Thursday 4 June – Slovakian flats

Thursday 4 June – Slovakian flats

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.

stopbank

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.

wheatfield

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.

pension

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.

beergarden

2 thoughts on “Thursday 4 June – Slovakian flats

  1. Hi Jenny – really enjoying your regular posts to this blog – very interesting. Pictures are great too. Makes me feel like I am travelling with you but without sore backside/legs and language challenges! What sort of temperatures are you getting day/night there?

  2. Hello Ian and thanks for the encouragement.
    The last few days have been extremely hot – Vienna was so hot I swam in the Danube and we couldn’t bear standing in the sun. Yesterday must have been in the mid 30’s while we were riding out of Vienna. At around 8pm the street thermometers were displaying 26C (in Melk).
    cheers,
    H
    Jenny

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