Over the Bridge into Hungary

We rode down the Danube river trail from Komarno, Slovakia for about 30 miles of *interesting* terrain.

And into Hungary:

Crossing the Danube from Slovakia into Esztergom, Hungary

Hungary was occupied by the Celts, the Roman Empire, invaded by the Mongols, was part of the Ottoman Empire, shifted to the Habsburg emperors, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, occupied by the Germans, behind the Iron Curtain for decades, and joined the European Union in 2004. (Whoosh!) During the Cold War and up until 1989, an electric/barbed wire fence (an electric Iron Curtain fence!) separated the country from Austria. In April 1989, the Hungarian government ordered the electricity in the barbed-wire border to be turned off. This was the first crack along the entire length of the Iron Curtain. In May of 1989, border guards began removing sections of the barrier. In June, Hungary and Austrian Ministers of Foreign Affairs held a symbolic fence-cutting ceremony at the border. In the first few weeks of opening the border, there was a parade of Hungarian cars driving home from Austria with washing machines strapped to the top.

The EuroVelo 6 route is a cross-Europe designated bicycle route from the west coast of France to the Black Sea. In France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the route is clearly signed at almost every turn. Slovakia is trying hard, and signage is good, but sometimes confusing, and sometimes along *interesting* pathways. We have only traveled about 20 miles down the Danube on the Hungarian side, but we have yet to see a marker. The route markers, we have been warned, get worse. In Romania for example, the route is marked on the web map with a dotted line, as in, “conceptual” route. This is no surprise. We spoke with a young Romanian woman in Straubing. We told her we were riding to Contstanta. “You are very brave,” she said. She told us she was in Straubing to earn money. “No jobs in Romania?” I asked. “Oh yes, there are jobs, but no money.”

Today for the first time in 1600 miles across Europe, we were forced onto a two-lane shoulder-less busy highway for 10 miles as we rode to our destination for the evening, Visegrad, on the Danube Bend, where the river turns due south, a mere 30 miles from Budapest. (For you future Eurovelo tourers, there are lots of resources, but the best app we have found for navigating is MapOut. Google does not work. Not even close. Some people we see are using paper maps.)

We have ridden hundreds of miles on roads like this. But this was the first in Europe! And so our (my) senses were on high-alert. Riding skills require focus and a bend in the elbow. Oh, and it was raining and late in the afternoon and I was tired.

Alas, Visegrad arrived. We booked a room on a retired river boat for the night. It is very quiet and we are watching the river flow by like a torrent out our window.

With thinking we may be beside ourselves in a sane sense. By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad flow by like a torrent. Thoreau

Tonight’s lodging

There are castle and palace and fortress ruins here. Am I growing jaded? The castle ruins are atop a large hill and grant a great vista to visitors. We will admire from below. We had a bowl of Hungarian goulash for dinner, which was not near as good as the Hungarian Jocai bean soup. I have looked up recipes for this soup and they all say to use pinto beans, but the three different places we ate this soup definitely did not use pinto beans. It was some gigantic type of kidney-like bean. Anyone know what kind of bean that is?

Addendum: Success this morning at breakfast from our waitress regarding the bean! Horse bean!

Sights along the way in Hungary

50 miles, 900 feet of climbing