August 7-11, 2018
We cycled for a few days in Austria, Slovakia and into Hungary and spent some time along the Danube. Unfortunately there are few pictures published now because most were taken with our smart phones and as I’m publishing this late I don’t have access to those photos. Enjoy the few there are!
What happened…
Amanda writes: On August 7th we did some bike repairs and sightseeing in Vienna. On the 8th we had planned to cycle but Steph wasn’t feeling well. Instead we took a 12pm train and arrived in the afternoon and did some sightseeing. We stayed at an AirBnB. August 9 was very hot. There were some rough gravel paths that put us back on the highway and traffic was busy. On August 10 Andrew was his usual I’m the boss and left the shitty path and headed for the highway. It was one of those things where both options sucked and it was a lose lose situation. Tensions continued to be high and it appears we have very few pictures with our DSLR camera.
Stephanie writes:The day we arrived Andrew made us take my bike to the shop without his help. So Amanda and I dealt with the guy and figured it all out. We also went to the grocery store. They have yellow watermelon and Europe berries. I had a super long shower with heater in shower with you. Maybe this is normal in Austria.
On our rest day off the bikes we slept in and went and ate breakfast and then went back to sleep. We picked up my bike with everything fixed except the wheel is a bit up and down now. He said I basically need a new wheel. The total charge was only 40€. We came back and Amanda had a class and Andrew had 3 classes. Then we took subway to downtown Vienna. I liked some guys hair and said to a&a I like that guys hair. His dad spoke English and told him and then he started talking gibberish to me. “Sorry I don’t speak English””do you speak German?”” Nope not that either”.
Came out of the subway in front of another Gothic church. We walked all the way around before realizing we were in front of the entrance at the beginning. We skipped the paying line accidentally so didn’t pay. We went into some souvenir shops and went into tourist sites and it started raining. We walked around some monuments a park and a butterfly zoo. Andrew found an A1 store with phone plans. He got us both new plans. Then we went into a crystal store with swans. We came out to three people playing weird instruments and only like 6 songs. One guy was playing a giant triangle shaped bass guitar, another guy a mini button accordion (fancy), a girl playing a banjo/guitar type thing; it was cool. We went to a pizza restaurant and Andrew was super super rude to the waiter saying things like “Toute suite” “right now” “chop chop”. Then he asked the guy to reheat his meal, because his was cold waiting for ours to come. We was also a total dick about sightseeing. We went upstairs to English people talking really loudly and then went to a closed Apple store and watched how thoroughly they clean everything. An employee sneezed and then looked at me and laughed. We went to look at a little cafe recommended after dinner but didn’t get anything. There are tons of horse carriages in the city and protesters against it. We walked back to subway and came back and packed.
On the 8th we started the day with a flat tire and had to fix my flat tire. We rode to the train station and were on same train as couple we camped next to before. It was extremely hot. We walked on the train tracks to get out. The roads are covered in potholes. We walked into town after showering at our AirBnB and went to a little market souvenir place. I got Bratislava pins. There was a wire zoo and we went to a little cafe in an ally and got drinks. We went and looked at the castle wall and then went to the grocery store while Andrew talked to cyclists. Nobody wanted to or would help us. Then we
watched a movie!!! In our hotel room; it was such a nice normal thing to do.
On the 9th we got everything together to leave and accidentally bought a carton of yogurt instead of milk. We rode our bikes to the river cruise boat terminal and it took some effort to roll on bikes. There was one guy working in the boat who carried mine. Everyone was super greedy with the seats upstairs and we sat alone downstairs and then people started coming down because of the air conditioning. It took 1.5 hours to go 12km there. The Castle was super super hot. There was a donkey with an electric fence around him and signs everywhere not to touch the fence. Some lady touched the fence right in front of her kid it zaps her. It was so stupid. There were two big guys without shirts. I saw a super deep well where you would drop water down and it took more than 7 seconds to reach the bottom. There was a spear through the holes game, bow and arrows, swinging sandbags and old fighting gear. We went back down to boat and decided to go back on boat instead of cycling out which we had originally planned to do. We got a table upstairs and under the shade and ate lunch on the boat before going back. Amanda had a class when we were docking and Andrew and I brought bikes back up the dock. Everyone for the next cruise was on the ramp blocking the way and didn’t move to let us by. We rode on cobblestone to get to the train station. The guy didn’t let us bring bikes on the track like we did last time and we had to gt down and up a floor and a bit of stairs in under 7 minutes to catch the train. We just made it super rushed and sweaty. Amanda moved Andrews bike on the train because a lady was using it as an armrest and Amanda didn’t want it to fall. The lady moved too so she could continue using it. When we got off we walked across the tracks some super loud lady was yelling on the phone outside. We rode 15km to a wild camp spot with a really nice sunset. There were fish and eel jumping up in water.
On the 10th we woke up and fish were still jumping in the water. Maybe they thought they could catch frogs. We woke up super late like 8 and got on a super nice paved flat path then very quickly left that path onto an extremely bumpy path the rest of the way. We were around huge trees on slopes. Even the sidewalks were super wonky and all over the place. At one point we had to go up like a 35 degree climb super super steep and had to help each other. Once we got on road it was so busy. A bus driver honked at us and trucks were driving super close to us. A lady at Lidl (grocery store) glared at me when I smiled as she locked up to her bike next to mine. We got to a campsite and swam in the pool and then swam in the pool again. There are gross bathrooms and ants absolutely everywhere. There was a Hungarian music concert playing literally next door. Then men are so fat they look like pregnant men in Europe
On the 11th we slept in super late. Last night I fell asleep with the hard rock music and woke up to Andrew snoring. It also rained last night. We took our time getting ready and rode to a ferry on terrible road conditions. There were honking people on the highway. We got drinks and waited for the ferry. The ferry had 4 cars probably and would max out at 8. it just crossed the river. We got off the ferry and rode next to two English men. We stopped for Amanda’s class and had lunch. We rode on a super pretty path for a while. We stopped for dinner and went to a grocery store and there was a person with a white afro. We arrived at our warm showers host in Budapest. There was a person with a white Afro and we arrived at our warm shower host.
Today’s Flickr Photographs
Cycling Stats
August 8, 2018
Start Point: Vienna, Austria
Destination: Bratislava, Slovakia
4.03 km trip, 9 km/h average speed, 28 km/h maximum speed, 0:27 time on the bike
August 9, 2018
Start Point: Bratislava, Slovakia
Destination: Wild camp between Ova and Patince
18.1 km trip, 12.86 km/h average speed, 24.22 km/h maximum speed, 1:24 time on the bike
August 10, 2018
Start Point: Wild camp between Ova and Patince
Destination: Esztergrom, Hungary
44.5 km trip, 15.56 km/h average speed, 27.3 km/h maximum speed, 2:52 time on the bike
August 11, 2018
Start Point: Esztergrom, Hungary
Destination: Budapest, Hungary
78.61 km trip, 16.52 km/h average speed, 37.1 km/h maximum speed, 4:45 time on the bike
Route Description:
August 8, 2018 We had planned to cycle but ended up taking a train. Our mileage was just cycling to and front train stations.
August 9, 2018 The day started with a flat tire and then we took a boat cruise to a castle and then a boat back to town followed by a 2 hour train to Komoron. Then we cycled 15K on a great path to a wild camp along the Danube river.
August 10, 2018 The day started on a paved bike bath. It quickly became double track along the river. It wasn’t horrible but certainly not awesome. We left the path and headed for the highway with the cars. We crossed a bridge to Hungary to a campground. There is a grocery store on the Slovakia side before you cross the bridge.
August 11, 2018 We stayed on the ev6 for almost the entire day. It included great bike paths along the river and through some nice treed parks. Closer to the city the route involved a few more streets but all had very light traffic.
Accommodations:
August 8, 2018 There are lots of hotels in Bratislava and we stayed at an AirBnB.
August 9, 2018 We wild camped along the Danube river. We had read there are campgrounds in the area but we didn’t look for them.
August 10, 2018 We camped in Hungary at Gran camping which had a kick ass pool. It was 23 euros or 6700K local currency.
August 11, 2018 We stayed with a warm showers host as hotels were super expensive.