Things rarely go as planned.
Koszeg to Sopron
A warm, damp morning greeted us today as we set out for Balf and the thermal baths. The plan was to go to Balf today and take a rest day tomorrow and enjoy the healing waters. Things started out fine as we rode through farmland interspersed with forest and naure preseves. In the small village of Sopronhorpacs we decided to have lunch in a small park at the crossroads of town. After lunch the heat was on and and the wind was a bit pesty as we made our way towards Balf. Just befoe Rojtokmuzsaj John stopped to adust his gears and along came Richard from the Netherlands. He started his trip in Dbrovnak and is heading home. We chatted about bike adventures, exchanged contact info and then parted ways. Maybe we will cacth up with him when we reach the Netherlands. We cruised on stopping several times in what shade we could find to keep filling up on water. When we reached Balf we checked out the camping place and didn't think we could spend a whole day in this small village, and !
the map showed thermal baths and camping in Sopron only 8 km's away, so we headed there. Sopron is a much bigger town and we had wanted to miss it but we figured hey we can navigate it. Hah. After getting lost trying to find the info center we chanced upon Thomas who drew us a map of how to get to the campground about 5 km's out of town. Even though there was constuction blocking his route, we managed to find our way to the cmpground only to find it closed. Of course it was up a hill. We had spotted a Gasthaus on the way up and figured we would book in there for 2 nights. Instead John spotted a zimmer so we booked in there instead. We were told that there were a couple of mormom missionaries from Alaska staying there also and just before we were going to eat they stopped by and invited us over for dinner. We spent a wonderful evening exchanging travel stories with Jamie and Janelle.
Kms 68.6
Time 4:45:19
Avg 14.4
Max 46.1
Total 653.7
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
21 May 2007
We said our final farewell to Eva and her husband, ate our breakfast on their porch and then headed out of Oriszentpeter yet again. After the hill out of town, it was pretty smooth sailing for quite a few kms through farm fields and forest.
After riding for a while without much of a break, John was getting hungry, so we detoured into Kormend and happened upon a Konditerei (quickly becoming our favorite German word - cake shop) where we enjoyed 3 pieces of delicious bakery and a cappacino. From there we continued north taking many small breaks but not really an official lunch break. We stopped in Jak and looked at a large church with some beautiful stonework on the doorway.
We could see the much higher hills of Austria on our left and John kept singing the "Sound of Music". We found ourselves confused as we followed the bike route to Narda at one point and were suddenly facing those big hills of Austria. We knew that going in that direction couldn't be correct. We used our map to ask a Hungarian gentleman on a bike and he pointed us to the right. We started down that road which soon became very narrow and eventually became a gravel path through a small gorge. Needless to say, at this point we weren't sure where were. We stopped for a snack and could hear the hum of insects filling the air. After about 2 kms we came to a paved road, took another right and we on our way to Narda.
The heat and sun were taking their toll on us at this point. We stopped at a bar in Narda to buy some potato chips. The joint was hoppin' for a Monday afternoon. We spoke with one character in German as well as we could and would have liked to stay for a beer and more merriment, but a beer would have put an end to our riding for the day, so we pressed on.
We were really doggin' by the time we arrived in Bozsk, the town with the first camping opportunity of the day according to our map. We probably would have spent the night there if we would have seen a sign for a campground, but we didn't and we didn't have the energy to look on. We both felt that we could make the 13 kms to Koszeg for the next campground. So after a snack and some cold water from the town well pump (we've finally caught on that just about every town has a blue pump with nice, cold water somewhere - you just have to spot it) we climbed the hill out of town and had to stop at the top because Marie had a flat rear tire. John fixed it quickly in the heat and found a thumbtack stuck in it. Bad timing since we were both tired and wanted to get the last 13 kms done with.
Shortly afterwards we stopped at a site with some Roman ruins. It was a section of the aqueduct they built in 41 A.D. It was interesting to read about the engineering it took for this project. There were some hills in this last stretch that seemed to revive both of us a bit. The flat stretches seem to tread heavily on us.
As we got into Koszeg we searched for the campground sign but didn't see one. We asked a man on the street in German and he said there wasn't one in town. We asked about the visitor info center and he directed us to the city center. It was now 4:45 and we figured it was already closed, but it was our only thought at the time. As we were riding through the town square John spotted a bike shop and said we should ask them if they knew about camping. The sales guy didn't but he asked the guy in the back, he came out with a bike and gave us an escort to the campground which was only about .5 kms from the bike shop. What service!
The campground was behind a penzio, which is sort of like a hotel. They have many different room rental types here such as zimmers, penzios and apartments. We don't really know the difference yet, but I'm sure that by the end of the trip we will have experienced them all.
We set up and showered. At one of the previous campgrounds we saw that they had a clothes spinner. We figured this would be perfect for us since we usually wear our riding clothes into the shower, soap them up, rinse and wring them and then hang them from the bikes to dry if the sun is still out. There was a wringer here and it worked great. The clothes were dry in no time. We could cook here in their small kitchen, so our plan was to walk back into town and get some chicken to add to our noodles. Well, unless you are at a fairly large supermarket, salami is really your only meat choice. The store closest to the campground was fairly small, so we would again enjoy Hungary's official meat for dinner.
After dinner we walked back into town to have a look at this classic European town. There was a large square with a very tall church on one end. All of the buildings were attached to each other and the little, narrow lanes were textbook Europe.
Kms 95.85
Time 5:23:00
Avg 17.2
Odometer 585
After riding for a while without much of a break, John was getting hungry, so we detoured into Kormend and happened upon a Konditerei (quickly becoming our favorite German word - cake shop) where we enjoyed 3 pieces of delicious bakery and a cappacino. From there we continued north taking many small breaks but not really an official lunch break. We stopped in Jak and looked at a large church with some beautiful stonework on the doorway.
We could see the much higher hills of Austria on our left and John kept singing the "Sound of Music". We found ourselves confused as we followed the bike route to Narda at one point and were suddenly facing those big hills of Austria. We knew that going in that direction couldn't be correct. We used our map to ask a Hungarian gentleman on a bike and he pointed us to the right. We started down that road which soon became very narrow and eventually became a gravel path through a small gorge. Needless to say, at this point we weren't sure where were. We stopped for a snack and could hear the hum of insects filling the air. After about 2 kms we came to a paved road, took another right and we on our way to Narda.
The heat and sun were taking their toll on us at this point. We stopped at a bar in Narda to buy some potato chips. The joint was hoppin' for a Monday afternoon. We spoke with one character in German as well as we could and would have liked to stay for a beer and more merriment, but a beer would have put an end to our riding for the day, so we pressed on.
We were really doggin' by the time we arrived in Bozsk, the town with the first camping opportunity of the day according to our map. We probably would have spent the night there if we would have seen a sign for a campground, but we didn't and we didn't have the energy to look on. We both felt that we could make the 13 kms to Koszeg for the next campground. So after a snack and some cold water from the town well pump (we've finally caught on that just about every town has a blue pump with nice, cold water somewhere - you just have to spot it) we climbed the hill out of town and had to stop at the top because Marie had a flat rear tire. John fixed it quickly in the heat and found a thumbtack stuck in it. Bad timing since we were both tired and wanted to get the last 13 kms done with.
Shortly afterwards we stopped at a site with some Roman ruins. It was a section of the aqueduct they built in 41 A.D. It was interesting to read about the engineering it took for this project. There were some hills in this last stretch that seemed to revive both of us a bit. The flat stretches seem to tread heavily on us.
As we got into Koszeg we searched for the campground sign but didn't see one. We asked a man on the street in German and he said there wasn't one in town. We asked about the visitor info center and he directed us to the city center. It was now 4:45 and we figured it was already closed, but it was our only thought at the time. As we were riding through the town square John spotted a bike shop and said we should ask them if they knew about camping. The sales guy didn't but he asked the guy in the back, he came out with a bike and gave us an escort to the campground which was only about .5 kms from the bike shop. What service!
The campground was behind a penzio, which is sort of like a hotel. They have many different room rental types here such as zimmers, penzios and apartments. We don't really know the difference yet, but I'm sure that by the end of the trip we will have experienced them all.
We set up and showered. At one of the previous campgrounds we saw that they had a clothes spinner. We figured this would be perfect for us since we usually wear our riding clothes into the shower, soap them up, rinse and wring them and then hang them from the bikes to dry if the sun is still out. There was a wringer here and it worked great. The clothes were dry in no time. We could cook here in their small kitchen, so our plan was to walk back into town and get some chicken to add to our noodles. Well, unless you are at a fairly large supermarket, salami is really your only meat choice. The store closest to the campground was fairly small, so we would again enjoy Hungary's official meat for dinner.
After dinner we walked back into town to have a look at this classic European town. There was a large square with a very tall church on one end. All of the buildings were attached to each other and the little, narrow lanes were textbook Europe.
Kms 95.85
Time 5:23:00
Avg 17.2
Odometer 585
Sunday, May 20, 2007
20 May 2007
There seems to be a pattern starting with some light rain in the wee early
morning hours then clearing by 8:00am. We took full advantage of the buffet breakfast at the campground, along with stocking up for later in the day since most places close early or are not open on Sunday. By the time we got rolling the sun was out. Our route passed through many small villages with fantastic views of the country side. We could see the hills of Slovenia off to the left but no road to get there. So why Slovenia? Well, we met a couple from there in New Zealand and we didn't have the slightest idea of where it was until we looked it up when we got home. So for Jurnai and Laura's sake, we had to pay a visit to your country since we were so close. Besides how many of you can say you have been there. So our plan was to get to the village of Oriszentpeter and drop our gear at the campground then ride a loop through Slovenia back to camp. All well and good except that there was no campground anymore. Our conversation with the three men digging in the cemetery (none s!
poke english) netted us a name of a possible place at a woman's house (we later found out) that might provide camping. The three stooges plus 2 bewildered Americans. We stopped at the church in the village and scouted out a place to camp upon return of our now expected loaded tour through Slovenia. After filling our water bottles from the pump at the church, we flagged down a woman riding by on her bicycle. She spoke English and invited us to camp in her backyard. So we dropped our gear there and headed out. Well it looked like we would have to backtrack 6 km's to get to the road into Slovenia so John thought he scoped out a small road that would be a short cut. As it turned out the road was gravel and passd through a forested area and came out to what we thought was where we wanted to be. We met a couple more people out cycling and they showed us that John had miscalculated. We were now north of Oriszentpeter by 5 km's and would have to go back through Oriszentpeter and do!
the back tracking. A mere 12 km's of extra riding. We were also told
that the reentry point into Hungary would not be open and that we would have to come back the way we came. Oh well, we went into Slovenia 5 km's to Salovic, had some ice cream and came back out. Back at Eva Koszegi's we freshened up, had some tea with real honey from the neighbor, some cookies and chatted the night away. Eva's email has the word angel in it and that she surely is.
Kms 83.97
Time 4:55:47
Avg 17.0
Max 46.4
Odo 489.5
morning hours then clearing by 8:00am. We took full advantage of the buffet breakfast at the campground, along with stocking up for later in the day since most places close early or are not open on Sunday. By the time we got rolling the sun was out. Our route passed through many small villages with fantastic views of the country side. We could see the hills of Slovenia off to the left but no road to get there. So why Slovenia? Well, we met a couple from there in New Zealand and we didn't have the slightest idea of where it was until we looked it up when we got home. So for Jurnai and Laura's sake, we had to pay a visit to your country since we were so close. Besides how many of you can say you have been there. So our plan was to get to the village of Oriszentpeter and drop our gear at the campground then ride a loop through Slovenia back to camp. All well and good except that there was no campground anymore. Our conversation with the three men digging in the cemetery (none s!
poke english) netted us a name of a possible place at a woman's house (we later found out) that might provide camping. The three stooges plus 2 bewildered Americans. We stopped at the church in the village and scouted out a place to camp upon return of our now expected loaded tour through Slovenia. After filling our water bottles from the pump at the church, we flagged down a woman riding by on her bicycle. She spoke English and invited us to camp in her backyard. So we dropped our gear there and headed out. Well it looked like we would have to backtrack 6 km's to get to the road into Slovenia so John thought he scoped out a small road that would be a short cut. As it turned out the road was gravel and passd through a forested area and came out to what we thought was where we wanted to be. We met a couple more people out cycling and they showed us that John had miscalculated. We were now north of Oriszentpeter by 5 km's and would have to go back through Oriszentpeter and do!
the back tracking. A mere 12 km's of extra riding. We were also told
that the reentry point into Hungary would not be open and that we would have to come back the way we came. Oh well, we went into Slovenia 5 km's to Salovic, had some ice cream and came back out. Back at Eva Koszegi's we freshened up, had some tea with real honey from the neighbor, some cookies and chatted the night away. Eva's email has the word angel in it and that she surely is.
Kms 83.97
Time 4:55:47
Avg 17.0
Max 46.4
Odo 489.5
Saturday, May 19, 2007
19 May 2007
The rain began at about 6:00 A.M. It was light and luckily ended by about 7:30. We packed up under cloudy skies and rode only about 2 kms before stopping at a small grocery store for some breakfast. We had 2 delicious pastries, chocolate milk, bananas, yogurt and strawberries while sitting on the curb.
Just a few quick kms up the road we arrived in Keszthely, a fairly big town. We were looking for hwy. 75 but weren't really sure where to find it. We were following the signs to the towns we wanted to head toward, but then suddenly hit a one-way street, had to turn around and then weren't sure where to go. We headed toward the city center and found the tourist info office hidden in a pedestrian mall. The woman there spoke very little English, but she gave us a map of the town and pointed us in the direction we told her we wanted to go.
Well, hindsight tells us that we must not have been specific enough when we told her where we wanted to go because the direction she sent us was wrong. Eventually, after a bit of a "scene" made by John on the side of the road, he logically figured out which way he thought we should be going, we backtracked about a half a km and found hwy. 75.
As all this drama unfolded, the sky began to clear a bit and it was warming up nicely. It was now 10:30. We had left camp at 8:45 and had covered only 10 kms in that hour and 45 minutes. I guess that's the price you have to pay for traveling in unfamiliar territory.
We rode through rolling hills and farmland with poppies, lavender and daisies blooming all over. By noon we were already hungry again and stopped for some groceries in Pacsa. We sat on a bench by a fountain and enjoyed lots of good fruit and some bread. We bought a small plastic bottle of what we thought was lemonade (it was right next to the Lipton ice tea on the shelf) but seemed to be unsweetened lemon juice. It was too sour to drink. We tried to water it down but that didn't even work. We still haven't been able to find anything comparable to what we know as lemonade here.
The hills came next. The road went through some pretty forest areas and more farmland and the hills got much longer and steeper. It was still quite windy today but nothing like yesterday. We flew down hill after hill only to find an even longer uphill on the other side. It took us 3 hours to cover 32 kms where we stopped in the town of Nova for a very substantial snack - yes, hungry again. Here we had our first potato chips of the trip, Lays, which tasted exactly how we expected them to. We ate on a bench watching a big bird's nest on the top of an electric pole. The mother bird (it was a large one that looked like a stork) stood up and the father bird flew away. We didn't see any chicks.
The remaining 14 kms into the town of Lenti flattened out fairly nicely which was a break for our tired legs. Signs led us to the campground. It was like all the others with hedges separating the sites. This one was quite crowded, though, while the others were empty, probably because it's Saturday. John fixed a problem with his bike. He somehow bent a tooth on his big chain ring. He bent it back with a pliers and we'll see how that works.
We walked into town for dinner. John got some honey mustard turkey & french fries and Marie had beef goulash. We had the German phrase book out because the menu was in Hungarian and German only. We were pleasantly surprised that the food we were given was actually what we thought we ordered! You have to watch it around here. Every menu has brains on it in one form or another.
Kms 72.08
Time 4:13:34
Avg 17.0
Max 48.4
Just a few quick kms up the road we arrived in Keszthely, a fairly big town. We were looking for hwy. 75 but weren't really sure where to find it. We were following the signs to the towns we wanted to head toward, but then suddenly hit a one-way street, had to turn around and then weren't sure where to go. We headed toward the city center and found the tourist info office hidden in a pedestrian mall. The woman there spoke very little English, but she gave us a map of the town and pointed us in the direction we told her we wanted to go.
Well, hindsight tells us that we must not have been specific enough when we told her where we wanted to go because the direction she sent us was wrong. Eventually, after a bit of a "scene" made by John on the side of the road, he logically figured out which way he thought we should be going, we backtracked about a half a km and found hwy. 75.
As all this drama unfolded, the sky began to clear a bit and it was warming up nicely. It was now 10:30. We had left camp at 8:45 and had covered only 10 kms in that hour and 45 minutes. I guess that's the price you have to pay for traveling in unfamiliar territory.
We rode through rolling hills and farmland with poppies, lavender and daisies blooming all over. By noon we were already hungry again and stopped for some groceries in Pacsa. We sat on a bench by a fountain and enjoyed lots of good fruit and some bread. We bought a small plastic bottle of what we thought was lemonade (it was right next to the Lipton ice tea on the shelf) but seemed to be unsweetened lemon juice. It was too sour to drink. We tried to water it down but that didn't even work. We still haven't been able to find anything comparable to what we know as lemonade here.
The hills came next. The road went through some pretty forest areas and more farmland and the hills got much longer and steeper. It was still quite windy today but nothing like yesterday. We flew down hill after hill only to find an even longer uphill on the other side. It took us 3 hours to cover 32 kms where we stopped in the town of Nova for a very substantial snack - yes, hungry again. Here we had our first potato chips of the trip, Lays, which tasted exactly how we expected them to. We ate on a bench watching a big bird's nest on the top of an electric pole. The mother bird (it was a large one that looked like a stork) stood up and the father bird flew away. We didn't see any chicks.
The remaining 14 kms into the town of Lenti flattened out fairly nicely which was a break for our tired legs. Signs led us to the campground. It was like all the others with hedges separating the sites. This one was quite crowded, though, while the others were empty, probably because it's Saturday. John fixed a problem with his bike. He somehow bent a tooth on his big chain ring. He bent it back with a pliers and we'll see how that works.
We walked into town for dinner. John got some honey mustard turkey & french fries and Marie had beef goulash. We had the German phrase book out because the menu was in Hungarian and German only. We were pleasantly surprised that the food we were given was actually what we thought we ordered! You have to watch it around here. Every menu has brains on it in one form or another.
Kms 72.08
Time 4:13:34
Avg 17.0
Max 48.4
Friday, May 18, 2007
18 May 2007
The plan today was to get a fairly early start but the howling wind and rain last night kept us up most of the night. At least we know the tent can take a good rainstorm and keep us dry. The morning wasn't looking too promising, but John walked to the store and bought some breakfast food and we consumed it in a little stage area protected from the still howling wind. We were pretty set on not riding today because of the wind so after breakfast we walked into town and did some email stuff and discussed what we might want to do. It got to be about 11:30 and we decided to brave the wind and see if we could make it up into the hills to Tapolca where we wanted to visit a cave. The sun was starting to peek out, but the wind was still blowing as we mounted the iron donkeys. Our route took us away from the lake, through farmlands and vineyards with the wind buffeting us mostly from the side. There were a few stretches where the road turned to an unfavorable direction and we took th!
e wind head on. In Gyulakesz we took a break outside a bar for a snack, bought a drink and used the facilities. Luck was on our side as we entered Tapolca and found the cave right off. The cave was really an underground river. The tour consists of getting in a small boat and looping around the cavern for about 15 minutes. Kind of hokie, but, hey we were there. When we set off today we thought we might get a room tonite depending on the weather and how we felt. Well, we were feeling pretty good and the wind was in our favor back down to the lake so off we sailed. Ha Ha. We made it to Gyenesdias, found a campground and called it a day.
Kms 52.70
Time 3:14:35
Avg 16.2
Max 38.3
e wind head on. In Gyulakesz we took a break outside a bar for a snack, bought a drink and used the facilities. Luck was on our side as we entered Tapolca and found the cave right off. The cave was really an underground river. The tour consists of getting in a small boat and looping around the cavern for about 15 minutes. Kind of hokie, but, hey we were there. When we set off today we thought we might get a room tonite depending on the weather and how we felt. Well, we were feeling pretty good and the wind was in our favor back down to the lake so off we sailed. Ha Ha. We made it to Gyenesdias, found a campground and called it a day.
Kms 52.70
Time 3:14:35
Avg 16.2
Max 38.3
Thursday, May 17, 2007
17 May 2007
We had a late start this morning and didn't really have a set plan, but the sun was shining and it was warm, so off we went. We rode the cycle path 12 kms to Balatonfured and managed to find the tourist info center with a little help. There we found out that not all of the campgrounds along the lakeshore are open yet. There are many, but some don't open until late May. The woman called a couple of the places we had in mind and the results limited our choices. We decided we would probably set up camp in town here and then ride our bikes out onto the Tihany peninsula with no gear to make it easier. But first we found the bike shop where we wanted to pick up a few things, but it didn't open for another hour. So we went on to the famous Kossuth Lajos spring. Supposedly the heart patients in the hospital right across the way could drink their way to health with this water. We each took a gulp and figured that was enough to take care of our health since it tasted like sor!
t of fizzy iron water. Those poor patients!
We made our way to the campground and went into the reception area which was huge. The woman there was very nice, but the place was just too big for our liking. She suggested that we ride in and check it out before deciding if we would stay. We did just that, used the bathroom and left right away.
On to plan B. We would ride out onto the peninsula and back and then go the 12 kms to the next open campground down the road in the direction we were heading. As soon as we turned onto the peninsula road we were glad we did. Since we arrived at the lake and rode the cycle path along the shore, we had hardly seen the lake because there is so much development. There are campgrounds and private beach areas with buildings everywhere. But here we were right on the shore and could see everything. There were many people fishing and we saw a few brave souls swimming. At the first fork in the road we were confused because the brochure we had from the info center wasn't very helpful. We took the shoreline branch and ended up at the ferry terminal where we decided to get some lunch. We chose a little outdoor restaurant that had gyros listed on their banner. There were no prices or menus anywhere and the waiter didn't speak English, so we ended up having a huge gyro lunch alon!
g with a huge bill, but it was tasty.
We followed the signs to the city center which took us up some pretty good hills to the abbey. The view of the lake and surrounding area was great. There is a nature trail that goes all over the peninsula and we tried to get some info on it at the info center, but it was of no use. It was interesting, though, to watch some workers putting on a new layer of thatch on the roof of the info building. It was a totally manual process, but it looked like they had it down.
On our way out of town we saw a parking area for the hiking trail. We changed our shoes and headed up for some more nice views of the area's wetlands and the Inner Lake. We only walked about 15 minutes and then sat next to a small vineyard where we watched some big herons flying and a colorful lizard nearby. We felt at home walking on the trail and enjoyed it even though we didn't walk the whole thing.
Back on the bikes we rode off and on the cycle way into the campground in Balatonakali. The reception office was closed and we were about to just go and find a site when a man drove up in a car and explained to us as best he could in German and English that we had to go up the campground path another km to the second reception office. We did just that, registered to stay in another huge campground, rode 150 meters to the grocery store where Marie's German paid off for helping us find some things that we wanted, set up camp and cooked up an omelette. No, we didn't cook on our stove. We still haven't found gas. But this campground had a few gas burners to use which was helpful.
After eating we strolled through the campground along the lakeshore and watched one of the fishermen for a while. We saw the lights that flash in certain points around the lake that alert boaters and swimmers of approaching storms. We noticed some not-so-friendly looking clouds to the west and hoped that tomorrow wouldn't be a rainy one.
Kms 44.40
Time 3:03:27
Avg 14.5
Max 45.1
t of fizzy iron water. Those poor patients!
We made our way to the campground and went into the reception area which was huge. The woman there was very nice, but the place was just too big for our liking. She suggested that we ride in and check it out before deciding if we would stay. We did just that, used the bathroom and left right away.
On to plan B. We would ride out onto the peninsula and back and then go the 12 kms to the next open campground down the road in the direction we were heading. As soon as we turned onto the peninsula road we were glad we did. Since we arrived at the lake and rode the cycle path along the shore, we had hardly seen the lake because there is so much development. There are campgrounds and private beach areas with buildings everywhere. But here we were right on the shore and could see everything. There were many people fishing and we saw a few brave souls swimming. At the first fork in the road we were confused because the brochure we had from the info center wasn't very helpful. We took the shoreline branch and ended up at the ferry terminal where we decided to get some lunch. We chose a little outdoor restaurant that had gyros listed on their banner. There were no prices or menus anywhere and the waiter didn't speak English, so we ended up having a huge gyro lunch alon!
g with a huge bill, but it was tasty.
We followed the signs to the city center which took us up some pretty good hills to the abbey. The view of the lake and surrounding area was great. There is a nature trail that goes all over the peninsula and we tried to get some info on it at the info center, but it was of no use. It was interesting, though, to watch some workers putting on a new layer of thatch on the roof of the info building. It was a totally manual process, but it looked like they had it down.
On our way out of town we saw a parking area for the hiking trail. We changed our shoes and headed up for some more nice views of the area's wetlands and the Inner Lake. We only walked about 15 minutes and then sat next to a small vineyard where we watched some big herons flying and a colorful lizard nearby. We felt at home walking on the trail and enjoyed it even though we didn't walk the whole thing.
Back on the bikes we rode off and on the cycle way into the campground in Balatonakali. The reception office was closed and we were about to just go and find a site when a man drove up in a car and explained to us as best he could in German and English that we had to go up the campground path another km to the second reception office. We did just that, registered to stay in another huge campground, rode 150 meters to the grocery store where Marie's German paid off for helping us find some things that we wanted, set up camp and cooked up an omelette. No, we didn't cook on our stove. We still haven't found gas. But this campground had a few gas burners to use which was helpful.
After eating we strolled through the campground along the lakeshore and watched one of the fishermen for a while. We saw the lights that flash in certain points around the lake that alert boaters and swimmers of approaching storms. We noticed some not-so-friendly looking clouds to the west and hoped that tomorrow wouldn't be a rainy one.
Kms 44.40
Time 3:03:27
Avg 14.5
Max 45.1
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
16 May 2007
Bakonyszentkiraly to Balatonalmadi
The storms that forced us indoors yesterday brought a cool change for today. After making sure we didn't leave anything behind, we saddled up the bikes ready to ride in tights and jackets. Johann sent us off with a hand drawn map so we could ride the scenic route out of the village and see the castle to boot. Well, we have come to know that scenic means hilly and Johann's route was just that. The climb to the castle was steeper than the 10% signed grades we rode later on. This castle in Csesznek was your basic castle ruins but the view overlooking the countryside and the two small villages was just amazing.
Riding from the castle to the main road was quite challenging at times with a few of those 10% grades thrown in. Once on the main road we cruised with a tail wind to Zirc where we had brunch. We didn't have breakfast and it was 11:00 A.M. We found a restaurant and Marie had 2 scrambled eggs while John enjoyed 2 crepes filled with poppy seeds and cherries topped with almonds and honey and powdered sugar. Since it was a bit chilly still we figured it couldn't hurt to split a bowl of soup for dessert. Have to love dessert.
With a tailwind still blowing and a 10% downhill grade to help us along, we were soon in the bigger than expected town of Veszprem. The rolling green hills of the countryside just went flying by. We have come to notice that the only time you see a speed limit sign is when you are entering a city. The cars seem to just fly by at excessive speeds but for the most part are giving us plenty of room even when a car is coming the opposite way.
Trying to find the info center in Veszprem proved fruitless so we continued on, after a bakery snack (we never have a problem finding those), to Balatonalmadi. It was an effortless downhill cruise the whole way with bike paths in a couple of places to help us avoid the city traffic. By this time the clouds were clearing and and the tights were off. It is a good thing we missed the info center in Veszprem because the one we found in Balatonalmadi provided us with the same cycling map as the one we have but in English. Now we will be able to read about the places we will be passing through. Lake Balaton is a very popular place in the summer, so we figured camping would be expensive and we weren't disappointed. The rest of the day was spent taking care of chores and business.
Kms 48.76
Timed 2:59:33
Avg 16.2
Max 50.3
The storms that forced us indoors yesterday brought a cool change for today. After making sure we didn't leave anything behind, we saddled up the bikes ready to ride in tights and jackets. Johann sent us off with a hand drawn map so we could ride the scenic route out of the village and see the castle to boot. Well, we have come to know that scenic means hilly and Johann's route was just that. The climb to the castle was steeper than the 10% signed grades we rode later on. This castle in Csesznek was your basic castle ruins but the view overlooking the countryside and the two small villages was just amazing.
Riding from the castle to the main road was quite challenging at times with a few of those 10% grades thrown in. Once on the main road we cruised with a tail wind to Zirc where we had brunch. We didn't have breakfast and it was 11:00 A.M. We found a restaurant and Marie had 2 scrambled eggs while John enjoyed 2 crepes filled with poppy seeds and cherries topped with almonds and honey and powdered sugar. Since it was a bit chilly still we figured it couldn't hurt to split a bowl of soup for dessert. Have to love dessert.
With a tailwind still blowing and a 10% downhill grade to help us along, we were soon in the bigger than expected town of Veszprem. The rolling green hills of the countryside just went flying by. We have come to notice that the only time you see a speed limit sign is when you are entering a city. The cars seem to just fly by at excessive speeds but for the most part are giving us plenty of room even when a car is coming the opposite way.
Trying to find the info center in Veszprem proved fruitless so we continued on, after a bakery snack (we never have a problem finding those), to Balatonalmadi. It was an effortless downhill cruise the whole way with bike paths in a couple of places to help us avoid the city traffic. By this time the clouds were clearing and and the tights were off. It is a good thing we missed the info center in Veszprem because the one we found in Balatonalmadi provided us with the same cycling map as the one we have but in English. Now we will be able to read about the places we will be passing through. Lake Balaton is a very popular place in the summer, so we figured camping would be expensive and we weren't disappointed. The rest of the day was spent taking care of chores and business.
Kms 48.76
Timed 2:59:33
Avg 16.2
Max 50.3
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
15 May 2007
Almasneszmely to Bakonyszentkiraly
Today started out warm and sunny as we started riding towards Tata, going away from the Duna on an alternate route that was a little quieter than the road the campground was on. The route had some rolling hills but this was a nice change from the first two days of riding which were mostly flat. At one point we stopped at a very small building that we thought looked like a bakery, but to our dismay it was a meat shop. We really need to learn the Hungarian word for bakery!
Trying to navigate around Tata proved challenging. We found a tourist info center and the woman there gave us a great map of Hungary showing all of the bike routes. We wished we would have had it before we started.
We backtracked to a bakery we saw on the way in, enjoyed a couple of pastries and then went back through the roundabout we passed through on the way in, hoping that we were getting on the road that the info center lady told us to take. There were no street signs anywhere, but eventually we saw some directional signs pointing to the different towns and found the one we were looking for.
The road went through a large agricultural area with fields of corn and wheat as far as the eye could see. It had some gently rolling hills and we thoroughly enjoyed the terrain and the sunny, warm breezy weather.
We stopped in Nagyigmand and bought some food at a grocery store for lunch. We had the liver patte that Csaba's mom sent along with us and have decided that this is something we should carry because it's tasty and it's sold in 1.5 inch wide round sealed containers that don't need refrigeration. As we ate on a bench in front of a fountain, we gave our new map a good look. John saw a big lake to the south, Lake Balaton, and just threw out the idea of going that way instead of our original plan of following the Duna (Danube River) to Bratislava, Slovakia. A lake sounded much more appealing than another big city, so we started looking at routes and places to go from there and decided to go for it. Straying from an established bike route is a pretty radical move for us, but we figured "what's the worst that can happen?".
So we backtracked about 500 meters to head in our new direction and hit the road.
As we were rolling along we noticed the clouds starting to thicken up. There were some high clouds off in the distance this morning, but we never seemed to catch up to them. We had an aggressive plan of covering about 90 kilometers today to get to Zirc where the next campground was. This mileage was a big jump from the first 2 days. We figured if we got too tired we could stop off in one of the small towns along the way and get a zimmer (a room for rent in someone's house - similar to a bed and breakfast).
Soon the clouds started darkening and the wind picked up. At first there were just a few sprinkles. We only had 16 kilometers to go when the rain came pouring down.
We put on our rain jackets, rode another couple of kms and decided to head into Bakonyszentkiraly to find a zimmer. We stopped to ask a lady who was walking, but she just mumbled something in Hungarian and kept walking. Next we stopped at the post office where a lady sort of tried to help us. She spoke no English and kept saying Egan and pointed up the road. We thought she meant that the next zimmer was not unti the town of Egan, but when we looked on the map we couldn't see any town anywhere with that name. Frustrated we decided to go on to our original destination another 14 kms in the pouring rain.
In about 50 meters we saw a sign that looked like it was pointing to an apartment for rent. We went down that street and found the house. The house owners looked a little surprise and unprepared for guests but were very accomodating. They had us put our bikes under cover on the porch in front of the room. Then they made the bed, brought towels, chopped some wood! to stoke up the ceramic chimney in the room that acts like a radiator and got us a drying rack for our clothes. They showed us where all the dishes were in the kitchen and how to operate the gas range. And all of this was done without any English spoken. Rose and Johann Egan (that's what the lady at the post office meant) were great hosts. Johann brought us a plastic Sprite bottle full of palinka, a Hungarian alcohol that we think he made himself. We told him we didn't want the whole bottle, so he poured us all a shot, we clanked glasses for a toast and threw the liquor back. It was very strong, taking our!
breath away for a second. But we're glad we tried it because it seemed to make our hosts happy.
Next came the act of paying. We asked them to write down the price which was 7000 forints. We knew we were going to have a challenge here because we weren't able to find any ATMs on our new, unplanned route and we only had 4700 forints. We asked if they would take U.S. dollars, worked out an exchange rate and paid. Done deal!
The rain ended at about 7:00 but it was still very overcast and misty. We could not see the castle remains on the hill above the house anymore. We made the instant noodles that we've been carrying since day one but could never make because we haven't been able to use our new stove yet.
Kms 75
Time 4:40:00
Avg 16.3
Max 37.7
Today started out warm and sunny as we started riding towards Tata, going away from the Duna on an alternate route that was a little quieter than the road the campground was on. The route had some rolling hills but this was a nice change from the first two days of riding which were mostly flat. At one point we stopped at a very small building that we thought looked like a bakery, but to our dismay it was a meat shop. We really need to learn the Hungarian word for bakery!
Trying to navigate around Tata proved challenging. We found a tourist info center and the woman there gave us a great map of Hungary showing all of the bike routes. We wished we would have had it before we started.
We backtracked to a bakery we saw on the way in, enjoyed a couple of pastries and then went back through the roundabout we passed through on the way in, hoping that we were getting on the road that the info center lady told us to take. There were no street signs anywhere, but eventually we saw some directional signs pointing to the different towns and found the one we were looking for.
The road went through a large agricultural area with fields of corn and wheat as far as the eye could see. It had some gently rolling hills and we thoroughly enjoyed the terrain and the sunny, warm breezy weather.
We stopped in Nagyigmand and bought some food at a grocery store for lunch. We had the liver patte that Csaba's mom sent along with us and have decided that this is something we should carry because it's tasty and it's sold in 1.5 inch wide round sealed containers that don't need refrigeration. As we ate on a bench in front of a fountain, we gave our new map a good look. John saw a big lake to the south, Lake Balaton, and just threw out the idea of going that way instead of our original plan of following the Duna (Danube River) to Bratislava, Slovakia. A lake sounded much more appealing than another big city, so we started looking at routes and places to go from there and decided to go for it. Straying from an established bike route is a pretty radical move for us, but we figured "what's the worst that can happen?".
So we backtracked about 500 meters to head in our new direction and hit the road.
As we were rolling along we noticed the clouds starting to thicken up. There were some high clouds off in the distance this morning, but we never seemed to catch up to them. We had an aggressive plan of covering about 90 kilometers today to get to Zirc where the next campground was. This mileage was a big jump from the first 2 days. We figured if we got too tired we could stop off in one of the small towns along the way and get a zimmer (a room for rent in someone's house - similar to a bed and breakfast).
Soon the clouds started darkening and the wind picked up. At first there were just a few sprinkles. We only had 16 kilometers to go when the rain came pouring down.
We put on our rain jackets, rode another couple of kms and decided to head into Bakonyszentkiraly to find a zimmer. We stopped to ask a lady who was walking, but she just mumbled something in Hungarian and kept walking. Next we stopped at the post office where a lady sort of tried to help us. She spoke no English and kept saying Egan and pointed up the road. We thought she meant that the next zimmer was not unti the town of Egan, but when we looked on the map we couldn't see any town anywhere with that name. Frustrated we decided to go on to our original destination another 14 kms in the pouring rain.
In about 50 meters we saw a sign that looked like it was pointing to an apartment for rent. We went down that street and found the house. The house owners looked a little surprise and unprepared for guests but were very accomodating. They had us put our bikes under cover on the porch in front of the room. Then they made the bed, brought towels, chopped some wood! to stoke up the ceramic chimney in the room that acts like a radiator and got us a drying rack for our clothes. They showed us where all the dishes were in the kitchen and how to operate the gas range. And all of this was done without any English spoken. Rose and Johann Egan (that's what the lady at the post office meant) were great hosts. Johann brought us a plastic Sprite bottle full of palinka, a Hungarian alcohol that we think he made himself. We told him we didn't want the whole bottle, so he poured us all a shot, we clanked glasses for a toast and threw the liquor back. It was very strong, taking our!
breath away for a second. But we're glad we tried it because it seemed to make our hosts happy.
Next came the act of paying. We asked them to write down the price which was 7000 forints. We knew we were going to have a challenge here because we weren't able to find any ATMs on our new, unplanned route and we only had 4700 forints. We asked if they would take U.S. dollars, worked out an exchange rate and paid. Done deal!
The rain ended at about 7:00 but it was still very overcast and misty. We could not see the castle remains on the hill above the house anymore. We made the instant noodles that we've been carrying since day one but could never make because we haven't been able to use our new stove yet.
Kms 75
Time 4:40:00
Avg 16.3
Max 37.7
Monday, May 14, 2007
14 May 2007
Not a cloud in the sky when we awoke this morning. We've heard that the weather is supposed to remain warm (80 degrees +) and dry for a week or so.
Our legs were feeling it just a bit today as we figured since it has been 3 weeks since we've been on the bikes. Yep, we take our training seriously.
The beginning of the day was a pleaseant ride through farm land with light traffic on the road. This lasted until Esztergom where we stopped to visit the largest basilica in Hungary. The outside was rather plain, but the inside was very nice.
We decided to try to find the cycle way out of town which we had seen when looking down from the basilica. Our search led us down some cobblestone streets and dead ends before locating the path. We weren't on it long before it turned into dirt so we headed back to the main road. This was fairly busy with many trucks but everyone seemed to give us plenty of room. The wind picked up from the side and was slowing us down and we really got battered around whenever a truck passed. Up ahead we could see the traffic on the road that we would be turning onto. It looked really busy but at least the turn would put the wind in our favor.
For a few kilometers we caught a bikepath that ran parallel to this busy road. We were cruising with the wind at our backs and no traffic to think about. That, too, came to an end. Then it was back to zoom, zoom, zoom. You get used to the cars passing you. The scary thing here so far seems to be the cars going in the opposite direction who are passing cars. Before passing they should check the oncoming traffic to make sure it's safe, right? Apparently we don't count as traffic because they go ahead and pass right by us and then we have 2 cars coming at us from the opposite direction at once. That's a bit unnerving!
We continued on this busy road through town after town until we arrived at our planned stop for the night, a campground on the outskirts of Almasneszmely. The book that we are using to help navigate the Danube has not impressed us so far. It said that this campground is expensive. It turns out that it cost just over half of what the campground in Visegrad charged. It's a very nice place with a pool and restaurant and is right on the river. Unfortunately, it's between the river and the busy highway, so again we"ll be hearing traffic noise all night. Oh well, at least we won't have the church bell going off every 15 minutes like last night.
The weather today was a carbon copy of yesterday - sunny, hot (we guess 80+) and quite windy. We consider ourselves spoiled so far. Tonight we are sitting at our campsite in bare feet enjoying the warm breeze with no biting insects yet. We know this can't last forever, so we're making the most of it now.
Kms 54.87
Time 3:15:00
Avg 16.8
Max 32.8
Our legs were feeling it just a bit today as we figured since it has been 3 weeks since we've been on the bikes. Yep, we take our training seriously.
The beginning of the day was a pleaseant ride through farm land with light traffic on the road. This lasted until Esztergom where we stopped to visit the largest basilica in Hungary. The outside was rather plain, but the inside was very nice.
We decided to try to find the cycle way out of town which we had seen when looking down from the basilica. Our search led us down some cobblestone streets and dead ends before locating the path. We weren't on it long before it turned into dirt so we headed back to the main road. This was fairly busy with many trucks but everyone seemed to give us plenty of room. The wind picked up from the side and was slowing us down and we really got battered around whenever a truck passed. Up ahead we could see the traffic on the road that we would be turning onto. It looked really busy but at least the turn would put the wind in our favor.
For a few kilometers we caught a bikepath that ran parallel to this busy road. We were cruising with the wind at our backs and no traffic to think about. That, too, came to an end. Then it was back to zoom, zoom, zoom. You get used to the cars passing you. The scary thing here so far seems to be the cars going in the opposite direction who are passing cars. Before passing they should check the oncoming traffic to make sure it's safe, right? Apparently we don't count as traffic because they go ahead and pass right by us and then we have 2 cars coming at us from the opposite direction at once. That's a bit unnerving!
We continued on this busy road through town after town until we arrived at our planned stop for the night, a campground on the outskirts of Almasneszmely. The book that we are using to help navigate the Danube has not impressed us so far. It said that this campground is expensive. It turns out that it cost just over half of what the campground in Visegrad charged. It's a very nice place with a pool and restaurant and is right on the river. Unfortunately, it's between the river and the busy highway, so again we"ll be hearing traffic noise all night. Oh well, at least we won't have the church bell going off every 15 minutes like last night.
The weather today was a carbon copy of yesterday - sunny, hot (we guess 80+) and quite windy. We consider ourselves spoiled so far. Tonight we are sitting at our campsite in bare feet enjoying the warm breeze with no biting insects yet. We know this can't last forever, so we're making the most of it now.
Kms 54.87
Time 3:15:00
Avg 16.8
Max 32.8
Sunday, May 13, 2007
13 May 2007
Today was getaway day, the first of who knows how many days of riding. Again another feast for breakfast had to be consumed before Memuka would be satisfied that she had fed us properly. She was so funny, always instructing us on the correct order in which to eat the things she gave us. She also made us a couple of sandwiches for the road. One was scrambled eggs with cheese and the other scrambled eggs and salami with paprika. She also wouldn't let us leave without taking along a couple of different cheeses, apples, salami, paprikas, chocolate cream filled cupcakes and chocolate bars. We didn't know if we could fit in all in our bags, but somehow we managed. With everything packed, we took some pictures and said goodbye to our wonderful hostess. She'll never know how much it means to us to have a place to stay and a friend in our arrival city. It really takes the edge off of the nervousness we feel coming into a strange place.
Navigating the cycle path out of
Budapest was a breeze. The intersection we had been studying to get us to the bikeway which we nicknamed the "intersection of death" was no problem. And there were so many people on the bikeway even we couldn't get lost. We were just amazed at the number of people out cycling and walking. Granted, it was Sunday and a lovely one at that, but you would never see that many in Milwaukee. It was particularly crowded at a beach/recreation area on the Danube River. There were sunbathers, picnickers and boaters galore and the area was full of little restaurants and snack bars.
Szentendre, a cobblestone street artist town, was our lunch stop. We ate our sandwiches at one of the two churches we visited, then had some gelato for dessert. You have to love dessert!
Then we proceeded to Visegrad where we called it a day. Well, almost. We set up camp on the west end of town and then rode without any gear on the bikes up 5 km's to the castle ruins overlooking the town and the river. We saw on the sign that the place closed at 6:00. We asked the man at the pay station ("cassa" in Hungarian - we've learned that one by repetition - nothing is free these days) what time it was by pointing at our wrists and he waved us in, not charging us any admission since it was very close to 6:00. We couldn't go into the castle and could only walk around part of the outside, but we enjoyed another beautiful view of the Danube River valley from up there.
After showering and eating some of the food that Memuka sent along, which we were grateful to have since most stores in Hungary close very early on Sundays, we made use of the internet at the hotel where we had to register for the very expensive campground we were staying in all by ourselves. John enjoyed a beer at a bar before calling it a night.
We think John set a record today by taking two spills in less than a kilometer. No injuries, though.
The weather was sunny and warm with a slight breeze.
Kilometers 60.46
Time 4:19:28
Average 13.9
Max 45.2
Navigating the cycle path out of
Budapest was a breeze. The intersection we had been studying to get us to the bikeway which we nicknamed the "intersection of death" was no problem. And there were so many people on the bikeway even we couldn't get lost. We were just amazed at the number of people out cycling and walking. Granted, it was Sunday and a lovely one at that, but you would never see that many in Milwaukee. It was particularly crowded at a beach/recreation area on the Danube River. There were sunbathers, picnickers and boaters galore and the area was full of little restaurants and snack bars.
Szentendre, a cobblestone street artist town, was our lunch stop. We ate our sandwiches at one of the two churches we visited, then had some gelato for dessert. You have to love dessert!
Then we proceeded to Visegrad where we called it a day. Well, almost. We set up camp on the west end of town and then rode without any gear on the bikes up 5 km's to the castle ruins overlooking the town and the river. We saw on the sign that the place closed at 6:00. We asked the man at the pay station ("cassa" in Hungarian - we've learned that one by repetition - nothing is free these days) what time it was by pointing at our wrists and he waved us in, not charging us any admission since it was very close to 6:00. We couldn't go into the castle and could only walk around part of the outside, but we enjoyed another beautiful view of the Danube River valley from up there.
After showering and eating some of the food that Memuka sent along, which we were grateful to have since most stores in Hungary close very early on Sundays, we made use of the internet at the hotel where we had to register for the very expensive campground we were staying in all by ourselves. John enjoyed a beer at a bar before calling it a night.
We think John set a record today by taking two spills in less than a kilometer. No injuries, though.
The weather was sunny and warm with a slight breeze.
Kilometers 60.46
Time 4:19:28
Average 13.9
Max 45.2
Saturday, May 12, 2007
12 May 2007
We were amazed this morning when we awoke and saw that it was 11:00. Some storms were supposed to come through last night but ended up going north of here. The weather so far has been dry, sunny and quite warm.
We ate another feast of a breakfast as quickly as we could and took the bus to the city market. It is inside a huge building that we called the corn palace. There were many stalls with people selling produce, meats, baked goods, souvenirs and clothing. We wandered through fairly quickly and bought a delicious pastry filled with white and chocolate cream on the way out.
Next we stopped at an internet cafe to email some pictures of Mrs. Oszkay's round window to Csaba. The young man who worked there spoke English and was very helpful. It did take us a while to figure out the keyboard, though, because some of the keys are in different positions than we are used to. Also, all of the prompts are in Hungarian, but we were able to figure out which buttons to push just based on their position on the screen. Windows is Windows, I guess, no matter what country you're in.
There was a camping store that we saw the other day that we wanted to try to find again because we figured they would have the butane cannisters we need to use with our new camping stove. We wandered some more and actually found the store, but it closed at 2:00 and it was 2:30. So we crossed back over the river and took the cable car up to Castle Hill. It's like a city in itself up there filled with shops, restaurants and hotels. We saw the Fisherman's Bastion, Matthias Church and wandered around the Buda Castle Royal Palace. We enjoyed a "Hungarian style" pizza which is sauce, cheese, onions, paprika peppers and Hungarian sausage. This isn't what we consider an authentic Hungarian meal, but it was just the size we were looking for. Mrs. Oszkay has been feeding us so well that we haven't really been hungry since we arrived here! Before we ordered our food we asked the waiter if they took credit cards. He said, "Visa only". No problem. But when we were paying the b!
ill, the hostess said they only take credit cards for orders of a minimum of 5,000 forints. Ours was only 3,750, but John insisted since he was told earlier by the waiter that it would be accepted, so they did eventually take it. We believe that in general businesses here don't like to take credit cards because of the extra cost to them. We've had two different places tell us that they take credit cards but their machine wasn't working. A Canadian at the table across from ours said he had the same experience. So we'll have to be more careful about this in the future. Live and learn!
We walked back to the mall close to the house and picked up some last minute food for the road tomorrow and a mother's day bouquet for Mrs. Oszkay. We were going to get a greeting card, too, but we couldn't read any of them, so we passed.
When we arrived home we were immediately served some food, of course. Tonight our host made us a sort of sweet dish in a small bread bowl with a pudding-like filling made from cream cheese, egg and raisins. They were delicious like all the food we've been served so far.
After dinner we watched a Cary Grant, Jimmy Stuart, Catherine Hepburn movie on TCM and then tried to get to sleep with visions of tomorrow's potentially scary ride dancing in our heads.
We ate another feast of a breakfast as quickly as we could and took the bus to the city market. It is inside a huge building that we called the corn palace. There were many stalls with people selling produce, meats, baked goods, souvenirs and clothing. We wandered through fairly quickly and bought a delicious pastry filled with white and chocolate cream on the way out.
Next we stopped at an internet cafe to email some pictures of Mrs. Oszkay's round window to Csaba. The young man who worked there spoke English and was very helpful. It did take us a while to figure out the keyboard, though, because some of the keys are in different positions than we are used to. Also, all of the prompts are in Hungarian, but we were able to figure out which buttons to push just based on their position on the screen. Windows is Windows, I guess, no matter what country you're in.
There was a camping store that we saw the other day that we wanted to try to find again because we figured they would have the butane cannisters we need to use with our new camping stove. We wandered some more and actually found the store, but it closed at 2:00 and it was 2:30. So we crossed back over the river and took the cable car up to Castle Hill. It's like a city in itself up there filled with shops, restaurants and hotels. We saw the Fisherman's Bastion, Matthias Church and wandered around the Buda Castle Royal Palace. We enjoyed a "Hungarian style" pizza which is sauce, cheese, onions, paprika peppers and Hungarian sausage. This isn't what we consider an authentic Hungarian meal, but it was just the size we were looking for. Mrs. Oszkay has been feeding us so well that we haven't really been hungry since we arrived here! Before we ordered our food we asked the waiter if they took credit cards. He said, "Visa only". No problem. But when we were paying the b!
ill, the hostess said they only take credit cards for orders of a minimum of 5,000 forints. Ours was only 3,750, but John insisted since he was told earlier by the waiter that it would be accepted, so they did eventually take it. We believe that in general businesses here don't like to take credit cards because of the extra cost to them. We've had two different places tell us that they take credit cards but their machine wasn't working. A Canadian at the table across from ours said he had the same experience. So we'll have to be more careful about this in the future. Live and learn!
We walked back to the mall close to the house and picked up some last minute food for the road tomorrow and a mother's day bouquet for Mrs. Oszkay. We were going to get a greeting card, too, but we couldn't read any of them, so we passed.
When we arrived home we were immediately served some food, of course. Tonight our host made us a sort of sweet dish in a small bread bowl with a pudding-like filling made from cream cheese, egg and raisins. They were delicious like all the food we've been served so far.
After dinner we watched a Cary Grant, Jimmy Stuart, Catherine Hepburn movie on TCM and then tried to get to sleep with visions of tomorrow's potentially scary ride dancing in our heads.
Friday, May 11, 2007
11 May 2007
Today was a day that would have been quite taxing had it not been for Csaba's mom (Memuka). We needed to send the bags we transported our bikes and gear in to a warmshowers contact in France. Navigating the postal requirements would have been impossible without someone who spoke the language. It still took an hour. Of course we are out of practice a bit seeing as we didn't bring the address to where the package needed to be sent to with us. This made us search for an internet cafe without luck, but we did ask at a hotel and they let us use the free internet for guests. Then it was onto the grocery store where we looked for items that could be made easily on the camp stove. Again Memuka came through in interpreting the directions. By the time we finished these chores it was time for lunch so we went to a cafe/diner around the corner for lunch. Nothing was in english so we told Memuka what kind of meat we wanted and she ordered something for us. John got something with pork a!
nd rice and Marie got something with chicken and rice. A short street car ride put us back close to the house but Memuka insisted that we had to have some sweets, so we crossed the street to the mall and shared a couple of tasty pastries. This could set a trend for the ride. mmmmmmm. Back at the house we all napped for a couple of hours and then Marie and John walked back into town to wander the streets again. We walked along the river, crossed the historic chain bridge, saw the amazing parliament building, had an ice cream and wandered back to the house. There we sat and looked at the family photo albums and had a few laughs at the pictures of the young Csaba. We were up quite late.
nd rice and Marie got something with chicken and rice. A short street car ride put us back close to the house but Memuka insisted that we had to have some sweets, so we crossed the street to the mall and shared a couple of tasty pastries. This could set a trend for the ride. mmmmmmm. Back at the house we all napped for a couple of hours and then Marie and John walked back into town to wander the streets again. We walked along the river, crossed the historic chain bridge, saw the amazing parliament building, had an ice cream and wandered back to the house. There we sat and looked at the family photo albums and had a few laughs at the pictures of the young Csaba. We were up quite late.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
10 May 2007
We wiped out our jet lag by sleeping until 10:45. The minute we got up
Csaba's mom had a feast of a breakfast ready for us. We had bread,
tomatoes, paprika, salami and a variety of cheeses along with some hot tea.
Not quite the breakfast we are used to, but afterall it was 11:00.
Our bags were delivered to the house just after we ate and we decided to
work on putting the bikes together. They appeared to be undamaged at first,
but we quickly found out that John's back tire was out of true and his back
brake wasn't working. We took a short ride and Marie's was fine. We called
the bike shop in town that we had communicated with by email a little while
ago. The guy said he was a one man shop and couldn't help us until next
week. That wouldn't do because our plan was to leave Budapest on Sunday.
After some discussion, we decided to brave the crazy city traffic on our
bikes and make our way across the river to get a new brake cable and
housing. It was now about 3:00, not a particularly good time to go. We got
to the end of Csaba's mom's road (one whole house away) and stood on our
bikes staring at the busy road that we had to cross. There was traffic
going this way and that and coming from everywhere. Our plan was to turn
left, but after standing there looking both ways for a few minutes without a
break in traffic, we opted for plan B which was -- we really didn't know.
We took the bikes back to the house and walked across the bridge to the city
center in Pest to do the sightseeing we had planned for today (which wasn't
much of a plan because we're still not very good tourists - especially in
the cities). We had been discussing our plan for biking out of the city on
Sunday, so as we walked we tried to figure out the best way to go. Biking
out of a busy city that you are not familiar with is quite challenging, and
this one looked like it was going to fit that category.
We walked and walked through shopping areas and pedestrian malls and saw the
beautiful St. Stephen's Basilica and then walked to the bike shop that we
had spoken with earlier to see about getting some cable and maybe some
advice on a route out of the city. We got very little of both. The shop
guy directed us to a visitor information center which he said would have a
rudimentary bike route map. A different visitor info center was our first
stop today and they had nothing on biking but sent us across the road to
some place where nobody spoke English. The second visitor center also was
of no help, so we walked on and found an international book store where we
picked up a map that showed us the bike route for part of the city. It was
very big and bulky, but we decided it was better than nothing.
We walked on to see the beautiful opera house and then down to the big
market, but that was already closed. We had dinner sitting outside at a
cafe, walked back across the bridge doing some more bike route scouting and
past Csaba's mom's street to try to find the grocery store she told us about
yesterday. It was hidden inside a shopping mall, but we found it after
asking only one group of people.
When inside we did great in the produce section but were pretty lost after
that. Most of the items that we usually buy when we're on the bikes had all
the cooking instructions in Hungarian only. And we couldn't find any
pancake mix, our traveling staple. We only bought some grapes and bananas
and found out that we had done something wrong when we got to the checkout.
We were supposed to weigh our fruit and tag it before paying for it. Marie
found this out when see saw our checkout person go over to the produce
section and weigh our items. Then she watched a little girl do it by
herself. Now we know. Nothing like being schooled by a 5 year old. We
decided we would recruit Csaba's mom to go to the grocery store with us
tomorrow and help us find what we are looking for and probably more.
When we got back to the house, we were persuaded to eat the second piece of
the delicious chocolate cream cake that we didn't eat last night. Then John
worked on his bike and was able to fix both the problems. He usually can
fix everything on the bikes when he takes his time and relaxes. While he
was working, he got the beginning of a migraine which luckily ended about an
hour later.
Csaba's mom had a feast of a breakfast ready for us. We had bread,
tomatoes, paprika, salami and a variety of cheeses along with some hot tea.
Not quite the breakfast we are used to, but afterall it was 11:00.
Our bags were delivered to the house just after we ate and we decided to
work on putting the bikes together. They appeared to be undamaged at first,
but we quickly found out that John's back tire was out of true and his back
brake wasn't working. We took a short ride and Marie's was fine. We called
the bike shop in town that we had communicated with by email a little while
ago. The guy said he was a one man shop and couldn't help us until next
week. That wouldn't do because our plan was to leave Budapest on Sunday.
After some discussion, we decided to brave the crazy city traffic on our
bikes and make our way across the river to get a new brake cable and
housing. It was now about 3:00, not a particularly good time to go. We got
to the end of Csaba's mom's road (one whole house away) and stood on our
bikes staring at the busy road that we had to cross. There was traffic
going this way and that and coming from everywhere. Our plan was to turn
left, but after standing there looking both ways for a few minutes without a
break in traffic, we opted for plan B which was -- we really didn't know.
We took the bikes back to the house and walked across the bridge to the city
center in Pest to do the sightseeing we had planned for today (which wasn't
much of a plan because we're still not very good tourists - especially in
the cities). We had been discussing our plan for biking out of the city on
Sunday, so as we walked we tried to figure out the best way to go. Biking
out of a busy city that you are not familiar with is quite challenging, and
this one looked like it was going to fit that category.
We walked and walked through shopping areas and pedestrian malls and saw the
beautiful St. Stephen's Basilica and then walked to the bike shop that we
had spoken with earlier to see about getting some cable and maybe some
advice on a route out of the city. We got very little of both. The shop
guy directed us to a visitor information center which he said would have a
rudimentary bike route map. A different visitor info center was our first
stop today and they had nothing on biking but sent us across the road to
some place where nobody spoke English. The second visitor center also was
of no help, so we walked on and found an international book store where we
picked up a map that showed us the bike route for part of the city. It was
very big and bulky, but we decided it was better than nothing.
We walked on to see the beautiful opera house and then down to the big
market, but that was already closed. We had dinner sitting outside at a
cafe, walked back across the bridge doing some more bike route scouting and
past Csaba's mom's street to try to find the grocery store she told us about
yesterday. It was hidden inside a shopping mall, but we found it after
asking only one group of people.
When inside we did great in the produce section but were pretty lost after
that. Most of the items that we usually buy when we're on the bikes had all
the cooking instructions in Hungarian only. And we couldn't find any
pancake mix, our traveling staple. We only bought some grapes and bananas
and found out that we had done something wrong when we got to the checkout.
We were supposed to weigh our fruit and tag it before paying for it. Marie
found this out when see saw our checkout person go over to the produce
section and weigh our items. Then she watched a little girl do it by
herself. Now we know. Nothing like being schooled by a 5 year old. We
decided we would recruit Csaba's mom to go to the grocery store with us
tomorrow and help us find what we are looking for and probably more.
When we got back to the house, we were persuaded to eat the second piece of
the delicious chocolate cream cake that we didn't eat last night. Then John
worked on his bike and was able to fix both the problems. He usually can
fix everything on the bikes when he takes his time and relaxes. While he
was working, he got the beginning of a migraine which luckily ended about an
hour later.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Departure Day
The packing process began 2 weeks ago when we rode our bikes to Mauthe Lake
to camp overnight. We fit all of our belongings into 4 panniers, 2
handlebar bags and 1 trailer, 1 trailer less than our past bike trips. The
jury is still out on whether we will have enough space once our gear gets
into it's normal, unorganized state enroute. Also, John carries a lot more
weight with this setup, so he should be really strong when we return.
This morning we did the last minute packing, house cleaning and trip to the
coffee shop with John's mom before Gretel picked us up in the minivan
(quickly becoming known as the Elsner airport shuttle) for an uneventful
trip to Ohare. We arrive with 3 hours to spare for our 4:40 departure on
British Airways to London then Budapest. Our bags we searched in Chicago
and for some reason they confiscated the chain wax that we had packed. The
flights to London and Budapest went well. The adventure began in Budapest
when only the smallest of our bags showed up on the baggage carousel. We
calmly inquired about the other 3 bags containing the bikes and the trailer
and were told that one bike was still in Chicago but the other bike and the
trailer were still in London. We filled out the proper forms, went to the
ATM to get some forints (Hungarian currency) and made our way out of the
airport via a minibus shuttle to Csaba's mom's house in the Buda hills in
Budapest.
After a 2 hour nap and a nice snack, we took a walk to stretch our legs that
had been crammed into economy airplane seats for 8 hours. Our destination
was the Citadella, an old military outpost at the top of a big hill with a
nice view of the city below. Shortly after leaving the house, we weren't
sure if we were taking the most efficient route, so we asked a woman with a
small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression the locals have made.We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30. 10 May 2007 We wiped out our jet lag by sleeping until 10:45. The minute we got up Csaba's mom had a feast of a breakfast ready for us. We had bread,tomatoes, paprika, salami and a variety of cheeses along with some hot tea. Not quite the breakfast we are used to, but afterall it was 11:00. Our bags were delivered to the house just after we ate and we decided to work on putting the bikes together. They appeared to be undamaged at first, but we quickly found out that John's back tire was out of true and his back brake wasn't working. We took a short ride and Marie's was fine. We called the bike shop in town that we had communicated with by email a little while ago. The guy said he was a one man shop and couldn't help us until next week. That wouldn't do because our plan was to leave Budapest on Sunday. After some discussion, we decided to brave the crazy city traffic on our bikes and make our way across the river to get a new brake cable and housing. It was now about 3:00, not a particularly good time to go. We got to the end of Csaba's mom's road (one whole house away) and stood on our bikes staring at the busy road that we had to cross. There was traffic going this way and that and coming from everywhere. Our plan was to turn left, but after standing there looking both ways for a few minutes without a small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of
her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression
the locals have made.
We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house
Csaba's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call
home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what
numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30.
to camp overnight. We fit all of our belongings into 4 panniers, 2
handlebar bags and 1 trailer, 1 trailer less than our past bike trips. The
jury is still out on whether we will have enough space once our gear gets
into it's normal, unorganized state enroute. Also, John carries a lot more
weight with this setup, so he should be really strong when we return.
This morning we did the last minute packing, house cleaning and trip to the
coffee shop with John's mom before Gretel picked us up in the minivan
(quickly becoming known as the Elsner airport shuttle) for an uneventful
trip to Ohare. We arrive with 3 hours to spare for our 4:40 departure on
British Airways to London then Budapest. Our bags we searched in Chicago
and for some reason they confiscated the chain wax that we had packed. The
flights to London and Budapest went well. The adventure began in Budapest
when only the smallest of our bags showed up on the baggage carousel. We
calmly inquired about the other 3 bags containing the bikes and the trailer
and were told that one bike was still in Chicago but the other bike and the
trailer were still in London. We filled out the proper forms, went to the
ATM to get some forints (Hungarian currency) and made our way out of the
airport via a minibus shuttle to Csaba's mom's house in the Buda hills in
Budapest.
After a 2 hour nap and a nice snack, we took a walk to stretch our legs that
had been crammed into economy airplane seats for 8 hours. Our destination
was the Citadella, an old military outpost at the top of a big hill with a
nice view of the city below. Shortly after leaving the house, we weren't
sure if we were taking the most efficient route, so we asked a woman with a
small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression the locals have made.We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30. 10 May 2007 We wiped out our jet lag by sleeping until 10:45. The minute we got up Csaba's mom had a feast of a breakfast ready for us. We had bread,tomatoes, paprika, salami and a variety of cheeses along with some hot tea. Not quite the breakfast we are used to, but afterall it was 11:00. Our bags were delivered to the house just after we ate and we decided to work on putting the bikes together. They appeared to be undamaged at first, but we quickly found out that John's back tire was out of true and his back brake wasn't working. We took a short ride and Marie's was fine. We called the bike shop in town that we had communicated with by email a little while ago. The guy said he was a one man shop and couldn't help us until next week. That wouldn't do because our plan was to leave Budapest on Sunday. After some discussion, we decided to brave the crazy city traffic on our bikes and make our way across the river to get a new brake cable and housing. It was now about 3:00, not a particularly good time to go. We got to the end of Csaba's mom's road (one whole house away) and stood on our bikes staring at the busy road that we had to cross. There was traffic going this way and that and coming from everywhere. Our plan was to turn left, but after standing there looking both ways for a few minutes without a small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of
her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression
the locals have made.
We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house
Csaba's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call
home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what
numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Hello World!
We are John and Marie from Wisconsin. Traveling has been in our blood for quite some time, first by car and now by bicycle. This site will be a log of our bicycle tour through Europe in May – September, 2007.
Our trip will begin in Budapest, Hungary and follow the Danube River through Slovakia and Austria to its source in Germany. From there we will make our way down to Lake Konstanz to pick up the Rhein River north through Germany touching Switzerland and France along the way. From there it’s on to the Netherlands and down through Belgium into France and flying out of Nice. At least that’s the plan, anyways.
We believe that traveling by bicycle is a great way to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the landscape. Sure, your muscles are in a constant state of soreness, but the slow pace of bicycle touring gives you the chance to see and experience things you would whiz right by in a car.
Our previous bicycle tours include:
The Pacific Coast from Seattle to San Francisco in 1995
Ireland in 1997
The Katy Trail in Missouri in 1999
A tour around Lake Michigan in 2000
A tour in the Lake Champlain area in 2000
Grizzlies to Gators tour (Alaska to Florida) in 2001
Ramble ‘Round the Colonies tour (New England) in 2002
New Zealand and Australia in 2004-2005
We hope you all enjoy sharing our experience through this website.
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