nbjtours

Day Eleven

100 miles 1923 ft climbed

After two days of absolutely no climbing at all we decided to spice up the day ( and cheer up Nick) by tackling two climbs which on both occasions were topped by castles. The first Visegrad was immediately at the start of the day and within 4 miles we had climbed more today than in over eighty miles yesterday. We then also decided to venture up and visit the Castle district of Budapest to take in the sights there. As we are now firmly in the middle of the great Hungarian plain I am not expecting too much climbing tomorrow either.

Leaving the campsite at 7.15 today as we knew we had a long day ahead the climb up to Visegrad castle started within 400m of the campsite entrance. As well as the castle it also gave us a good view of the Danube Bend where the Danube moves from an Easterly flow to a Southerly one.

As it was still before 8 am everything was closed and when I entered the car park a loudspeaker announced “ you are in an unauthorised area please leave immediately “ Which of course I did. We did however make it up even higher to an Outpost of the castle by cycling up a 15% gradient although sadly the views were not worth the extra effort.

Having met Nigel & Monica at the top we chased the camper down a very bumpy hill and then said goodbye until our lunch stop some 60 miles away.

The route then took us along the Danube on a mix of road and cycle path past Szentendre ( which I has stayed in on my exploration of Eastern Europe in 1991) and then on some superb cycle paths ( and dusty tracks) into Budapest itself

Workmen were busy everywhere building new cycle paths so future cyclists will be even more spoiled. On entering Budapest we switched sides of the river and cycled along its green lung Margaret’s Island stopping to enjoy the famous Margitsziget szokokut.

The fountain was pretty impressive even if we could not stay for one of its hourly music shows as they didn’t start until 11 o’clock and that was another hour away. Moving on from the island we went into Obuda part of the city stopping briefly for Nick to visit the pharmacy. Having to approach the castle hill from the rear we had a short two hairpin climb to get us where we needed to get to.

We managed a coffee stop before moving on to look at the view behind the cathedral which was another monument under restoration. Having done a photo exchange with an English couple on a river cruise, a New Yorker insisted on taking our photos from in front and behind. The celebrity almost got to Nick’s head! This reminds me, having seen a dozen or so Biking cruise ships full of sun tanned leathery folk, please do not ever let me go on one It looks like purgatory.

Leaving the castle area we dropped down crossing the Danube via the Szechenyi Chain bridge designed by an Englishman and built by a Scottish engineer both called Clark in 1849 and was the first permanent bridge over the Danube linking the two sides of the city. This year 2023 is officially the 150th anniversary of Budapest hence all the work in renovating it and we were lucky to cross the Szechenyi bridge as they have only just reopened it after a two year renovation programme.

This dropped us into the lower side of the city (Pest) and we worked our way out passing the impressive brand new stadium that has just held the world athletics championships.

Leaving Budapest behind we now had a long stretch along the biggest island in the Danube which is 42km long and full of dormitory towns served by a railway that feeds people into the city.

By now the temperature had begun to climb, Nick boasting 36 degrees although I’m inclined to more believe Chris’s 32 degrees as Nick’s Garmin is like it’s owner and for ever is over optimistic in its readings. He has usually cycled further and certainly climbed much more than either Chris or me every day!!

Running out of water required a stop in a local shop to top up the water bottles and cool our heads under a water pump.

Nigel had found a very good lunch stop near an outdoor shower where we all again cooled out top halves down. We agreed that we would split the last leg as although we had only 30 odd miles to go the heat was oppressive and an extra stop for tea and perhaps a cooling ice lolly would be good. Arranged, we set off for the most horrid leg of the trip so far which had the last 8 miles running along a busy and bumpy road with lorries thundering past. We were very glad therefore that as soon as we turned off we saw the Camper parked on the river levee.

The only downside was that the place was teeming with mosquitoes and we all left there with the standard war wounds although did destroy a number of the critters.

Just as we were leaving a herd of sheep/ goats accompanied by a man, a donkey and a dog, appeared and surrounded the camper. Whilst Monica being the animal lover she is fed the donkey it of course wanted more so Nigel with the help of the shepherd encouraged it to move on. A fun little interlude

Our final short leg was ok and having been scared off the main road to avoid another couple of miles we ran along this unmade up levee.

Crossing the river the campsite was only a few hundred metres on and we had made it to complete another day.

During the day we had come across a couple on a tandem and they ended up near to us on the site. Feeling sorry for them, Nigel invited Andy & Alison over for dinner and we had a good chat about our respective trips. They being recently retired and cycling from Amsterdam to Istanbul over 3 months with the aim of completing 43 miles a day two up carrying everything. Very impressive.

Only three days to go and we cross another border tomorrow to get to our eighth country of the tour.