Day 35: Bruce's Birthday into Belgrade
Wednesday July 31 - Day 35 -  53miles - Total 1366miles   

We were all packed up early and had muesli and yogurt for breakfast. Bruce had the last remaining piece of chocolate cake from the night before. The hostesses said farewell to us in the courtyard before we opened the gate and cycled out into the streets of Novi Sad by 8.30am.

Stefan led the way through town, as he and Rebecca had gone that way to the fortress yesterday. There are some separated bike lanes in Novi Sad, but they do tend to end abruptly and also have curbs on them. Still, it is a lot better than most cities in the USA!

As we went over the Danube bridge out of town, a street dog started following us, but not in a menacing way. It almost seemed to be protecting us, as it barked at and chased the cars that were passing us. It did follow us quite a way though and it did get close to a number of cars. Hopefully our escort from Novi Sad will be OK.

The official Eurovelo 6 Route takes you out of Novi Sad by the main road to Sremski Karlovci and then up a steep hill on the main road, which has been complained about by other touring cyclists, not just for the steepness, but also the traffic volume and the lack of any place to pull off. None of us fancied cycling this hill, so we detoured around it on a track that we hoped would work! Initially the detour was excellent as it was an asphalt road leading into an industrial zone. However the road turned into a gravel track past the industrial area, although it did stay relatively flat as it paralleled the railway line. However the track disintegrated further as it started climbing. Big mud puddles in it from the rainstorms of the prior night further deteriorated the path. Stefan and Rebecca handled this section really well as they have big gnarly tires on their mountain bikes. We "only" had 1.6" tires so the trail was a little tougher for us! We finally made it through and the trail started improving a bit as it went by a National Park. We were all invited for a beer at 10am by a guy in a Yugo. We politely declined and made it back onto route at the village of Cortanovci. The detour was only 8kms or so, but it seemed a lot longer! We probably climbed the same altitude in total as if we had been on the road, but at least we didn't have to deal with the traffic.

We cycled to the village of Beska and got some snacks at the small shop there. We did some quick route planning of our various options. We could follow the Eurovelo route which is unnecessarily long; follow the main road which might be trafficky but which is a lot shorter; or there appeared to be a compromise option through the village of Novi Karlovci. The three French people from the campsite in Baja Hungary pulled up at this point, so Bruce chatted to them a little.

We tried to take the compromise option and cycled out of Beska, but the road on the map didn't actually exist and was actually just a mud tractor trail.....we reconsidered quickly and decided to follow the main road, especially since the Eurovelo route re-joins the main road after following the Danube closely. We cycled out of Beska (again) and made our way to the main road, Route 22-1.

It was pretty trafficky, but was wider and it had a great surface, so combined with the tailwind and slight downhill, we fairly rocketed into India....yes, the next town was called India (Indija - but the j is pronounced as a y). 

The Eurovelo route rejoined us as we had lunch in Batajnica. We had a chicken sandwich from a small food vendor, but these things were huge! We had no idea when we ordered them. We even struggled to finish them and the fries that were ordered.

We cycled past a military base and took Andrea's photo next to the Mig jet on display. We finally got off the main road, but the route that the Eurovelo takes you on is down some awful cobblestone streets. Now, these weren't even the nice small cobble stones that you can speed over only chipping a few teeth along the way, no... these are the big uneven cobblestones, so when there are gaps in the mortar between them, or a whole stone or two missing, these can be really dangerous for cyclists, as they will eat your front wheel.

Anyhow, we got back to the banks of the Danube and followed the very nice path through a park for the last 3 or so miles into Belgrade. The bridge to cross the Sava river is a busy one and luckily there is a sidewalk. We semi-successfully navigated to the hostel after looking lost. We saw the shoe store that serves as the shared entrance to the "Groovy Nights Hostel", but the problem was that it was across a four lane busy road. This part of Belgrade reminded us of Government Center in Boston - some old buildings remain, but the majority had been bulldozed and a big road driven through the middle. In fact Belgrade so far, hasn't made much of an impression on us. It is actually pretty darn ugly. 

We waited outside of a pawnshop, across the road, while Stefan checked out the hostel. There was an underpass, but it only had stairs so it was going to be tricky getting our bikes across. Stefan finally came back (Rebecca thought that we was already showering!) and it turned out that he had got stuck in the elevator....he was also accompanied by the hostel manager....who we nicknamed Moshi. His actual name was Alexander. He helped us with the bikes through the underpass and he single-handedly lifted Andrea's loaded touring bike up 25 steps in flip-flops!

We unpacked all bikes in the narrow foyer and put everything in the elevator with Andrea and then more with Rebecca...hoping that they wouldn't get stuck either. Stefan and Moshi carried the bikes up the stairs. Bruce tried to help but they wouldn't let him as it was his birthday! 

The hostel was pretty new and actually very nice. There were a lack of showers, as there were only two for the whole hostel (maybe 20 people if it was full) but it wasn't too busy when we got there, so we all showered up and then went walking around Belgrade. We were hoping that something would change our initial impression, but even the main pedestrianized street and Republic Square were both pretty ugly. There were some pretty buildings, but there were rundown. The communists really did a number on this city. We were really happy that we took our rest day in Novi Sad and not in Belgrade.

We had dinner at a pizza place on the pedestrianized street, and it was really good. We ordered risotto and savory crepes and both were delicious. We wandered around a little more to the fortress area and we got some gelato for dessert. Customer service hasn't gotten any better as the girl serving flirted and chatted with the waiters in her restaurant while she had a line of 10 people all wanting gelato....still the gelato was very tasty!

We returned to the hostel, intending on an early night, but the hostel managers were still around and they brought out their homemade Rakija, which they are very proud of. This is the homemade firewater made from plums. We had a glass or two to be polite and it actually wasn't too bad! 

Off to bed!

The World is Ours!

Day 34: Novi Sad and Chocolate Cake
Tuesday July 30 - Day 34 - Rest Day - Total 1313miles

A thunderstorm last night woke us up at 5am. There was some serious thunder and lightning out there, which was very fun to watch and then go back to sleep afterwards... because it is our Rest Day! We slept in late (after the 5am wake up). We woke up to a much cooler day than we have had in a LONG time. But we have to say that it is weird when 85F feels cool... though there was a breeze. We had breakfast in the main hostel kitchen, when another guest and his 14m.o. son came out for breakfast as well. So we had breakfast with Nick and Adam. Nick is actually from New Hampshire and was born in Massachusetts! He has lived in the Czech Republic for the past 10 years and works as a translator. His son Adam was a toe-headed bubbly little boy who made Bruce for the softy he is. Adam was up on Bruce's lap in no time, eating his breakfast and then feeding Bruce the pieces of plum Bruce was trying to feed him. The little boy looked just like Bruce which was funny because even Adam's mother (Nick's wife) commented on it. It was a good morning full of laughs and giggles. 

After breakfast, Stefan and Rebecca went out to go sightseeing in Novi Sad while we stayed in the cool shade and wrote blogs for most of the morning. We wanted to rest our legs and our brains today, so we decided to take it easy and relax. Unfortunately the internet connection at the hostel was on the slow side so it was difficult to upload photos. We went out into town in search of a better wifi signal and whilst walking to the McDonalds came across a local pizza place with free wifi. We stopped there and had a fabulous pizza with a sesame seed crust. We also ordered a Caesar salad, but this came with chicken and bacon and ranch dressing....which Bruce loved!

We posted a couple of blogs and headed back to the hostel. Bruce was complaining that his hair was getting too long, so Andrea trimmed a little bit all around, which was a little disconcerting for Bruce, but it worked out well all round!

As we were writing the next round of blogs the daughter of the hostel owner appeared at the top of the stairs and says she hears that there is a birthday and her mother wants to make a cake!! Do you want fruit or chocolate? Bruce chose chocolate.


When Stefan and Rebecca got "home" we had the watermelon we had bought the day before. After washing our hands and faces from the incredibly drippy watermelon, we planned for tomorrow and booked another hostel for tomorrow night in Belgrade (Bruce's Birthday). 

We had planned to go out for dinner to a fish restaurant that the hostel owner had recommended but no one was particularly hungry (after the water melon) so we hit the grocery store again and stayed in and noshed on bread, feta cheese and tomato (no cucumber). We bought some Macedonian white wine, which wasn't too bad! And took the freshly baked Serbian Chocolate cake out of the fridge to be ready for dessert. 

During dinner, we taught Austrians some good scottish/british words (Numpty, foosty, whilst, yonder) and the austrians keep trying to teach Bruce how to pronounce German words (Brot - bread, knoublauch - garlic, and fumf - five). 

While we were eating and trying to mess with each other's learning of a foreign language a Polish couple arrived (with another baby) on their way back from a Macedonia/Albania trip. We didn't think they would be very talkative (little did we know)... so we continued playing verbal gymnastics. When we opened the beer, we offered some to the Polish couple that just sat down at the common kitchen table. This opened up the flood gates of a very talkative Polish woman, Ivona, who was also a German teacher and learning English as a hobby. She went on and on about anything and everything switching back and forth from English to German, so excited to use her languages and to chat with new people.

Bruce felt really cool when he got to use all of his Polish lines like the one about conjugating the Polish words for juice with voldka, (The zabruwka and apple juice story). He also got to use his story about touring through Europe in a Polish Fiat 500, at which point Stefan called Bruce a Crazy Bastard. Now, getting called a crazy bastard by and Austrian is like being called a numpty by a Scotsman... so it was just perfect. As Bruce says, "He was just jealous. :::wink:::"

We finished dinner, beer, water melon, and Bruce's Chocolate Birthday cake (which was delicious!)
at just about midnight on his Birthday. We all sang Happy birthday in 3 languages at midnight to my husband, each got 3 kisses each from Ivona, and headed off to bed thoroughly rested and exhausted at the same time. 

An early start is going to be hard tomorrow. 
Happy Birthday Bruce!
The World is Ours!

Day 33: Into Novi Sad  
Monday July 29 – Day 33 - 37miles – Total 1313miles  

After the success of starting early yesterday, we did it again and agreed to be ready to go at 8am. We succeeded again and even had visited the shop by then! We rolled out of Cujo’s courtyard and through the rough streets of Odzaci before hitting the open road.

We made good time in our convoy of four cyclists. We stopped briefly in the town of Ratkovo to get cold drinks as well as getting some caffeine into Andrea. Bruce hung outside with the bicycles and the local drunkard. He was halfway through a bottle of beer when we got there. He rapidly finished this bottle, went inside and returned it, and came back with another full one, which he expertly opened on the side of the metal telegraph pole which was conveniently located just outside. Now remember that is was just after 9am in the morning… we had tried to buy glass bottles of beer in Serbia but had been told that we couldn’t as we didn’t have any empties to return first. This creates an obvious question – which comes first? The full bottle or the empty bottle? How do you buy your first bottle of beer in Serbia? Rather than battle obstinate Serbian cashiers, we have just been buying beer in aluminum cans, but they cost about 40% more for the same volume than the returnable glass bottles… grrr…

We were already half way to Novi Sad by 10am, as we passed through the towns of Parage and Silbas. The heat rose throughout the morning as the sun baked us from a cloudless sky. It was the hottest day yet……

We passed lots of melon stalls and the going rate seems to be 20 dinars per kilo, which is about 0.25USD per kilo. Pretty good price, but Andrea objected to carrying a watermelon on the back of her bike….. 

We reached Backi Petrovac and saw signs for “Petroland”, which although it sounds like a theme park run by BP and ExxonMobil, was actually a waterpark with flumes and slides. It was very tempting to stop and play in the waterpark, but we decided to push on to Novi Sad since it was within striking distance now.

The traffic became a little heavier now on Route 102, which was the road we were on. It was one lane each way, with no shoulder. The drivers in Serbia are pretty fast and overtake each other all the time. The good part is that they are used to very slow moving vehicles as there are lots of ancient mopeds, tractors and Yugos on the road. Thus they know how to overtake, although a couple did come a tad closer than we would have liked.

We made one last stop in Rumenka for cold water. The road was pretty busy now, but miraculously a bike path appeared just before the new ring road around Novi Sad, as we entered the city limits.

We followed the bike path into the city and then Stefan took over navigation to the youth hostel that they had booked last night for all of us. The outskirts of Novi Sad are full of commie blocks but he flawlessly wound his way through the streets to our hostel Bodara.

We arrived just after noon, having completed 37 miles in a record time for us. We tried to beat the heat and we mostly succeeded although it was really grueling anyway! The lovely lady who runs the hostel checked us in even though we were early and gave us maps of the city and marked on each map where to eat and where to go…..and this place has air-conditioning! 

We showered up and then went to the supermarket which was only a 5 minute walk from the hostel. We bought stuff for lunch and then headed back to the coolness of the hostel. The store security guard was very unsubtle at the supermarket though, as he ducked behind endcaps and peeked around them at us. I gave him a loud “Goodbye” in Serbian as we left and he replied in English “Just doing my job”…

We ate lunch pretty quickly and then all retired for an afternoon nap in our cool rooms until the sun went down…..too hot to go out again!

We have been surprised in Serbia that most shops are open 24hours a day and they all seem to take credit cards and are air conditioned. We thought that this would be a less developed country, but seems to somehow be further ahead in consumer culture than its neighbors.

After our nap and the sun had gone down we wandered the 10minutes into the center of Novi Sad. Once you clear the commie blocks the original architecture is still stunning. We were told that this was the furthest south Hapsburg city on the Danube and we can believe it. There were gorgeous churches and an impressive City Hall in the main square. All of the small streets are filled with pubs, restaurants and sidewalk cafes with umbrellas and terraces.

We found our recommended restaurant called Astal Saren and enjoyed a traditional Serbian dinner, including a spicy salad, baked beans dish and more meat of various sorts. All washed down with the local brew called Lav. Very bad choice of name, but such is life.

The waiter was having fun with us and gave us a round of the local firewater called Rakja on the house. He then insisted on another round including him…..the stuff wasn’t as bad as it could have been! We meandered our way back to the hostel and slept very well! Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow on our rest day!

The World is Ours!

Day 32: A Long Hot Day 
Sunday July 28 - Day 32 - 45miles - Total 1276miles
  
Hot, hot, hot!
We all got up at 6am to beat the heat and it worked… to an extent…

Andrea made scrambled eggs for everyone this morning and we went to the shop when it opened at 8am to get cold water and lunch supplies.

We crossed the border out of Croatia across bridge into Serbia, which was called the Bridge of the 51st Division….we had to take a photo of that. If we had had a set of Scottish dancers I am sure we could have surprised the border guards on each end of the bridge by performing “Reel of the 51st Division” in the middle of the bridge. Our route looped back under the bridge on dirt doubletrack into a Nature Preserve for 10miles. We passed an old Yugoslavian Military museum that was obviously abandoned. As we headed into the Nature Preserve, the surface wasn’t too bad, hard packed dirt and a bit of drifting silt.  Although at times it was hard going, especially where one track would cross another or if we hit tractor tracks made in the mud during the flooding. What was cool about this track is that we passed in and out of Serbia and Croatia about 5 times. The border between these countries follows an old path of the Danube that snaked back and forth, where we were now following the more of less straight line of the matured river. This multi-border area isn’t very well cared for, since no one wants to care for another country’s land, and Croatia can’t reach its territory without crossing the river or into Serbian territory. This is yet another example of a no-man’s land… although we did see people there… fishing and tooling about on motor bikes.  

The last 5 miles into Apatin, Serbia was asphalt. We cut pretty close to the Danube and an overflow area that people obviously used as the local beach. We went swimming in the Danube (Dunav) with a whole lot-a Serbian flesh (thankfully most of it was covered). We had lunch in the shade (we had to defend our territory from encroaching Serbians) of spreadable cheese and salami on bread with pears from our apartment. At the beach, we saw Yugo cars galore! We even watched as the fire department and police had to put out the fire of a Yugo that blew up on the road across the river from us. Commie Car Bingo is filling up!

After lunch, we pushed on although now it was really hot after the refreshing dip in the Dunav. In Apatin, we went to a bankomat and got some Serbian Dinars for our duration, a little less than 100 dinars to the dollar.

Out on the road again, it was hot! Hot! HOT!

But to our salvation we found an air-conditioned gas station in Svilojevo, with ice cold water and a very friendly attendant who spoke German (Yay, for German speaking Travel Buddies!) Stefan and Rebecca chatted with him while we all rehydrated and cooled our bodies down. We weren’t sure which town would have a hotel and the gas station attendant thought our best bet would be in Odzaci (a few towns along the way). So we pushed on…

About 8 miles down the road, in Bogojevo, we had a limon beer because sometimes you can’t find cold water but you can ALWAYS find cold beer. These beers only have 2% alcohol by volume, so they are more hydrating than intoxicating. No hotel in Bogojevo… so we pushed on…

About 4 miles down the road, we passed a burning trash dump in Karavukovo - haven't seen those in a couple of years… no hotel or cold beer here… so we pushed on…

Finally, we made it to Odzaci. We found a little hotel with en suite and air conditioning for 1200 dinars for both of us - that is about $8USD each! We all showered, rinsed and hung our clothes out to dry, and went out to find dinner. In the courtyard of this hotel, a dog was penned up in the back corner. This dog was a huge black bull mastiff with a bark that echoed through the walls. Initially we were a bit wary of the beast, but soon realized it was still a puppy, and it was a she, and she was very friendly… if not particularly well trained.  We named her Cujo, petted her over her gate, while avoiding the slobber and happy puppy biting from a mouth that could take off a hand.

We didn’t end up doing all that many miles today for the many hours we were on the road but it was a hot hot hot day (40C/104F)… The rests were necessary but it took a long time (almost 8 hours) to finish 45miles…

We had dinner at Restaurant Lazar... The waiter gave us the German Menu (Yay for German Speaking Travel Buddies!) and then finally ordered for us a traditional Serbian meat platter and mixed salads of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. We washed it all down with some Jelen beer brewed in Apatin... We actually cycled past the brewery that day. By the end of dinner, we were all completely exhausted, stuffed, and ready for bed. Andrea wrapped up the last pork chop for Cujo and we headed back to our air-conditioned rooms. We plan on waking up for an 8 o’clock start time, so we can reach Novi Sad by mid-day tomorrow to avoid the heat. Rest day in Novi Sad to follow!!!

Note: Cujo ate the pork chop and the paper napkin without chewing and slobbered all over Andrea’s hand in gratitude.

The World is Ours!

Day 31: One Night in Croatia
Saturday July 27 - Day 31 - 48miles – Total 1231Miles  

Despite the loud music going on in one of the next door bars, we both slept well last night and we were up early as we had positioned the tent so the morning sun would hit it. Bruce went on a mission to get some coffee, since we didn’t feel like unpacking the whole kitchen pannier so we could make our own. Unfortunately the outdoor café at the youth hostel was still closed, with one person sleeping on one of the tables in a sleeping bag and two others in hammocks draped between tables…ahhh, youth hostels…….however he did find a vending machine that sold him two coffees for the equivalent of 0.20USD each….score!
 
Whilst we were packing up the tent, we started chatting to a cool Australian couple, called Margaret & Trevor, who had done quite a few cycle trips. They had started in Passau, Austria and remembered us from the campsite in Krems, Austria. Guess we make quite an impression on people! They had done a trans-Himalayan cycle trip on their 20th wedding anniversary from Lhasa, Tibet to Katmandu, Nepal – sounds awesome!
 
Stefan and Rebecca had also woken up early and were packing up their stuff, so we all set off together at about 8am, when it was already getting really hot out. After crossing the bridge back to the town from the campsite, we pretty much immediately got lost trying to get out of town! We navigated our way however, including stints on sidewalks and cobblestones but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been!
 
The route was all asphalt after that to the village of Dunafalva, including on the levee, although the locals seem to treat the levee as a cut through, as they drive their little cars on it at great rates of knots! This is a bit tricky as it is essentially a single track road, with steep sides, so there isn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver. At Dunafalva, the levee continues but it is dirt from there for another 8 miles to the ferry jetty for Mohacs. Unfortunately, the levee path is in really bad shape according to reports and 8 miles is a long time to be on a bad surface. It did look like they were working on improving it, but whether it was post flooding construction or not was hard to tell. We decided to take the asphalt alternate which detoured us inland and was essentially doing two sides of a triangle. So instead of just another 8 miles to the ferry it ended up being 15miles. However, it probably saved us time as it was all on asphalt rather than bad dirt. (We had all had recent experience on sand and dirt... and didn't want to repeat it...)
 
We did manage to find shade every few miles which was really nice as it was really getting hot out. The temp was about 35C/95F in the shade, so when we were cycling in the sun on the lovely hot, toasty, black asphalt it was well over 100F. 
We just managed to catch the ferry to Mohacs (they held the ferry as the funny foreigners fumbled with their forints to pay for the tickets at the hidden ticket office before boarding!). We disembarked and went straight into the closest shop to find that they don’t stock cold water. What good is warm water on a 100F day? Stefan used his smartphone to find a Penny Market grocery store about 1/2mile away, so we headed there and hit the jackpot. It was air-conditioned!!
 
Andrea, Stefan & Rebecca spent longer than necessary buying some lunch food while Bruce watched the bikes outside, and then Bruce swapped with Andrea while in line for the checkout counter. (Gotta keep the big man cool...) We bought bread and cheese, cucumbers, pepperoni and cookies for lunch and made a picnic outside of the Penny Market in the shade of its canopy. Again we have given up caring what people think and I can only imagine what the locals must think. Imagine if you saw four Hungarians on a picnic blanket in the shade out front of the local Market Basket or Tesco…….
 
We had a few Hungarian Forints left and we were going to reach the Croatian border in about 10km so we used that as an excuse to head back into the air-conditioning for ice creams, bananas and chocolate to finish out our lunch!
 
We left our resting spot in the shade around 1pm and headed off towards our destination of the Croatian town of Batina. It was really DAMN HOT now, about 38C/100F in the shade. We huffed along and reached the border at Udvar, after paralleling it for about a mile. We got stamped out of Hungary and then stamped into Croatia. This was our first border control point since St Pancra’s station in London, where French immigration is set up for Eurostar passengers. The border guards were very pleasant and slightly amused to see us all pull up. They did make us cut to the front of the line of cars though, which was very nice of them, so we didn’t have to stand over our bikes in the sweltering temperatures.
 
After the border, we huffed along again and turned left to head back towards to the Danube river, now called the Dunav. We reached the village of Draz and unfortunately we had a bit of hill to climb here to get over a ridge before we reached Batina. This was a short (1.5km) but steep (100m altitude gain)
nasty little hill that took a lot out of all of us and we had to stop a couple of times on the way up in the shade of some trees to cool down and get our breath back. Did we mention how hot it was out today??
 
At the top of the ridge, there were gorgeous views back down to the valley and also over the Dunav to Northern Serbia, which, beautifully, appeared to be as flat as a bowling green. There were also peaches and nectarines in orchards on the ridge but all were behind barbwire fences... so Andrea couldn’t fulfill her pillaging desires.
 
The downhill to the village of Batina on the riverbank was just evil as it was a 10% grade with cobble stones all the way down. Our brakes got a serious work out…..
 
At the bottom of the hill we weren't sure how to get Croatian money or a place to stay when a nice old man in a white cap approached and babbled at us in Croatian. We said "Deutsch" and "English" and he responded with "How can I help you?"!!  Apparently he was from or used to live in Australia!
He showed us the little shop in town, which was still open and sold COLD beer and COLD water and showed us the rental apartment in town which we rented for 54Euro for all four of us….and it had a washing machine! The lady who rents the apartment even gave us some homegrown pears as well as some local pastries for dessert. Wow!
 
Andrea and Stefan went shopping for dinner and then we route planned, did laundry, made dinner, chatted more etc. etc. It was a fairly early night to bed to try and get up even earlier to beat the heat tomorrow.
 
The World is Ours!

Day 30: First Rain Since France...
Friday July 26 - Day 30 - 64 miles - Total 1183 miles

We started the morning with a 7am breakfast. Sadly breakfast was a disappointing mix of sliced white bread, processed cheese slices, and not very appetizing cold meats. The Germans couple was disappointed as well with our breakfast spread.  But with a few cups of coffee and some calories starting to digest, we headed out at 8:30 (a nice early start to the day!) And it was already hot. Hot. HOT! We headed out on Route 51, which turned into the old road, which turned back to Route 51. This wasn't confusing, it was nice when we could get away from the traffic a bit. We stopped to pillage some local fruit but strangely the plums aren't ripe again but neither are the pears... so no pillaged fruit today... it is weird when things seem to go backwards even when we are moving forwards. 

Speaking of backwards... we have started a new game as we peddle along, Commie Car Bingo. We have experience with Ladas, Yugos, Wartburgs, and Trabants. But now we are starting to see older ones, newer ones, ones with trailers, roof racks, filled to the roof with tomatoes, dead on the side of the road and so on... As we move deeper into the countryside of the post-Soviet countries, the ratio of these cars to more modern cars is increasing dramatically. And we have definitely been seeing more Ladas with trailers, but they aren't quite as full as we know they can be (because we have seen Ladas pulling Ladas engulfed with 10 feet of hay or filled to the brim with watermelons). This game is fun because the cars are so retro and so ubiquitous. Someday we may even make the bingo cards to play with, since I have a feeling we will be back in this part of the world again... if Bruce has anything to say about it. 

We met a bunch of people today:
As we bumped along a less than perfect sidewalk-turned-bicycle path, we met a touring cyclist going to Istanbul. He is actually Hungarian and just started his tour today.  How cool! He told us that our route over the levee in Fajsz was under construction and that we should take a different route and cut down a highway to avoid the bit under construction. We didn't really want to do that, since it would be longer and probably filled with more traffic. So, we said goodbye and thank you, "Vis Lat" and "Kusanam", and headed off with a plan to check out how bad the construction site was and make a decision later in the day. 

As it got hotter and we searched for water in Dunapataj, we met a French group of 3 cycle tourists who were also following the Danube. We attempted to chat in broken French (they love Romania).  We headed off on our separate ways because they wanted to follow the EuroVelo 6 route and we were following the BrucieVelo Awesome route which should cut out about 10 kilometers of levee path. We will meet this group again later in the day at our campsite in Baja. 
 
Along we went to Fajsz,(where we would pick up the levee path that may or may not be under construction). We saw a small shop, so we went in and bought some cold water.  After a successful, no English conversation in the shop to get the hidden cold water, the lady came out to check our maps. She also told us that the 4 miles of dirt levee we wanted to cross were under construction and we should go back. Okay... so now we have two independent Hungarian sources confirming the existence of this construction. She also advised us to take the highway route and hand-gestured that the way would be okay. So, we turned around out of Fajsz to avoid the mythic construction site of doom. 

All of a sudden, it got very dark. Then the wind picked up. The temperature dropped 30 degrees F... We felt a drop... then a second drop... then (and pardon my language) the entire fucking sky opened up and drenched us with the heaviest fucking rainstorm we have ever seen! 

We rode in the rain for a while until literally there were 3 inches of water on the road and we couldn't see out of our sunglasses without windshield wipers. We found a safe place off the road under some willow trees to wait out the rest of the storm. In truth, it was so much fun speeding through the rain. When cars passed by and splashed us, the water was practically hot from being in contact with the scorching pavement from the sun earlier in the day. The rain was cool and refreshing and since we knew our panniers are waterproof, we weren't worried about being completely soaked through ourselves. 

The rain finally cleared and we headed out again. The sun came out and the temperature rose from 65 to 85 degrees F in a mater of 10 minutes, so fast that the road was actually steaming. We dried in no time as we headed down along our detour. We reached the M9 highway - Matrica Vignette required (but not for bikes... Side Note: Two years ago, we got a ticket in the Czech Republic in the Big Blue Bus for not having our Matrica  - toll pass - and driving on the highway)! The M9 highway had less traffic than any of the roads we had been on all day and, to our delight, it was brand-spanking-new so the road surface was pristine! We veered off of it just before Danube bridge to rejoin our original route. We found it easily and sped along the asphalt levee for 10miles into Baja (pronounced Ba-ya). Near the end of this path the surface changed to commie precast concrete slabs - which have a bump between each slab. This type of surface is not ideal for any vehicle, so we are still not quite sure why it was so widely used, but we made it none-the-less. 

When we got into town, we obviously looked lost enough as a father on bicycle with son in rear seat and a daughter in a trailer went by and asked us "Do you need help?". (This is now the second time a father on a bike with kids in tow has stopped and asked us -in English - if we needed help finding our way around... we are either very lucky or this is a common event that we are just now experiencing... I hope the latter...)  We followed this very helpful trio to a campsite and youth hostel called Baja Kemping. We thanked them profusely and decided to camp for the night. Andrea cooked a wonderful pasta dinner with our supplies from Budapest... but there were lots of ants around so we had to do  double the dishes, since these little ants made it into all of our pots and pans (after dinner thankfully).

At the camp bar, we had a couple of beers and met our last cyclists of the day Stefan and Rebecca. We chatted to this delightful couple from Austria and South Tyrol. They had actually ended up taking the levee path that we detoured around and they did hit the construction we were warned about. They were confronted with 4-5miles of sand and had to walk their bikes most of the way. On the other hand, they barely got any rain at all and only felt a few drops near the end of their harrowing ordeal on the levee. Two roads diverge... right? Note: the Frenchies also took this route and rolled in to the campsite about 2 hours after we did... we were showered and making dinner when they pulled up to reception. Anyway, we decided to ride together tomorrow (Bruce, Andrea, Rebecca, and Stefan) and maybe for a while longer. We plan to wake-up early to avoid the heat and make it to at least Batina and maybe even Serbia tomorrow. Woohoo! Travel Buddies!

The World is Ours!

Day 29: Bumping Out of Budapest
Thursday July 25 - Day 29 - 56 miles - Total 1119miles
 
Most of this morning was spent getting a new cell phone handset. The dual-sim card phone we were carrying bit the dust, and although it still receives (and possibly even makes) calls, the screen is totally blank so we can’t tell what we are dialing or whether it needs charging etc…
 
We first went to a Vodafone store we had seen last night in Deak Ferenc square. It didn’t open until 10am, so we grabbed some breakfast and waited for them to open. Unfortunately they only sold locked cell phones with Hungarian sim cards, which clearly is no good to us. However, the very nice assistant directed us to a Hungarian version of Best Buy about 10minutes away that would sell unlocked cell phones. So we traversed central Budapest on our loaded touring bikes. They did have separated bike lanes which was nice though, so it was mostly just inattentive pedestrians rather than traffic that we dealt with!
 
The store was in a fancy new shopping mall called “West end” so Bruce went in and bought the new handset while Andrea waited outside, guarding the bicycles. The mall security guards started circling around her as they thought she was bringing down the character of the place! I mean, she did look like a gypsy with a caravan, but she spoke English and agreed not to sit on her flowery sarong making origami, but rather stand with the bikes and look bored. This made the security gaurds slightly happier, although the circling continued until Bruce returned. Bruce succeeded in buying an unlocked phone, but they only had single sim card ones. Once the sim card was swapped over, the phone was tested and it worked! Yay!
 
It was now about 12noon, so we thought we should get on the road out of town. We headed back down through town to the river. Bruce had fun intimidating stupid pedestrians who thought they should walk in the bike lane (even though it was painted and had a metal guard rail). He made some silly Asian tourists and young teenage boy jump pretty high when he rang his bell and they looked up to see a yellow clad Scotsman and very laden down touring bike bearing down on them. Good times!
 
We followed the left bank of the Danube (or Duna as it is currently called!) down through the city and then made our way out of the city following the Eurovelo 6 route. It twisted and turned a little getting out of the urban area, and definitely took us through some random and sketchy places on some less than perfect surfaces. We dealt with a few types of cobblestones, rutted asphalt, single track, dirt, gravel and sand, all within a five mile stretch south of Budapest. Hopefully, however, the overseeing authority of this route will try and improve this stretch as it is not easy to cycle on. The signage was fairly clear, however, so at least you know you are heading in the correct direction.

We took a break on a grass verge by a very ripe plum tree near the M0 motorway bridge (which we drove over in the big blue bus a couple of years prior). Andrea liberated some damson plums from the tree and we incorporated them into our snack, which was very tasty!
 
We crossed over the motorway bridge (on the bike path!) and were now on a large island in the centre of the Duna. We followed the river south through some fancier villages as well as some not so fancy areas. The route was now mostly on road and we stopped for lunch in the town of Rackeve. We ate on a bench in the shade of the town hall and were duly stared at by the locals, which we are well used to by now. This bench was opposite the Post Office and the Hungarian posties have these awesome bikes that they ride to deliver the post. They have two huge panniers on the rear and then a small front wheel with a huge basket above – quite a sweet set up. We watched them coming and going from the Post Office while we munched on our cheese sandwiches. Unfortunately, our container of orange juice ripped open slightly against the rear rack on the bicycle as we were trying to remove it and so we were stared at even more as we are trying to hurriedly decant orange juice into smaller containers and supping from the hole at the same time. I am sure we make quite the impression in Southern Hungary….
 
From Rackeve, we cycled to Makad then back to the levee, so we could cross back to the mainland on the left bank of the river. Due to the recent flooding, the levee was under construction and we had to divert to a track along the base of the levee for a couple of miles. The path on top of the levee was beautiful and paved, but the diversion track was exactly that….a bumpy track over grass, hay, stones with sand underneath. Not much fun and Bruce fell off once, which left him with an overall sheen of Hungarian silt mixed into the yellow of his shirt.
 
We finally were allowed back on top of the levee and we crossed a lock back to the mainland and asphalt again! However it was short lived as the road veered east and we continued south on the levee top, which was hard packed dirt. The surface was actually pretty decent though, and we made good time. Andrea saw an ostrich farm and a black asphalt road though as it cut across the levee so we abandoned the top of the levee to hang with the ostriches for a while!
 
We followed this side road to the main road, Route 51, and at the intersection there was a small gas station.  It sold cold Fanta, so it got our blessing! Route 51 was a bit busier but still easier than most roads in the States, and we now had a bit of tail wind, so we were cruising along to the next town of Dunavecse. The asphalt surface was variable and because it can get really hot in this area of the country, there are ruts in the asphalt caused by heavy trucks on warm days. The drivers were very respectful though. Just as we entered Dunavecse we saw a sign for Cyclists Motel and we thought that was too good to give up! 

As we were coasting through town towards our Motel, Andrea’s mother and aunt called us. It was great to hear from them and further confirmation that the new phone handset works just fine! Now that we are out of the urban area, the countryside is a lot poorer and we are seeing a lot more older communist cars (old Trabants, Skoda and Wartburgs)  
 
Unfortunately the one room in the “motel” was full, but she did have a caravan in the garden. So we are now staying in a caravan in the yard of the “motel” run by a funny little old lady who could kick my ass (saw her haul a bike into her house... do not mess with Granny III). The caravan even has a British license plate on it…..very strange. After showering and rinsing out clothes we had dinner at the restaurant across the street. We ordered the traditional dinner for two but when it came out it was more like dinner for 6. It had fried and battered cauliflower and mushrooms, two types of pork cutlet, fried cheese and French fries. We persevered though and washed it all down with a couple of the local brews – it would have been rude not to! A lovely older German cyclist couple was sitting at the next table and they were the ones were staying at the motel.  They were cycling from Budapest to Belgrade – hope we are still doing this when we are their age!
 
Overall a great day cycling, considering we cranked out over 50 miles in an afternoon. Andrea feels stronger and is also getting more comfortable on non-asphalt surfaces.

The World is Ours!

Day 28: Rest in Budapest
Wednesday July 24 - Day 28 - Rest Day - Total 1063miles

Yay! A rest day! When we woke up it was already getting pretty steamy in Budapest. We have had to keep the storm shades down on our big window overlooking the pedestrian district because the sun heats up the place instantly. We made coffee in our tiny kitchenette and headed out for a day on the town. We picked up some pastries at the little CBA supermarket on the corner for breakfast. These pastries were some sort of Hungarian sturdy/flaky cinnamon roll the size of Bruce's head. They were good! 

We took the subway out to Szechenyi baths. These are the public baths with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, saunas, heated and medicated pool, etc... This bath house was recommended specifically because it had outdoor pools (good on a hot day) and because they are the most famous of all the Budapest baths. They are located by the city's park in a beautiful old yellow building (if you can call it that... it is huge!) built a very long time ago just for the purpose of swimming and relaxing. We bought a normal day ticket, even though a very nice/very blond lady tried to sell us a package that was quadruple the price. We then had to go downstairs to rent towels...

Now, how much does a towel cost? Well, our towel rentals were more-or-less reasonable at about $3.50 (700 forints) each for the day... but... the deposit for the towel was 10,000 forints, about $50, to make sure we return them by the end of the day. WOW! Obviously many tourists have made off with the towels...huh? Thankfully we had a 10,000 forint note in Bruce's wallet or we would have been towel-less for the day!

After our experience at the towel counter... we spent the next couple of hours enjoying all the different baths with different temperatures and minerals added to each. We tried a quick sauna (in what we translated was the aromatherapy sauna), which is definitely not Bruce's thing but we enjoyed how cool the pools felt afterwards. To round out our day and get the whole experience, we each bought a 30minute massage. The ladies were sturdy Hungarian masseurs who knew how to find and work out all the kinks of a touring cyclists legs (and rest of the body) in a half an hour. It was heaven! We were both a little groggy after our massage, so we stumbled back into the indoor mentholated pool before we left to get lunch.

Now, we had thought that since we bought a day ticket, that would have meant that we could come back to the baths later in the day, but apparently the day ticket doesn't come with re-admittance rights! We were very disappointed, because we really enjoyed the baths but didn't want to stay all day through the noonday sun. (Barbecued Brucie doesn't make for a good rest day...) So we returned our little bracelets and headed out back to the subway. No matter, our experience at these baths will definitely influence our day plans when we go to another bath house in Istanbul. We are both really looking forward to that!

We took the subway back to the apartment. Did yet another load of laundry. Looked at some online recommendations for lunch and had lunch at a bistro in the old jewish quarter. We saw the synagogue in Budapest (which you actually have to pay an admittance fee to enter). Jumping from shady spot to shady spot, we saw a bit more of the city but it was so hot that we just headed back to the apartment to shower, rest, and rehydrate. 
 
In the evening, we went shopping for supplies for tomorrow. We are not sure of the shop opening hours in the towns we will be passing through, so we bought enough food for all three meals. We stopped at a gelato stand for an evening treat, then off to bed for the weary travelers. 

Final thoughts about this city: Budapest is a beautiful, old, storied city with a lot to see. It has become a lot more westernized in recent years (for better or worse). Lots of people speak English. The prices are very high. Hungarian is an awesome language that makes absolutely no sense. We prefer small places to big (they are easier to handle as cycle tourists). Glad we came... glad to move on...

The World is Ours!

Day 27: Bumping into Budapest
Tuesday July 23 - Day 27 - 32 miles - Total 1063 miles

We started our day by being sneaky! Always a good way to start the day. We woke up at about 7am. The campsite restaurant/shop wasn't open (and didn't look like it would be opening anytime soon). So we went over to the hotel that owns the campground, to get some breakfast at the restaurant. When we got there, the breakfast buffet (for guests) was just opening. We walked in...we were greeted at the door... sat down... and had some breakfast... a cup of coffee... juice.. yogurt and some bread and cheese... and then we left... I mean... we were guests... kind of... Yay! Free breakfast!
With that done, we packed up and headed out towards Budapest.

Today should have been a nice short day today into Budapest. Only about 30 miles. But of course, the path was tough - lots of tree roots creeping through and bad asphalt, a thin layer of silt covering everything, narrow bits, and more bumps. We were still amazed that we could see the high water mark on the trees high above our heads. We stopped at the first ice cream vendor we came across for a break in the shade and off the bumps. 

We lost the path near a couple of reservoirs. So we had to go cross country on some tractor trails and down the wrong side of a highway to get to where we intended to be. Then miraculously (after fearing death and dismemberment) we were back on the path (Eurovelo 6)... Where the hell did it go? We will never know... but we found it again.

Along the way, we encountered a few funny groups of cyclists. The first was a very English mother and son fighting on the bridge over a camera (weird to hear a London accent when you aren't expecting it). Then we came across a troop of elementary school kids in their hi-vis yellow jackets all on their bikes on path bookended by some frazzled looking teachers. 

Finally, we got into Budapest and onto Buda side and followed the bike path along the river. We stopped to take photos of the parliament building which looks like a castle and the castle which looks like a parliament building.  We stopped under some trees for shade, not knowing that they were the Killer Trees of Budapest!!!! That rain down clouds of yellow pollen and flower buds, covering the streets with their plant fertility and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting immune systems. 

We made it to the Chain Bridge where we walked our bikes over to the Pest side of the city. The width of path and pedestrian volume made cycling over the bridge a bad idea. We followed our noses and Bruce's excellent sense of direction to Dorottya 11, the address on the booking form for the apartment we rented. There was renovation work going on in the courtyard, so we sat on the stairs, made some sandwiches, and gave George a call to figure out if we were in the right place.  He came and got us by bike and took us to our apartment at Vaci 44. We are in a little apartment right on the main pedestrian way. Best of all it  has a washing machine! (Note: we have now washed, dried, and repacked all of our clothes.)

George said that we could leave our bikes in the center courtyard of this apartment building (not under construction) but we didn't like that idea... so... again we tromped up 4 flights of stairs with our steel touring bikes. But at least they are safe. 

After starting the first of many loads of laundry, we set off to do a bit of sightseeing. We walked to Grand Market Hall. It is actually very similar to the black market hall in Ulaanbaatar, except this one is much more tourist friendly. We had dinner at traditional hungarian place at the recommendation of George and bought 24hr passes for transit system so we can get around tomorrow. We found out only later that they aren't any good for funicular railway that takes you up to the Castle on the hill. We went up anyway. It was sunset as we went up so we watched as the lit up as the sun went down. We enjoyed view from Buda castle, seeing the chain bridge and parliament lit up under the full moon. We walked along the Fisherman's bastion, but it is no longer a full walk around since part of the way has been turned into a restaurant.....poor show. 
We also happened upon the ugliest Hilton we have ever seen on top of the hill next to St. Matthias church...good job we aren't staying there!

A long walk down to the tram line, which (per usual on this trip) terminated early at a stop called Oktagon due to construction work. So we changed over to the Metro and got ourselves back to the apartment.

Put another load of laundry in and off to bed. It is HOT!
The World is Ours!

Day 26: They gave me Goulash... more to come later
Monday July 22 - Day 26 - 48miles - Total 1031miles

We made it past the 1000 mile mark today!

Our breakfasts in the Pension Olymp in Komarno were delectable omelets cooked with butter but no coffee because the machine was broken... We were served our breakfast by a surly blond waitress in micro-skirt who, to her credit, spoke English and tried to smile. We got packed up and headed out to find the cappuccino shop we saw yesterday. We had wonderful cappuccinos only 1 euro each and were now ready for the day! We stopped at the Billa grocery store on our way out of town, because Billa's have readymade sandwiches and Lidls do not. We were both feeling a little tired today after the long (65 mile) day yesterday... we didn't want to have to make our own sandwiches... 

We headed out onto route 63 towards Sturovo, which is a fairly major road and they were doing road work. When we are on major roads, Bruce usually has me ride ahead so that he can buffer any cars that are trying to pass too close. Today, Bruce intimidated a Skoda (small engined mini-coup) into not passing us while we were passing the road work. Oh my intimidating husband... te he he... Considering our fully loaded bikes rival the weight of some of the cars on the road, it isn't tough to get in their way... and stay there... 

The pilfered plums and apricots were eaten as a snack and the rest were thrown away since they kinda fermented in Andrea's handlebar bag last night. We were only slightly drunk after eating several pulpy sweet plums that tasted just a bit like cider. Happy on fruit juice, we admired the many enormous stork nests on top of telephone polls. We had seen them before but now cycling under them, with sometimes 3 or 4 full grown storks in them... they are impressive architectural feats of avian knowhow. These birds are huge and their nests could fill the Skoda Bruce intimidated earlier. 

We took several breaks in the shade, when we could find it. One stop ended up being right next to a sunflower field. The sunflowers are blooming, following the sun, and the bees are buzzing. It makes the hot days a little more bearable, watching these gorgeous flowers as we pass. 

We stopped for lunch, of our Billa sandwiches, in the shade of a horse chestnut tree in the center of Sturovo. They had a lovely water-feature in the middle of town, so we got to have lunch and watch the local kids jumping and splashing in the cool water. We joined in of course, because it was hot and we wanted to have fun too. After lunch we crossed the bridge into Esztergom,Hungary, which had an enormous church on the Hungarian side that dominated the town. 

We followed the bike path through the town and onto the river's edge. The part through town was over cobblestones... Cobblestones are hard enough to walk on, let alone bump along on a loaded touring bike (without a suspension seat post I might add...) Along the river was paved, but the Hungarians haven't quite gotten the hang of paving large smooth sections, so there is a seam (aka bump)in the asphalt about every 15 feet or so... this makes for a less than smooth ride, but at least it was paved. We could see the flood mark on all of the trees we passed. They were covered in a layer of silt, dusting their trunks and leaves up about to about 10 feet above the path. This means that a month ago, this path and everything around it was totally underwater to a level above our heads. Quite humbling thinking about it.

We hit a couple of hills again on the main road after the bike path finished, which was weird after being on the flat for so long. After a couple more miles, we caught a ferry across the Danube to a town called Szob. Both sides of the Danube are now in Hungary. We ended up just missing one so we had to wait for an hour for the next one. But we had a beer at the cafe made so that people taking the ferry could have a beer during the hour wait. At the cafe there was a kitty that looked just like our Killwillie. It wouldn't give us the time of day...  so we knew it was definitely a Kilwillie kitty. 

The ferry had a very quick turnaround once it arrived again and we had to scurry on. Once across the river we were off to the next bike path. We met a couple of other cyclists on the ferry and saw them again a few times on the path. We followed the path to Nagymoros, where we would take our second ferry of the day to Visegrad. Of course we made it but we were in the wrong place to catch the ferry because of BAD SIGNAGE! When we ran over to the ferry, we were told we needed to buy tickets at the kiosk. When we went to the kiosk, the girl didn't want to rush (even though the ferry was practically leaving) and kept making an ice cream cone even while I was pleading with her to sell me the tickets. We rushed to the ferry and tried to buy the tickets on the boat (which we had done for the last ferry by the way) but they didn't take Euros. So finally we had to buy tickets after the ride at the kiosk at the other side. What a hassle! But the guys on the boat were very nice, so we all laughed and it was okay. 

In Visegrad, our stop for the night, it seemed pretty touristy with many hotels and restaurants. 
We went to two hotels but both were totally booked up! Uh oh... but then we found a campground that was practically empty... and it was owned by one of the booked hotels. We got our site for the night... by the way - why do they make us pay for bikes??? We have noticed a parking fee for bikes lately which we see as a rip-off... there are no bicycle parking spaces! (Sorry, little tirade).

After the little fiasco on the ferry, we realized that we REALLY needed to change currencies.  There are about 225 Hungarian forints to the dollar. We found an ATM finally and all was well. We went out to dinner. The menu was in 5 different languages. We ordered traditional Goulash soup. 

They gave me Goulash!  And a spicy pepper sauce that was VERY hot even Laurie Somario would weep a little...HOT HOT HOT! But so good! For dessert we had chocolate filled crepes and beer. Now we are in the tent... going to bed after a hot shower... The warm showers hosts (bike touring reciprocal hosting site) we contacted about staying in Budapest never got back to us so we booked an apartment in Budapest. We will arrive tomorrow!

Budapest here we come!

The World Is Ours!