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Today was the first day we had to do some maintenance on our bicycles after about 1,400km, and it was not a broken spoke! Luckily the problem was solved without too much pain.

We had an early start and a relatively fast 43km ride to reach Bratislava along route E575, arriving before 11am. The road was very flat but had lots of cracks running across the tarmac (maybe worse for fast cars than bicycles) and there was a bit of traffic.

Our first views of the city were of soviet style apartment blocks. We struggled a bit to find the the river bike paths to enter the city. Kris’s chain began slipping, and he thought it was probably the chain but worried it could be the sprocket, so we needed to find a bike repair shop as a first priority. We negotiated around road repairs and traffic in the center to find the tourist information office and they gave us a map with locations of a couple of bike shops. Luckily the first shop confirmed that his chain had stretched after measuring it, and could replace it right away.

After that we rode around a bit looking for accommodation. Bratislava is not an easy city to navigate around with on bike. There are lots of curbs and crossings to negotiate, plus some streets have trams running down them (lethal if you get your bike wheel stuck in the tram track). They have however begun to make an effort with some bike lanes at least and there are clearly some cycling enthusiasts around. We met one of them (who runs a website called warm showers where individuals host touring cyclists). He recommended a local pub frequented by cyclists and we went and had a beer there (it was very hot). Eventually we went back to the tourist office to get a recommendation for overnight accommodation and were advised of a “very cheap” 4 star hotel. It was the most expensive place we have been in so far. It was good however, the best thing about it being the breakfast (which included apple strudel).

We rode around in the evening, which was more pleasant once it began to cool down. The main tourist site is the castle, there are some great views of the city and the river from up there. If you look in one direction you see the beautiful old town, in another direction the soviet style apartment blocks, then industrial chimneys and again soviet style apartment blocks. There is also a fancy bridge which has a restaurant built over the top of it.

We had some street food in the old city, but felt it was a bit of a tourist rip off place. There are some quirky statues there that all the tourists stop to photograph.

     

We ended up doing a bit of a pub crawl – including a craft beer pub near the bridge restaurant that had an interesting dark IPA. Then we went to a tourist cafe next to the Danube and then back to the cyclists pub – which has good beer, was buzzing with locals and cyclists and has a view of the castle, even though it is near a motorway.

Today we departed a bit from the standard Eurovelo 6 route, which requires you to cross over again to Hungary on your way to Bratislava.

Our first 20km was along the Eurovelo route and was a gravel road on top of the Danube stop bank. We stuck with this for about 20km but it was slow going.

We decided to leave the trail and go inland and north at Veľké Kosihy along tertiary roads. (our original plan was to overnight at Gabčíkovo and then cross over to the Hungarian side, however we suspected that this part of the river would not be very scenic in any case due to industrialisation).

The roads were good and the countryside is very flat, productive farmland. There are many wheat fields, and also some corn.

We passed through a number of small towns. It was very hot again and we stopped for some ice cream at a small outdoor bar/cafe in one of the towns. Three worn men were sitting outside drinking beer and chasers (at 11am), another arrived by bicycle with his little grandson as we were leaving.

A headwind came up after lunch and I rode in Kris’s slipstream so that we could make good progress.

At one town we stopped to eat some cherries from a tree at the side of the road (they were nice and tart).

The first things you see when approaching Dunajska Streda are high rise (Soviet style) apartment blocks and stacks of shipping containers. It seems that this may be a midway point for transporting goods.

The main attraction for tourists is evidently a big spa and pool complex.

We found our way to the centre of town just after 1pm and began looking for hotels. This time we found the tourist office without looking (we just rode past it in the centre). They recommended the pension Villa Archa. We had to wait for the owner to arrive so had a quick picnic in the park opposite. It was very hot.

The Villa Archa turned out great. We are the only people in the house (the owner just showed us around, gave us the keys and left) and it is very smartly furnished – so as well as our room with en suite and huge shower, we have the private use of a kitchen and living area. This is only EUR35. It almost seems that the accommodation gets better in inverse proportion to what we pay.

Later in the afternoon we had a ride around town, did some shopping and ate at a nearby pizzaria. Then we had a couple of beers at a outdoor beer garden near our pension – one half is a children’s playground and the other half is a kiosk where you can buy beer, cold drink or ice cream. There are tables where you can sit under the trees and drink. Lots of the patrons were also smoking and most seemed to know each other. They were a very sociable bunch, greeting each other as they came and went.

Today was our shortest ride yet, only 56km. We are slowing down a bit to savour this journey along the Danube.

We crossed over the river into Slovakia again this morning, travelling back on the north of the Danube. We crossed at an attractive old bridge and admired the view of Estergom from across the river.

    

The first part of the journey took us a bit away from the river, over flat fields fringed with poppies. There were also some fields that were just poppy’s, an amazing red display.

We bought watermelon at a roadside shop – which was wonderfully refreshing in the oppressive heat. They agreed to sell us half a watermelon and cut that into quarters for us, and we managed the rest with Kris’s pocket knife.

There were a few other cycle tourists, all coming the other way (it seems most people go from Germany or Vienna to Budapest and then take a train back).

The last stretch of the ride was around ten km along the stop bank – it was lovely riding side by side without any traffic, but also very hot (no shade).

A point of interest along this section was the ruins of an old Roman fort (called Celemantia) – clearly visible from the cycle path with an information board (unfortunately not in English). You can make out parts of the main gate from the ruins.

  

When we came off the stopbank near Komarno (at around midday) we saw a pub with people sitting outside in the shade and stopped for a drink. The heat was stifling. When it gets this hot many of the men here take their shirts off to cool down and two of the men were sitting shirtless. They also had a (cute) dog with them.

We crossed a bridge and found the Komarno town centre (still on Slovakian side). As we rode in looking for accommodation, the proprietor of the Hubert Varga Pension and Restaurant saw us and ran out to offer us a room. We were drawn in and the room is great value for money – larger than the standard hotel room with a little sofa, fridge, kettle and computer. Kris didn’t like all the stuffed animals hanging on the stairs and passageway (there is a large stuffed hare just outside our door) – but I would recommend the place for value and customer service. The restaurant specialises in venison and the owner seems to have a passion for hunting. There is also a zebra skin on the stairwell with a photo of him and freshly shot zebra!

We had plenty of time looking around Komarno, which is actually two towns spanning the Danube – one in Slovakia and one in Hungary. The Slovakian side is much prettier. 

We went to a large Teskos on the Hungarian to try to spend our remaining Hungarian currency – Kris got a replacement bike helmet and I got some replacement shoes (my old shoes were pinching my toes). We had a couple of ice creams and some beer at a pub with spray misters outside for the heat. We finally returned to our pension and had a meal in the restaurant (not venison), which was very hearty and good.

It is incredibly hot into the evening, only beginning to cool down after 10pm.

Today we joined the Eurovelo 6, one of the most popular European cycle routes that crosses the continent from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. We followed large parts of the route in France in 2012, most notably along the Loire Valley.

We expected to find route information in Budapest, as this it is a prominent start/end point for many cyclists on the route. However the tourist information offices that we consulted were universally ignorant about the route, so we are flying a little blind without an official maps.

The best information we got was actually from the barman in the craft beer pub, who helped us confirm that we should exit on the southern bank of the Danube to pick up the route.

We crossed the Danube at the magnificent Megyeri Bridge – a long cable stay bridge built in 2008. There are totally separated cycling/ pedestrian lanes on both sides of the bridge. Some commercial barges passed by on the river while we were crossing.

            

Directly after crossing the bridge the beautiful cycle route deteriorated into a bumpy broken tar road. Luckily that didn’t last too long and soon signs for the Eurovelo 6 route became visible. The route was great in lots of places, off road and directly alongside the Danube, with just houses on the other side. It must be wonderful to have a house on the Danube banks with only a bike route between you and the river. In other places the bike route signs directed us back onto the road.

    

Visegrad was one of the most interesting towns we passed through. It has an old castle high on a hill above the Danube, and a lower castle, in ruins in the village below. There were hundreds of schoolchildren around the lower castle – a big school outing.

It was a hot day, with lots of flying white fluffy seeds in the air that can be quite irritating when they get into your nose or mouth. We bought some strawberries at roadside stall and ate them and some cookies alongside the river. Then we had ice cream at another small village.

We arrived fairly early at Esztergom and spent some time looking for a tourist office. We went up and down the town asking directions and being directed in circles. We would have done better just riding around and checking out the accommodation ourselves. Finally we found out that there was no office, but that we could get accommodation help from the foreign exchange office. She recommended the apartments we had already identified on the internet (but couldn’t find on the town maps displayed around the place) and provided us with a printout map. They are about five minutes out of town by bike. The reception caused us to have serious misgivings about these apartments (slow receptionist, odd people milling around, not quite like a hotel). Thankfully they turned out very good – large and self contained with a kitchenette.

Estergom is notable for it’s magnificent basilica and beautiful buildings. 

 

The basilica is HUGE – according to Wikipedia it is the largest building in Hungary. It sits up on the hill over the town and dominates the town – there are panoramic river views from up there. However the rest of the down town area is a little run down, maybe the economy here is not so good and it is not attracting tourists to stay in the town.

 

 

In all it was an easy day – only 68km including all the riding around the town.

Today we had a full day sightseeing around Budapest on our bicycles. Kris had a challenge to find our way out of Ujpest to the central city on bike paths.

I really enjoyed the entry to the city from the North, via the island in the middle of the Danube (Margaret Island). In the morning there were lots of joggers. In the late afternoon when we left the island was full of families with small children and lots of people lying tanning in the sun. The island is a huge park which includes the ruins of a mediaval cloister, cafes, swimming baths, musical fountains and a small zoo.

    

 

For our sightseeing around the city we picked up a map advertising a hop on – hop off tourist bus route and followed that route with our bikes – as it picks up on all the main sights.

Budapest is large, cosmopolitan and has a surfeit of fantastical old buildings. We were glad to have our bicycles as it is spread over a large area. There is a large bicycle hire infrastructure in Budapest with many distributed lock in points. There is also many shopping areas with lots of posh shops. There are a number of bridges crossing the Danube and we managed to cross at each one of them.

                  

 

                  

It was a hot day, so we were happy to find a craft beer pub, on the river front in an ultra modern shopping centre on the river front. The local brew was good. I see they also sell bottled BrewDog (Irish craft beer which we also get in Wellington pubs).

   

Our ride today was a little more manageable at 77km and took us to Szecseny, just on the other side of the border in Hungary.

The first part of the trip relatively flat (thankfully) and took us on route 526 out of Hrinova. We were surprised to see a train passing not far out of town with heaps of tanks on it (no clues where they were coming from or going to).

The route turns off and becomes a quieter at Podkrivan – we had a bit of an uphill climb through a rural area, but no too bad compared to the previous day. There was not much traffic at all on this road and it was pleasant cycling.

We took a detour from the 526 road onto a little farm road to the left, which was very potholed, with green fields on either sides dotted with spring flowers and rolling hills all around.

    

When we got to Abelova, we saw some evidence of real poverty – a run down building with the ground floor empty and people living above – and ill kept looking kids playing outside. The road out of town was just as bad as the road in – even worse as it had a 16 degree down gradient.

Our route then took us through Sula, Hor. Strehova, Dolna Strehova, Mula, Nógrádszakál. I was interested to see a storks nesting on top of a power pole in one of the towns just before the border. At first I thought it was an ornament, as it was standing so still. Then at the next town I saw three in one street.

It was a hot Saturday afternoon and we saw a number of people lying around outside their houses in the sun as Kris looked for a border crossing. We found ourselves going through a slum area near the river and a small boy began to throw stones at us but quickly backed of when Kris reacted. We didn’t hang around there long.

Kris found a border crossing at Nógrádszakáli that was basically a footbridge with a muddy track through a paddock on the other side. When we reached the other side we exchanged a few words with our first Hungarian family – the father was shirtless and was slim and sinewy, the mother had teeth missing in the front of her mouth, a small girl was carrying a young kitten and the little toddler was cute and wide eyed. They were very good natured and excited to exchange a few words in English. From there it was only around 10km ride to our destination town of Szecseny.

     

Szecseny was was also buzzing with celebrations when we arrived, evidently “childrens day”. It felt like a friendly town, with some well kept historical buildings and a small castle. A couple from Budapest helped us find out hotel by looking it up on their smart phone. Our accommodation was a bit on the outskirts of town and hard to spot (no signage) – but a nice room and good value. We headed back into town thinking we could have something to eat and drink – however none of the pubs or cafes serving proper food were open. So we bought some food from the supermarket, had an ice cream and watched part of the folk dancing display.

Today was probably the most physically demanding ride so far, as we are passing through the Slovakian mountains (the Tatra range). It is an incredibly beautiful area, and organised in terms of road signs for the visitor (no getting lost here).

We headed out of town along the highway to connect onto route 72. It was a relief to be off the main road and the traffic was not too bad, aside from a number of passing log trucks.

The start of our ride was a nice meander through green fields and mountains, the sun was even shining for the first time in a while.

Then we began climbing and we just climbed and climbed, around 1000 metres over 10 km. There were some great views along the way. Imagine very green meadows fringed by forests, with snow capped peaks in the distance and the odd little village nestled in a valley. The whole pass was engineered to be at a steady incline, with a few long s-bends to get to the top. An endurance test.

Here is a photo (my camera cannot do it justice) – you can see the road at the bottom that we climbed up from, and this wasn’t at the top yet.

     

Then came an even steeper run downwards – so much so that I had to stop a couple of times as my hands were aching from holding on to the brakes.

We turned off route 72 to the left heading to Bresno and meandered on little country road again – noticed another ski field – could have been a beginner slope as much lower down.

When we reached Brezno it was bizarre to ride past a slum type area on the outskirts, including a transvestite and little children playing near the traffic. The people looked different, with darker skin.

In the centre of town there was loud music, children’s carnival rides, miniature horses and stalls. Went to tourist office and found out that it was the 750 year anniversary celebration for the town.

      

We discussed accommodation in Cierny Balog, our intended destination about 8km away – all that there seemed to be was cabins on the side of the road. We bought enough food and wine for dinner, as we expected there wouldn’t be much at our accommodation. When got there the cabins were right beside a railway line and the town didn’t look very appealing. We decided to press onto the next town, only 12km away to look for something better.

We started up a hill with steady gradient through a forest – the whole time we felt that we must be coming to the end of the hill, but it actually climbed for about 10km – which we did very slowly as we were already tired (took more than an hour). There were some good views through the trees.

      

When we reached the next towns they were idyllic, but there was no accommodation. Kris stopped and asked for some water from a lady at a nearby house. We saw a shepherd up on the hill bringing his sheep in.

We pressed on. Thankfully we were on a long long downhill, which was spectacular. We sailed along for next 10km, coming back alongside the river.

We passed a large water reservoir and then into the town of Hrinova. On the outskirts there were large factories, and then we heard the loudspeakers again making announcements and playing music. We found the main town square and stopped for an ice cream and directions to the pension. The Pension Anka was not far away, set alongside groups of residential apartment blocks. We had done 94km, a lot of uphill, and were worn out, so we treated ourselves to the large suite (EUR50).

 

Today was a real treat – a manageable 64km ride through super scenic Slovakian countryside, with good roads and little other traffic.

We started out going west along the 520 from Trestna, passing through the towns of Liesek and Cimhova. Here we noticed loadspeakers broadcasting music along the main street again. We first heard this when we entered Trstena and find it very intiguing.

At Vitonova we turned onto the 584 to follow the Oravica river south.

Here we also passed heaps of accommodation, mainly bed and breakfast advertised on private homes, the reason became apparent when saw a ski lift just as we were leaving the town.

Along the 584 we found a wonderful cycle track, the best cycling infrastructure we have seen since Germany. It came to an end at a large ski park that had a ski lift and large warm water spa (you can just imagine it buzzing in winter).

         

It was a clear but cold day, so we stopped for a coffee at Zuberec in working mans cafe – there were heaters on alongside the tables and I could warm up my feet. Even though it was only 11am, there were a couple of workers there eating very hearty looking food and some more came in while we were there. We were very tempted to try the food, but it wouldn’t have been a good idea to eat a big meal while cycling.

A little while later we stopped for another coffee at a smart cafe along the mountain pass – just before a steep climb! This was a newly built lodge, all made out of wood with sheepskins hanging from the rafters, a roaring fire and stunning views. The patrons were business men and day trippers.

We had a long climb to the top of the mountain in low gears, and then a wonderful downhill run.

We cycled through Liptovske Matiasouce, Liptouska Sielnica, and then to Liptovsky Mikulas. We passed a huge hot bath/ water park/ zoo/ movie entertainment complex just before town. The sun came out and it warmed up as we arrived in Liptovsky Mikulas.

The town had a very smart tourist office with a young lady who could speak good English (it seems like tourism is one of the main industries here). She helped us organise our accommodation at the Penzion Boniface. The main bonus of this place was that it has a huge bath (only showers up to now) – so we could have a good soak.

The town has a large central pedestrian area with cafes and bars. We found a “beer garden” down an alley off the main area – with parking for bicycles right outside. The bar man called someone over who could speak English from among his customers to help us chose a beer, and we ended up with a very good beer that rivals any Wellington craft beer. We enjoyed sitting outside alongside the locals – and especially some of the music, that was some sort of Slovakian rap/ rock.

We had dinner at a traditional style restaurant not far away – cabbage soup and a shared plate of local specialities – potato dumplings in sheep cheese sauce and cheese filled dumplings, something like ravioli. It was very good, just the type of thing you can imagine eating after spending the day on the mountains with your sheep. We finished our evening off with another beer at our new favourite pub.

We were relieved to wake up to better weather, the sun was even shining a for a few moments this morning. Today we did 83km from Sucha Beskidzha to Trstena in Slovakia.

We took a little time looking around Sucha Beskidzha and spending the last of our Polish Zloty on new bicycle brake pads and orange juice for the journey. There were many little shops along the main street, an attractive town for tourists.

We headed out of town to the west, alongside the train track and river. There was even a bicycle route for the first few kms. The first town past was Lachowice, then Jesowski Dzial, then Hucisiko. There were a couple of steep hills (both up and down).

Here we had a little adventure at an unmarked intersection. Kris wanted to continue following the train track but wanted to make sure we were on the right road. He stopped to ask a man mowing a lawn nearby, who seemed to indicate we should go back the way we came (which would be a long steep uphill, so we were not keen).

A bus then stopped and the driver began to speak to me. He turned out to be Russian, with only a few words of English. Anyway, he was helpfull and a conversation ensued between Kris, the man mowing the lawn and the bus driver. Another man (pedestrian) also stopped and joined in. Eventually a consensus was reached that we could go either way. We said that we wanted to go on and then bus driver told us to follow him in the bus.

So Kris and I were riding behind this yellow bus, which was soon on a gravel roads with potholes, through a forest, pedalling with effort to keep up! He stopped the bus about a kilometre up the gravel road and directed us from there. He had his daughter, who can speak English, translating for him on his mobile phone at this point. The instructions were to continue up the gravel path for about 1km, turning right at the first main road we came to. Then we would have a long downhill. After ten km, were told to turn left at the next major intersection. Then to keep going until we reach Slovakia.

The directions worked out pretty perfectly even though it was a bit different from the route we planned. Here is a photo of the gravel road we took through the woods. It is a short-cut not shown on any map.

The road to Slowakia took us through lots of little tourist settlements, very pretty and green. There was lots of accommodation around, we suspect for winter skiing. The route was the 945 (which was part of our planned route), which is called the 521 in Slovakia.

There was a long long hill climb just before the border, going through forests, where there was some logging going on, and alongside a little stream. The border is on the top of the hill and it is all downhill from there.

Our first impression of Slovakia is that it is very scenic. We passed a flock of sheep some of which had bells around their necks, so they were clinking as they grazed. There were also regular road-work stops along the route. We reached a huge lake called Orava about 20km from the border. The main town on the lake was Namestovo. It was getting really cold at this point (less than ten degrees Celsius). We pressed on around the southern side of the lake, crossing a dam wall with hydro generators. There was a final hill climb just before we got to the town of Trstena, where we are staying. Here is the view looking back at the lake from the top of the climb.

We were feeling cold when we stopped at the Trstena tourist info and in a hurry to find our hotel. Luckily it was really nearby, and we have a huge room with heaters!

After cleaning up we went to the pizza cafe at the bottom of the hotel and bought the biggest pizza we have ever eaten (50cm diameter) and also some draught beer. The draught beer cost less than NZ$2 and the pizza around NZ$15. And yes we did eat it all and it was good.