Vienna-Bratislava-Komarom-Budapest (Days Twenty-Four to Twenty-Seven)

Vienna to Bratislava (Tuesday 4 August 2015)

With the 10km convoy ride out of Vienna completed, Trond decided to test out his legs. After a short pretence of chasing him I eased back on the throttle and rode (at a more comfortable pace) with Liz for the day.

No orange tape markers in use today but I had a spare one (purloined as a memento) in my pannier just in case 😀 i.e carrying it for when we get lost😀

 

 
As it was a short ride for the day we had our second (main) lunch in a shaded promenade/park – after we had checked into our “Botel”

 

We (Bill, Matt and myself) walked up the hill to have a look at the Bratislava castle and take in the view. Whilst the castle has a long distinguished history. It is fairly new in comparative terms in regards to the restoration work and collection of artifacts. Nonetheless it provided some photographic fare.

    
  
As it was a riding day we had a nice group dinner on the boat – good food but Vilma’s is better😀

 

Bratislava to Komarom (Wednesday 5 August 2015)

Started the day with another 10km convoy (i.e. with the whole group led by Gergö as per usual). Then Trond and myself rode together. The path took us along embankment of a very large section of the river which had been dammed (and possibly also damned). A good surface and a day where we must have been blessed by the Irish (i.e. a good tailwind) meant that we all “rode like rock stars” to paraphrase Rinda. Trond say that there’s no such thing as a tailwind just stronger legs (however headwinds are real😀).  A few of us set PBs for our fastest 40km – a standard benchmark that the Garmin bike GPS measures.

Most of the day’s ride was in Slovakia i.e before crossing into Hungary just before camp.  Trond and myself took a short unintentional off-route detour but fortunately made the correct choice as to when to rejoin the route  with our path intersecting with the intersection (fancy that intersecting with an intersection) where the lunch van was. Unbeknown to us the lunch van had relocated from its intended location due to construction works – if it had not done so we would have missed it. Not a disaster but an unnecessary inconvenience avoided 😀.
The post lunch 40km was in the category of the sooner we finish this the better i.e. It was hot and not particularly scenic (though not unattractive) still kept up a better pace than I would have 3 weeks earlier.

We crossed into Hungary just before the campsite. Almost goes with out saying that there was barely any indication of the change of country except things such as website addresses on advertising hoardings.

 

 

As you may have noticed, I’ve been posting less scenic shots taken during the ride and many of those I have posted have been taken whilst on the bike (less composed). As one of the readers of this blog queried, am I becoming  blasé about the scenery. To some extent early on everything is new, different and interesting and then after a while not every castle on a hill or picturesque village church requires a photograph 😀. The scenery is also changing – with the highlights perhaps occurring more in pockets than extended dramatic vistas.

Of course the subjective assessment of the attractiveness of the scenery is dependent on the weather  (temperature, wind, precipitation); gradient (steepness of inclines), road/path surface (smoothness/roughness); as well as how long one has been riding and resulting tiredness etc. For example: In the heat of the midday sun well into a long ride the vista is not as enticing as in the cool of the morning. But also the harshness of the midday light does detract from the photogrhic quality of whatever is on offer.

 

Komarom to Budapest (Thursday 6 August 2015

With weather reports of an impending hot day Liz, Trond and myself rode at a steady undemanding pace.

Though the day’s ride was not totally bereft of good surfaces to ride on the greater range in the quality (at the rougher end) did highlight how spoilt we had been in recent weeks.

Riding through the various villages/towns I was struck by the electrical wires /phone cross-crossing the streets. Perhaps nothing unusual in many places but it was a stark contrast to many of the rural villages we had ridden through in France, Germany and Austria – though I hadn’t been aware of their absence at the time.

 
With 125kms to cover on a hot day we did not avail ourselves of the sightseeing options along the way except at Szentendre where I took a short meander whilst waiting for the group convoy into Budapest (required due to complexity of making one’s way into a big city by bicycle).

  
  

On the convoy ride in Özgür was discussing with Ruth issues of grammar and I had to declare the breadth and depth of my ignorance on that topic when they requested my input. Not the first time that an ESL speaker has known more about English grammar than myself.

In the spirit of mixing up our cultural experiences tonight we went immersed (up close to a big screen) ourselves in Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation.

Budapest Rest Day

We are building up a wealth of international experience in laundromats. The one closest to our hotel was part of a chain operating under the name of “Bubbles” 😀

Conceding that with a grand city like Budapest you can’t begin to do justice to it in a day, combined with only having time to get a taste of the place and it being a hot day we opted for a “hop on and off” bus tour – which nicely filled in the afternoon.

 

Had a lovely evening meal and conversation on the riverfront with Jim and Barb, along with Bill, Matt, and Trond. A good way to say farewell to the Danube.