9 - 14 September 2019

Bratislava to Harčaš (9 September 2019, 114.4 km, 71.1 mi)

Overnight, wild rainstorms with thunder and lightning dumped lots of rain on Bratislava. We were glad to be sleeping indoors. Although the rain ended by the time we got rolling in the morning, the roads and trails were still wet, and every small depression in the asphalt had turned into a little lake. Fortunately, our bike ride out of Bratislava’s old town went smoothly. Riding downhill on the cobblestones to reach the Danube River was not nearly as challenging as the uphill ride had been.

On our way out of the city, we were struck by the massive amount of new development under way. It was reminiscent of London, because there were construction cranes everywhere we looked. Bratislava seems to be booming, and living up to its reputation as one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.

Once we had left Vienna, the number of other touring cyclists we saw on EuroVelo 6 plummeted. Now, after leaving Bratislava, we only saw one pair of touring cyclists going the other way for the entire day. We’re not sure what the main driver is, but it’s probably a combination of having passed Vienna (where many cyclists end their trips from Germany), plus the fact that we are now well into September (and August is the big vacation month in Europe). Whatever the reasons, we now have the bicycle route pretty much to ourselves.

We were thrilled to have a strong tailwind and asphalt paving for the first 70 km of the ride, and flew along at 25-30 km/hr. It’s been a long time since we’ve been blessed with a tailwind, so we really appreciated it. And we did our best to take advantage of the extra boost in speed.

But after 70 km, the trail conditions changed quickly. The asphalt paving disappeared, and we found ourselves slogging through deep, wet gravel. Apparently this section of the route is under construction, because every so often we were greeted with cheery signs saying, “We do it for you! Thank you for your patience.” At first we thought the signs were fun. But after a while we realized that they inevitably foreshadowed a deterioration in the road surface. After that, the signs lost some of their appeal.

Around 90 km into the ride we passed a campground that looked nice. But it was out in the middle of nowhere. We had been cycling so fast for the first 70 km that it was still a little bit early in the day, and we were tempted by the possibility of making it to a town where we could buy groceries for dinner. So, we decided to keep going.

When we reached the town of Komárno, we were getting tired. The trail surface was still covered by deep, loose gravel that was slippery, with lots of puddles. We had to keep our concentration up, and progress had been slow. We were ready to find the campground in town and stop for the night.

But Komárno turned out to be a less-than-friendly town. We had a string of unpleasant experiences, including a motorist who laid on his horn and made a rude hand gesture for no reason (we weren’t even on the road, we were riding on the sidewalk). When we reached the campground, it was in a rundown neighborhood that felt a little bit unsafe. And we couldn’t even find the entrance. So, we kept going.

By this time we had traveled over 100 km, the longest distance we’ve covered in a single day since our trip across America last year.

We biked for another few kilometers outside of town, and found a nice, beautiful, quiet place to camp on the banks of the Danube River. We could scarcely have hoped for a more lovely place to spend the night. It was getting late, so we quickly pitched our tent, then ate our dinner on the shore of the river in the fading light of a gorgeous sunset.

Harčaš, Slovakia to Dömös, Hungary (10 September 2019, 68.5 km, 42.6 mi)

We didn’t jump out of bed in the morning because it was pretty nippy, and it had seemed like a short night after yesterday’s long ride. So we rested a bit and took our time getting back on the road.

Once on the road, we almost immediately reached the end of the construction zone, and found ourselves back on pavement. Yea! The only problem was that at every road crossing - and there were a surprisingly large number of them - there were the remnants of barriers that had been put up to keep cars off the levees, that were later removed. The leftover pieces of the barriers were made of twisted metal plates, studded with sharp points and exposed bolts that could easily rip through a bicycle tire. We had to keep our eyes out for these land mines, to avoid shredding our Schwalbes.

The approach to the Hungarian border was impressive. The Esztergom Basilica, the most important Catholic church in Hungary, sits high on a bluff overlooking the Danube. It’s very photogenic, especially when viewed from the Slovakian side of the river. We stopped multiple times to soak up the view.

As you might expect, there were no signs welcoming us to Hungary after crossing the bridge. Hungary is the last country we will pass through that is part of the European Schengen visa zone, where the borders have essentially been erased from a traveler’s perspective. The main indicator that we were in a new country was that the Hungarian words on the signs were intimidatingly complicated. The Hungarian language has very different roots than most other European languages, and is more similar to Finnish and Estonian than to its Slavic neighbors.

But pretty soon the bike path ended, and we had to bike on a busy road with no shoulder for the remaining 12 km. It was stressful. The asphalt on the edge of the road was all broken up and crumbling away, making the ride without a shoulder even more treacherous. We were very happy to finally arrive at the campground in Dömös. 

The receptionist at the campground told us we were the first Americans to stay there this year. She also said that this was the last week they were open for the season. I guess they probably won’t have any more Americans this year. It also suggests other campgrounds might be closing for the season. We might have to do more wild camping, or stay in some guest houses down the road.

Dömös to Budapest (11 September 2019, 56.4 km, 35 mi)

Dömös lies within a big bend in the Danube, where the river pushes through a low ridge at the far northwestern edge of the Carpathian Mountains, then spills out onto the Great Hungarian Plain on its way to Budapest. For the first 22 km we rode through an ever widening valley, bordered by the distant ridges of the Carpathians.

There aren’t a lot of options for which roads you can take along this part of the route, so we continued to ride on the main state road, mostly without a shoulder. The traffic was pretty heavy, and moving really fast. Like yesterday, the edge of the road was still in bad shape in many places, making for another stressful ride. After 22 km, we were glad to finally get back on side roads that had fewer cars.

But a lot of the side roads and paths had pretty rough surfaces as well, giving us flashbacks to the rocky trails in Portugal. There was a stretch of “paved” road that was so bumpy, cracked and potholed that at times we actually missed riding on the gravel levees. 

The gravel paths also made for exciting riding. They were like Swiss cheese, with potholes the size of inflatable kids’ pools. They were filled with muddy water from multiple days of recent rain, so you couldn’t tell if they were a few inches or a couple feet deep. It took a lot of concentration to wind our way between all the potholes, and avoid breaking a spoke or otherwise damaging our gear.

After about 30 km, the route improved dramatically and we spent more time on paths or lightly-used roads that were close to the Danube, which was very pleasant. We stopped for lunch on a bench in a playground, facing the river. The trees were full of birds, which kept us entertained.

The last push into Budapest included quite a bit of riding on urban bike paths. And the view across the Danube, from Buda on one side of the river to Pest on the other, was spectacular. It’s easy to understand why Budapest is called the Pearl of the Danube.

When we reached the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, that was pretty much it for riding our bikes. The bridge’s pedestrian/cycle way was crowded with tourists taking photos and selfies, making any forward progress difficult. When we got to the other side, we walked our bikes most of the way to our apartment, because we were on the sidewalks. There was just one short stretch of bike lane on one of the roads.

The apartment was brand new, very comfortable, and in great condition. The building was so new that the lobby and some other common areas were still under construction. It looked like the building owners were offering short-term rentals on the apartments until the building is finished, and the units are all rented to longer term tenants. But, like many places in Europe, the air conditioning was very weak, and not likely to be particularly useful. Fortunately, our windows faced a courtyard which was pretty quiet, so we could let in some fresh air. We also had trouble with the wifi. In the apartment, the signal was pretty weak - probably because the walls and door were so thick and soundproofed. The soundproofing was a good thing, so overall we were happy. Best of all, there was plenty of room for drying out the tent, which got really wet last night at the campground.

For dinner, we went to a place PedalingGuy had been to before, on a previous trip to Budapest. They serve gigantic, made-to-order burritos (Chipotle style). It was a huge treat to add a little variety to our diet with the burritos. We have enjoyed the food in Europe but miss ethic variety, which has been limited along most of our route (except for the ubiquitous döner kabob places). We were stuffed after finishing dinner, and headed back to the apartment to rest and think about our plan for visiting the city’s sights over the next few days.

Budapest Layover (12-14 September 2019)

We spent the next three days exploring the dynamic and fascinating city of Budapest. It’s a much more “lived in” city than the old towns of Vienna or Bratislava. There isn’t a big, medieval or renaissance cluster of buildings. Instead, the historical and cultural landmarks are sprinkled throughout the modern city.

We took a bus tour to get oriented, and a walking tour to learn more about the area around the amazing Parliament Building. The history of Budapest is a bit of a roller coaster ride. The city has seen many changes, from being occupied by the Romans, to the Magyars (nomads from western Siberia), to the Ottomans, to the Hapsburgs, a brief period of independence, then Soviet dominance (the Warsaw Pact), and most recently independence with membership in the EU. It was the nomadic Magyars first established Hungary as its own, distinct nation, and who are still revered as the country’s founding fathers. Today, Hungarians seem very proud of their current self-rule, and the freedoms it provides.

Here is something you might not know: Budapest has become a center of dentistry in Europe. People travel here to get relatively inexpensive, but high-quality work done on their teeth. Not wishing to miss such a great opportunity, we got our teeth cleaned. No kidding. We took a couple hours to have a hygienist give our teeth a good scrubbing, since we were overdue.

Other than the inside of a dental office, here are a few of the other sights we saw during our visit.

In the evening we took a river cruise on the Danube to see the city’s lights at night. Most of Budapest’s monumental buildings are found along the waterfront, and they do their best to light them up for full effect.

We stayed in the Pest part of the city, which is east of the Danube and pretty flat. Buda to the west, on the other hand, is incredibly hilly. We hiked up and down the ridges of Buda to visit some of the older parts of the city.

On our last day in Budapest, we headed over to the famous Central Market Hall. In the middle of the day the hall was packed with throngs of people. We strolled among the market stalls, enjoying the sensory explosion of colors, smells and sounds emanating from every corner of the place.

Then we headed up to 2nd floor for lunch. It was a madhouse. The area with the food stalls was not nearly big enough to accommodate all of the people who were there. We managed to get a couple of plates of lángos, the Hungarian specialty of deep-fried bread, topped with mushrooms, ham, cheese and tomatoes. The food was delicious, but when we were done, we were glad to get outside and away from the crush of people inside the hall.

We spent our final evening in Budapest on bike-related tasks, like re-wrapping PedalingGuy’s handlebar tape. The procedure went really well, and we realized we should have done it long ago, when he first had trouble with his tape in Portugal.

But first we ended up having to change his front tire tube, which had gone flat. Just like the last time, we couldn’t find a thorn or spike. But the hole looked like an abrasion, and might have been caused by a stone getting into one of the many holes that have opened in the outer tire’s surface from all the wear and tear. We just need these tires to make it through one more month of cycling. We’ve got replacements waiting for us after we reach the Black Sea.

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