Smooth, quiet pavement

At our lunch stop I had an awesome bean soup with pork “knuckle”. It was awesome, at least what I managed to eat after everyone else had a “taste” (Kylie!)

My bean soup

After lunch, we continued along the river, although, the smooth asphalt became harder-to-negotiate gravel. One 100 meter section, freshly dug up then compacted dirt, proved particularly problematic. Kylie and I had just made it across and were watching Meg and Dex take their turn. They were doing great until the last fifteen feet — the front tire washed out to the left, Meg recovered, then washed out to right, overcorrected and... toppled… over … and into a ditch. Dex managed to leap clear as the bike rolled over and land in the ditch, but Meg’s foot wouldn’t come out and she landed on her head and shoulder. Kylie and I ran over to lift up the bike. Meg was dirty but thankfully was not hurt.

Doing it...

...almost there...

...into the ditch!

No worse for wear

At 4:45, with three miles to go, we suddenly ran into a chain-link fence across the bike path. A new bridge was being built and there was no way around. Or, at least no way unless we waded through bushes, crossed a ditch and then climbed a huge embankment to cross the partially finished ramp to the bridge. It’s hard to backtrack, but we had no choice. Back we went until we could cut over to a paved road and make our way into town and down some side streets to our hotel. Dex informed us that we had done a little over 550 miles since Berlin. We’re slow, but it adds up.

Looking for an alternate route

Kormarno

It's all Greek to me

The biggest beans I've ever seen!

A Restful Rest Day

Bratislava, Slovakia

Hello, it's Dex again.  Today I woke up later than I have been for the last few weeks, I slept all the way until 7:30!  We had breakfast at the house, rolls and hot chocolate that Mom had picked up at the market.  Kylie and I had also been able to convince Dad to get a free coloring app on his phone that we had fun playing with, while Mom and Dad planned the day.

About 9:30, we decided to go sightseeing.  We went down the steep hill from our house (89 steps) and walked to the old part of town -- it was hot and humid.  On the way, we saw an EU building with all the flags.  We had fun trying to remember which were which.  Farther down the road, we saw the presidential palace and cooled off in a big fountain.  We looked through some souvenir shops and picked out a deck of Bratislava cards for our collection.  It was weird that the queens are Ds and the jacks are B's.   Cool, but hard to get used to.

How many do you know?

The Presidential Palace

After all the work of picking out the cards, we were hungry, so went to a restaurant called the Green Budda.  Luckily, Dad was feeling good enough to order and eat full meals now.  Kylie and I had so-so Tom Kha Gai, but it was way too sweet.  Dad and Mom, however, had good meals.  While we ate we played cards and discussed options for the rest of the day. We settled on swimming and a movie. [Dad’s note: Dex confided in me that he was not having much fun on this trip. He had liked the fact that for our last two major bike tours we had clear destinations -- in Europe, Björn and Annica’s House in Sweden (plus Axel’s and Marion’s in Germany) and in the US, our house. “This time, we’re just going to Belgrade. What’s in Belgrade? Nothing. There’s no point.” And, of course, we all now have been in Europe three times in four years, so the castles, churches, and small quaint towns are "not as much fun."]

After a long hot walk back home, we were completely ready to jump in the pool, just up the hill from our place.  Unfortunately, when we got there, we found a sign that said it wouldn't open until July 1 (thank you Google translate).  Mom pulled out her phone and found the next closest pool.  Sadly, the bus we needed only ran every 20 minutes, and we just missed it.  By the time we referred to the second bus and found the pool, it was an hour later.  We were hot and tired and ready for the pool.  Looking through the gates, it looked like a dreamland to Kylie and me -- blue water, slides, and lots of kids laughing and playing.  Kylie and I could hardly contain our excitement.  We found a spot to drop our stuff, then ran into the water.  Kylie and I made up some games in the kiddie pool that was only about a foot deep, and really hard to see in, I wonder why?  It was basically, tag, except neither person could open their eyes above water.  And, since the pool was big, about 20 ft by 20 ft. it was hard to find the other person (even with the occasional peek above water.)  We also played on the slides and made a competition of seeing who could shoot the furthest from the slide.  After about an hour and a half, Kylie and I were tired, cool, and happy.

Getting bus tickets

Apparently, Mom and Dad had been doing some research and found a theater playing Men in Black (in English) at 6:00.  So, if we got on the right bus, we would get there in time.  When we got the theater, we ordered a snack of nachos and popcorn (health food) before settling into our assigned seats.  It was immediately clear that it was not like movies at home.  There were no ads on the screen, just some old-timey music in the background.  The movie advertisements, started when the movie was supposed to, but only lasted about 10 minutes.  During the movie, we all laughed a lot and I thought it was very good.  We discussed it afterward on the walk to the bus stop.  After fifteen minutes of waiting, we decided to walk to another bus stop.  Since Mom was the only one who had a phone,  and it was at a measly 7%, we were getting concerned about getting back home.  Fortunately, it worked out.  At around 9:30, we returned home.   We were all tired, so Dad picked up a couple pizzas that we had for dinner.  I think this was the best rest day so far this trip.

Pets2: The movie we wanted see but it was dubbed into Slovakian

Snack time!

Cool mural

The Magic Watering Hole

Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia -- 45.2 mi, 11.2 mph, 1250 ft

Hi, it's Kylie with the blog today.  We left our apartment in Vienna this morning around 9:00 after Dad had greased the chains and pumped the tires.  I proudly wore my new stylish back and yellow helmet, and Dad and I enjoyed the smooth ride now that our warped rear wheel was fixed.

The ride through the city was nice and easy since there were designated bike paths, and it was still too early to be hot.  We eventually got onto a bike path next to the highway, which was loud but kept us away from the cars.  At one point, though, Dad turned through an opening in a cement wall, and I yelled since I couldn't see the opening and Dad is always in my way!

Leaving Vienna

Next to the highway

Big cement wall

We continued biking until some of us got hungry (we hadn't eaten breakfast).  We spotted a Billa supermarket next to the airport, so we bought food and sat in the little bit of shade we could find.

Lunch stop supermarket

Shade

When we got back onto the bikes 40 minutes later, it was really getting hot (over 90F), and the water in our Camelbacks was not very refreshing, blah!  Soon after, a sidewind picked up, which slowed us down and made it harder to ride.  The heat was really getting to me as we rode through some wheat fields on a rough dirt path.  Then, in the middle of these fields, we came to a small town.  We were super excited to see an old public water basin in the middle of town.  We stopped and splashed our faces and clothes.  We even dunked our heads and refilled our Camelbacks with cold, spring, water.  Ahh.  I call it the magic water hole because it revived us and lifted our spirits until we got to Bratislava.

The Magic Watering Hole

Unfortunately, we had lots of trouble finding our AirB&B house for the night.  And, to make it worse, we were on a very steep hill but couldn't find the address.  We eventually found it but had to climb to the top of the hill then backtrack on another narrow road.  An hour later the host came and we got inside. Dex was not very happy. We all washed up and were grateful to be cool and indoors.  For dinner, we went to the closest dining option we could find, a pizza parlor just up the hill that was exactly what we needed after a hot day of riding.

Up the hill to dinner

Bratislava Castle viewed from our street