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
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