Day 45: in Budapest

Surely there is no more beautiful city. 

Here's my fact of the day, gleaned from cruising the Danube (which I have done twice - once in the day an once at sunset): they held a competition to design the Hungarian parliament building -and liked the designs that came 2nd and 3rd place so much they built them as well as the winner, on the same square. I just love that.

I spent a fair bit of the day on Margarite island, watching the dancing fountains. It's like a never-ending firework display (without having to crane your neck). Then every hour on the hour they play some music and the fountains perform a routine to it. 

This is my most southerly and easterly point: tomorrow I head north and west. By train! Exciting, and a little bit sad.

Day 46: to Prague by train (10k; 2904)

No matter how well organised the system is, getting a loaded bike on a train is always a faff. The system here was in fact excellent but, mostly because the users don't know how it works in advance, there was faff aplenty. Luckily it wasn't a full train.

I had forgotten the existence of individual compartments in trains. How wonderful they are! Makes you hopeful of sitting next to Benedict Cumberbatch (Parade's End; if you haven't see it, do). Britain should definitely bring them back.

We rolled through the central European countryside retracing my steps back to Bratislava before heading north into the Czech Republic. Because Hungarian, Slovak and Czech all look and sound completely incomprehensible to me (are Czech and Slovak even the languages?) I had very little idea which country I was in or what was going on at any point, though I think we marked each new country with a new set of conductors. Since Prague was the end of the line it didn't matter, and the journey itself was really rather restful. 

The weather is suddenly looking a bit cooler and rainier after this extraordinary hot spell. Tomorrow also starts what I think will be my toughest section, as I head north to Germany. I reckon it's three days, and for days 2 and 3 it's plenty of hills and not a lot of civilisation. Should be beautiful, just hope Horace and I can handle it!

Day 44: to Budapest (80; 2894)

A lovely last day beside the Danube. Hungary seems very different on a Sunday, with tons of cheery cyclists, pedestrians, and families everywhere. And shops are open!

I took two ferries across the river today, both fun if a little overpriced. The first was basically a large floating platform which a small tug pushed around the river. The second a standard, and very busy, roro carrying I should think 12 bikes, plus cars - more than I've seen in days. In between was a lovely cycle path on the north bank (now also Hungary) which was largely smooth and picturesque. Various parts of this, including the hour's wait for the ferry, was back in the company of the Kiwis I met just before the dog attack. Taking the Slovakia route they covered 117k that day with a massive tailwind, reaching 37 kph, and said it was beautiful and plain sailing. Ah well, you win some you lose some!

Coming into Budapest the riverside paths were heaving with endless beachbar set-ups. By happy accident I crossed the Danube too early and ended up escaping all that hecticness and finding impeccable empty cycle paths on the opposite (Pest) side.

In celebration of reaching the farthest point and the goal, if not the end, I have booked myself two nights in a very nice Danube-side apartment.

I can't quite believe I have cycled to Budapest!

Day 43: to Esztergom (101; 2814)

Seems fitting to do my longest (non-British) ride yet on the longest day of the year. It was a corker. 

The first half of the day alternated between reasonable roads and crazy off-road sections with sand, mud, ruts, stones, and/or overhanging branches. Tarmac turning without warning into tiny track and then turning back into paved road 5km later. I stopped a couple of times for Nutella sandwiches - here in strange crescent-shaped rolls - but basically kept my head down and my wheels turning. 

The second half was a complete contrast: this alternated between mad sections of busy, fast road and sections of dreadful juddering mandatory cycle path next to the road. Which I wouldn't have minded except I had, with regret, obeyed the 'no cycles' sign and taken a huge detour off this very same road first thing this morning. 

So with the exception of about 10k of lovely smooth cycle path, it was almost all quite tough going today. But having left before 8 I was into my campsite by 2.30. If Horace were a horse, he would have earned an extra ration of oats today.

Esztergom is a town of decaying grandeur, crowned by a basilica that is the home of the Catholic Church in Hungary, and the third largest in Europe after the Vatican and St Paul's (surely that's going to win you a pub quiz some day). It also looks straight out onto the communist era tower blocks and industry of Slovakia, across the river. Quite the contrast. 

As I climbed up to the basilica, a wedding was starting in the (also quite impressive) church below. The bride entered not to the march of an organ, but to the poignant wail of a single violin which carried a long way through the hot, empty streets.

I spent the evening beside the Danube, watching the sun go down over Slovakia and listening to an acoustic band.

Some Slovakian girls asked me what the time is in Hungary. I told them then realised I wouldn't have a clue if I'd changed time zones, since I haven't had a fixed appointment for weeks. Sign of a successful sabbatical!

Day 42: to Györ, Hungary (96; 2713)

Some days you've got it and some days you ain't. Today was one of the latter.

I slept badly in a stuffy room and was for some reason feeling vaguely anxious. I left early and had an easy ride - so easy that I would have liked to go further than Györ, but the location of upcoming camping options made that impractical.

I met a Kiwi couple who had come a similar route to me and we rode and chatted together for a bit. They had at some point come up the Prague to Vienna greenway and were strongly advising against it (unmarked and rough trails) which is good to know as, doing the maths on days left, I had been considering it.

There are multiple Eurovelo 6 paths leading out of Bratislava (at least on paper); two minutes after our paths diverged I was attacked by a bloody large Alsatian. His owner was calling him off (ineffectually) but luckily he went for my pannier, which now bears the large puncture wound that would otherwise have been in my leg! 

Not sure what the solution to dogs is. You can buy sprays etc but then have to be quick-witted and sure-handed enough to get to it at the relevant moment. Which I'm almost certainly not. I then almost had a second dog incident later: a huge black bull terrier type that was also loose on the street, but luckily was so busy having a growling match with next door's dog that it didn't see me till I had just gone past. Welcome to Eastern Europe! Or perhaps just a reflection of how few cyclists there are on this section of the trail relative to the pre-Vienna cycle superhighway.

Dogs aside the cycling was easy and I rode into Györ, which is a pretty and big town, very early, and then got instantly lost. Eventually found the swankiest possible tourist info office, staffed by a sour old lady, who grudgingly gave me a map and some incorrect info about campsites. Deciding sustenance was the only way things were going to get better, I then had a nice soup and ice-coffee break in the very beautiful main square at a cafe staffed by grumpy waiters.  I had been pre-disposed to like Hungary by the Hungarians I have known... But so far, not so good! 

Part of this is being back to square one with language. I had got quite fluent in pidgin German, and not even being able to say thank you and where is the loo is quite isolating.

It's been considerably cooler today, less than 25, and when the cloud is over that feels pretty cold after the last couple of weeks. I actually put my coat on against rain spots at one point but they didn't amount to much - lucky as I need to complete a waterproof pannier repair before any major rain.

The route out of Györ was always going to be tricky. The final straw of the day came in the form of a well-meaning elderly gentleman who insisted on taking me a 'better route' than the way I was going. We had little common language and I followed him protestingly for what felt like 270 degrees of ring road before eventually leaving him under the pretence of stopping at a garage (he cycled on shouting 'nein, nein, kom, kom'... And may still be doing so for all I care). Anyway I found my way fine once the pressure was off but it ended up being a bloody long way to get from the centre of town to my campsite.

Resolution of the day: I am absolutely going to stop giving in to other people's directions unless my map happens to agree with them!

Day 41: to Bratislava, Slovakia (85; 2621)

Last night Claudia took me to a heuriger in the town where she grew up, on a hillside outside Vienna. A heuriger is a very traditional Viennese occurrence where a family vineyard opens its doors for a couple of weeks and serves its newly-made wine along with some homemade food. Then when that batch of wine is gone it closes up again and a different vineyard has a heuriger instead. What a great system. The wine was good and the food absolutely amazing. Claudia made me try some of the dodgier realms of Austrian cuisine (pig lard anyone?) but it was all just delicious (possibly excluding the lard). Maybe I'm not ready to become vegetarian just yet.

A sad thing happened though - we saw an air ambulance flying low overhead and then a few minutes later the people with whom we were sharing a table got the phone call you always dread. They left as soon as they could, but it was quite a lot later before the helicopter took off again, presumably meaning that there was no longer any urgency for the patient. 

Claudia has been a brilliant host and is very entertaining company. I see lots of similarities with Uschi - I bet they fought like mad when they were kids! It was really great to see some of how the Viennese live, as well as the lovely city itself.

Today is yet another public holiday, and she was off early to the stables. She used to race her own horse when younger and now has a youngster in training whose second race is next weekend. I had been warned to get going early too as Turkey's president is in Vienna today and large demos are planned to shut the centre. The holiday did make the cycle back in a fair bit easier (as did knowing where I was going). I eventually made it out over all the multitude of bridges via the nudist section of Vienna. Those guys have impressive tans already!

The majority of the ride to Bratislava was along a long straight dyke. Luckily the cycling conditions weren't bad and I was very content bowling along in a straight line for 16k. This ended with a fantastic bridge crossing, taking me right up into the treetops for a couple of km across a wetland nature reserve and then the Danube itself.

I lunched on the river at Hainburg, a Roman town and technically still Austria, though you wouldn't think so from the language the waiter and I were speaking.

Then goodbye to Austria which I have really loved (despite the lack of smoking ban). The Austrians seem to me to enjoy a general lack of 'German-like' rules, eg dogs are allowed in almost all restaurants (Claudia told me in a very posh one near her if you tell them when you book that you're bringing your dog they prepare a special meal for it!)

So who else didn't know that Vienna and Bratislava were a short day's cycle apart? As we drove on the motorway last night there was a set of exit signs showing Slovenia and Italy this way, Slovakia and Hungary that way, Vienna straight on. Lovely. I also didn't know that Slovakia is now Schengen (and Euro) so no formalities at all at the border.

Bratislava is like a European capital in miniature. The old town is cute and heaving with the river-cruise masses, and there is a definite air of a town on the way up. I am staying in a nice hostel where a very kind young man insisted on carrying a loaded Horace up an enormous flight of stairs so he could sleep safely on the balcony (and so the young man could look manly in front of his girlfriend, I suspect!).

Day 40: in Vienna

Well what a lovely place Vienna is!

For one thing, it's a surprisingly stress-free capital (..on foot). The highlight was watching the morning training session of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. The well-trained Lippizaners are always a joy to watch, but the training of nervous youngsters was very interesting. The riders have a very quiet way with the horses. They are worked pretty hard with each rider doing multiple half-hour sessions. 

Apart from horses, I spent a happy hour in a brilliant travel / map shop, and am now a) 38 euros the poorer, and b) fully equipped to tackle the mountains of the Czech Republic. And then head north. Possession of detailed maps is clearly not actually going to help me get up the hills, but there is a comfort in being able to pick a route, and to know where the next sleeping place is!

After lunch I headed to Schloss Schonbrunn which was the emperor's summer residence. It's really enormous - you get the impression it and its park were designed to be impressive and a display of power, rather than beautiful, comfortable, elegant etc. I'd still prefer Chatsworth, if anyone were asking.

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Horsing around 

The cathedral, reflected in a modern neighbour

The Schloss (and from its folly above)