Mohács, Hungary to Vukovar, Croatia

It was a different type of day.  Summer has returned and the rain has left us, at least for today.  We cycled 62 miles in sunshine today.  We crossed over from Hungary to Croatia early in our ride.  It was away from the river and across the farm fields.  We saw plenty of vineyards and orchards along the way.

I noticed this welcoming sign in front of our bed and breakfast this morning 

Very typical view from the seats of our cycles today

The only "big" decent we had today.  Into the plains after a 300' climb

Vukovar is right across the river from Serbia.  We saw a lot of remnants of the was 30 years ago 

Dunapataj to Mohács

Another wonderful day in Hungary.  We got a bit of a late start because of a passing rain storm.  There was a high likelihood of rain today, but why start out wet.

On the way, Rob made some new friends

The ride was flat all day.  It had the feel of Nebraska with big fields and lot of freshly harvested corn fields.  For the first time, we saw some Fall colors in the trees 

Fountain in the town of Baja

This was the only town of any size we went by today.  As we approached town, I heard a noise out of my bike.  In assumed a dirty chain.  I heard an even louder noise and my front brakes were no longer working.

Rob the ace retire mechanic quickly deduced that my brake pads had fallen out.  All the shaking loosened the bolt and dropped the spring and pads on the trail.  We were able to find the pads, but the rest was missing.

I quickly googled bike shops and found one less than a mile from our location.  We got there easily and with the help of hand gestures and google translate, we had a solution.  The mechanic replaced the pads, spring and bolt, cleaned my chain, adjusted both front and rear brakes and had us on our way in 15 minutes.

Yes, those are rain clouds.  We got rained on a bit.

Waiting for the ferry to our destination, Mohács 

Our route for the day.  Pretty good average speed for cycling 8 miles on gravel, some of it after a rainstorm.

Budapest to Dunapataj, Hungry

Good thing we had a rest day yesterday, because today was a long day.  We rode nearly 77 miles and spent almost 7 hours cycling.  We had to go a little further than we would have liked, because lodging was difficult to find.  Our effort was not helped by a huge variety of "road" surfaces and a headwind of 16 mph.  Rob did a great job taking the lead during the last couple of hours when the headwind was direct.

Regardless of the challenges, we did arrive by 4:30 PM and were not feeling bad at all.  I guess 5 weeks of riding provides us with a certain level of fitness.  We had a great dinner (for all of $10) and are staying at a 4 star resort (I know it is good because we have robes).  They goofed up on the reservation so we have seperate rooms.  Rob has the presidential suite.

This is an example of the trail for a portion of the ride today

This was the route.  We are sure glad it was not raining

Much of the area we rode through seemed to be cottages along various waterway's off the main channel of the Danube.  My opinion is that  that individuals were responsible for the road in front of their cottages.  There were huge differences, but they generally were all in poor shape.

Here are the numbers for the day.  To be honest, I think that the calorie total is crazy (wrong).  Seven hours of cycling should earn a person more than 1300 calories.  

Budapest

Today was finally a day off from cycling.  We are in the amazing city of Budapest.  I started the day by going across the street and getting a cup of coffee.  I know, I am in one of the great coffee cities of the world and what do I want, brewed coffee.  Most of Europe has an "espresso" culture.  They make cups of coffee in one at a time, often out of a fancy machine that grinds, runs hot water trough and in the case of a larger cup of coffee, adds hot water. I wanted a taste of home and I found it at Starbucks.

The pastry was a local one.  Funny  thing is that when I ordered a regular pike place roast, they had to make it special for me 

Funny add on the reverence for coffee

Next on our agenda was a tour of the Jewish history of Budapest.  Pre-WWII, Hungary had a large Jewish population.  As we learned, the Jewish people were highly integrated into Hungarian society.  During the waning stages of the war, over half a million Hungarian Jews were transported to death camps, especially Auschwitz.  What was especially troubling was that the Hungarians themselves willingly did a lot of the dispossession, deportation, and murder.

This is the main synagogue in Budapest, the largest in Europe

This memorial, shoes on the Danube is particularly poignant.  It commemorates the death of nearly 3000 Jews that the Hungarian Nazi's took down to the river, had them take their shoes off, disrobe and shot and forced into the river

This little statue, found near the synagogue, is of  Theodor Herzl, he Founder of Modern Zionism.  He was born in Budapest

The Hungarian Parliament building - The largest parliament building in the world

Closer view of the Parliament

It is early afternoon in Budapest.  Despite being a rest day, I have about 18.000 steps done.  We are laying low now, finishing our laundry and getting ready for tomorrow.  We hope to get in a fine Hungarian meal for dinner

Tata to Budapest

Today we headed further into Hungary.  Instead of following the Danube, Rob and I decided to head directly to Budapest.  It had rained most of the night, but we were happy to see it clear out before we started riding.  Although I started in rain pants, it was the first day since Ingolstadt (9 days' ago) that I rode with shorts.   We had a pleasant ride of 53 miles and 2000 feet of climbing before we arrived for our first rest day in over a week.  We had a slight push from a tailwind and even saw the sun before rolling into town.

We have a very nice Airbnb near the Basilica in Budapest.  The 4 floor loft looks like a shot up building from WW2 from the outside, but is very modern and pleasant inside.  We had a nice walk to dinner and the grocery store, before settling in early for the night.  Tomorrow, we are going to sleep in, go for a tour, perhaps to a thermal bath and do anything but ride a bike.

We did not know what to expect for cycling infrastructure in Hungary.  This was a bike path and absolutely beautiful

The Basilica during the day

         Even more beautiful at night

The entrance to our loft

The route for the day

Our progress since our riding partners went home.  We cycled 3 days before they left, so it has been 9 days since we had a day off

Krems to Vienna

Today we cycled along the Danube to Vienna.  The weather was foggy to start and ended up being a near perfect Fall afternoon.

Along the way was a stop in the river town of Tulln.  We had a wonderful cup of coffee there, along with a warm apple strudel.  

Statue in Tulln commentating the east meeting the west.

The fog enveloped this massive water damn and turbine system

Our destination for the day was Vienna.  Still a marvelous city, filled with art and music, Vienna has long been where the East does meet the West.  It was a fitting overnight stop as we contrmplate entering Hungary tomorrow, where things (including the language, alphabet) will be much different.

Our time in Vienna was to short.  We did stay in a very centrally located hotel and did a self guided city tour).  Tomorrow we head off into the relatively unknown.  We have a three day ride to Budapest and a well earned day off  

St Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna  - about 3 blocks from our hotel

The Hofburg palace

St Peter's Church

The new VW ID.Buzz on display

 

Mosonmagyaróvár to Tata

We rode 59 miles today.  Much of it was through rural Hungary and Slovakia along the Danube.  Most of the ride was with our rain suits on during a light rain.  It was very flat and not overly scenic during the day.  The towns reflect the Soviet influence in architecture, which does not inspire a lot of photos.    

Crossing back into Hungary from Slovakia - We did not see any boat traffic today, commercial or pleasure.  It would have been a good day to be inside watching a football game

The trail was not very crowded today.  These turkey's were taking advantage of the low traffic and "fowled" the path (bad pun, I know)

Our lunch place.  We had "Big Hollywood" burgers that must have had a pound of meat.

We arrived at our destination, in the rain at about 3:30 PM.  Our choices were very limited for lodging and this appears to be a B&B and event venue.  There is a wedding party, in the rain, trying to make the best of the situation.  We felt very underdressed when we arrived rain-soaked in our bicycle clothing.

Vienna Austria to Mosonmagyaróvár Hungary (via Bratislava, Slovakia)

We had an eventful day today.  We woke up in Austria, went through a bit of Slovakia and are staying in Hungary.  Not be bad for a 62 mile ride.

I had a few "technical" problems today (I can't find some of  the pictures that I took on my phone), so this will be a quick post.

We had slight headwinds, but dry weather for the ride today.  Much of the ride was on beautifully paved roads on top of the flood control levy's.

This picture was typical of about half the ride.  This is actually a national park in Austria, featuring the protected area of the Danube.

In the distance, is the capitol of Slovakia, Bratislava.

We are spending the night in the town of Mosonmagyaróvár.  Don't ask us how to pronounce the name.

It is an early night for us.  We will go to sleep with dreams of a Badger Football victory against Ohio State.

Passau to Mauthausen to Krems

Well, for those of you who thought you were done with these pesky emails about the blog, think again.  Although seriously, if you want to opt out, please let me know.  I intend to post daily, but will only send out a reminder once a week.   If you want to keep up daily, just save the link.

Rob and I reluctantly left Julie, Beth and Lori in Passau, where they began their journey home.   We still miss Patty too.

Our plan is to cycle for another month or so.  We have hopes of reaching the Black Sea or Istanbul, either of which would constitute cycling across Europe.

The last two days of 68 miles each has gotten us well into Austria

We were 15 minutes in our journey from Passau, day 1 of this segment, when we crossed the border into Austria

Following the Danube with very gray skies

With the occasional castle along the way

This was a ferry crossing.  There is not an engine on the ferry.  It is tied to a cable upstream and they use big rudders to go from side to side

and they use hatchets to keep doors open

Overall, it was a very nice day.  We had favorable winds and beautiful trails (with no cars along the flood abatement system).  As you can see, overcast, damp and 40 degrees, there was no danger of overheating.

Mauthausen to Krems

Today was another cool start to the day.  Fortunately, the roads were wonderful and the winds, although very light, were favorable.

We passed this metal fish early in the ride.  My bike is alongside for a perspective of the size

The map shows many of the cities along this portion of the Rhine in Lower Austria

There were a few clouds along the way

If those look like rain to you, you are correct.   We got a little wet today.

This is a picture of Lori, Beth, my niece Kristy and Julie in Stuggart.  Yesterday, our three cycling companions took the train to Stuttgart, where Kristy and her family live.  Ask them about the trip sometime for a good story.

Today they got the bikes boxed up for shipment, tomorrow they go to Frankfurt and they fly home on Saturday.

Rob and I are heading to Vienna.