Prague - Last Day of the Trip

We had one day in Prague before our flight home. It was raining in the morning and predicted to rain all day. The first thing we did after breakfast was pack our bikes. We count ourselves lucky that the hotel kept our boxes for us. We visited a local bike shop at the start of the trip when we purchased chain lube and air cartridges, and they had no bike boxes. It seemed like finding boxes would have been difficult, and getting them to the hotel in the rain it would have been unfun.

Ed had to make repairs to his bike box. One end was badly chewed up on the flight over. Spare cardboard and a lot of packing tape patched it up. We gave the rest of our chain lube (prohibited on flights) to a man from Israel we met on the train who was about to start a cycling adventure of his own.  We left our air cartridges in the small garage for the next cyclists.  While we were packing we ran into an Austrian couple who were gathering their bikes from the garage to take the train for a day rather than ride in the rain. After we packed our bikes and grabbed our duffel bag we were set for the airport the next day.

We had planned a walking tour of the little town side of Prague, but it was so wet and cold that we took a tram over and toured inside a palace. There were some good paintings, antique musical instruments, and original music scores from Beethoven and Mozart. Much had been looted and recovered and many of the buildings we saw had been rebuilt after multiple wars. 

We went to a warm cafe for lunch, then walked through the castle complex and another art gallery (less good), then we hopped a tram to return to our hotel. There were lots of tour groups out in the rain.

We had a quiet dinner in a cafe in the back of the Globe Bookstore, close to our hotel. Our airport ride comes at 9am.

Train from Budapest to Prague

Hotel: Mosaic Design Hotel

Our train departed at 7:30. We wanted to make sure we found the right platform and could load our bikes in plenty of time, so we packed up early and covered the half mile or so to the station. We spent some time reading the travel boards with Google translate, but boarding turned out to be easy, and our bikes with bags were easy to hang in our reserved spaces on the train. We were able to get coffee and croissants from a kiosk at the station well before the train left. 

The train was supposed to arrive to Prague around 2:15, so it would be a long ride, but we could get up and stretch and walk around a little. For the stretch to Bratislava, a cyclist from Israel was sitting opposite us. He was taking the train to Bratislava and riding back to Budapest where he would meet his family for a further vacation. We compared bikepacking notes and gave him our recommendations. He had travelled quite a bit around the world, and was an interesting conversationalist, so time passed quickly until he got off at Bratislava. We never exchanged names, but we wished him a good journey.

After Bratislava, we went to the crowded dining car, but never got food due to miscommunication with the waitress.  Communication has been surprisingly easy on this trip, so we were probably due for a miss. We returned to our seats and had our packed chips and cookies instead.

We arrived in Prague around 3pm, a little delayed, but all was good. We wheeled our bikes thru the train station, up some stairs, down an escalator. The ride to our hotel was short. Traffic was a little crazy, but after a few weeks of riding in the area it wasn’t too challenging. At our hotel we put our bikes in the garage, and we were happy to see that our bike boxes were still there. Getting a new bike box in Prague seems like it would be extremely challenging, so having boxes makes onward travel easy, even the one that was quite chewed up on our way over. 

After the assortment of hotels we’ve stayed on during this trip, we could appreciate how charming the Mosaic Design House is: comfortable, well located, nicely furnished, a good cafe and attached restaurant… We feel lucky to have found this place.

We had dinner in the QQ Asian Kitchen attached to the hotel, an assortment of appetizers and dishes similar to our dinner three weeks ago and equally good. Then we called it a night. 

Budapest Rest Day 2

For our second day exploring Budapest, we went to the Budapest side of the river to see the sights. We walked up the castle hill and went into the Hungarian national gallery that is housed in part of the castle. The collections were so good that we ended up staying for more than two hours. First we saw a temporary gallery of art nouveau posters in Hungary and beyond. Then we saw impressionist paintings, 19th century works, works by Hungarian painters, sculptures… There was more to take in than we possibly could in one visit.

After leaving the gallery, we took a walking tour. There is so much history and so much interesting architecture to see. We took a brief break to share a funnel cake (cinnamon sugar, decadent), then we finished our tour and headed back across the river. We took a brief detour to see the shoes on the Danube bank, an art installation honoring victims of a WWII massacre. 

We walked to a festive outdoor Mexican restaurant for dinner near the opera neighborhood, not far from our hotel. It was fun to be far from home and try a cuisine from close to home. Then we called it a night. 

Budapest Rest Day 1

 After breakfast in our hotel, we went to the train station to buy train tickets for our return to Prague. We knew a separate ticket was needed for bikes, but the web site said no tickets were available either tomorrow or the next day, a little concerning as we need to get back. At the station it was no problem getting two tickets to Prague with bikes, so we had two full days to explore Budapest.

We purchased a 24 hour all-transport ticket and took the metro down towards the river where we took a walking tour of the Pest side of Budapest. The architecture is amazing and extensive. Much is rebuilt after WWII, and some still has bullet holes or cannon balls in the facades. Mid tour we stopped for apple strudel which our guide claimed originates in Budapest. It was surprising to find statues of both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush among the historical and artistic sculptures downtown. Most of the history is much older than those.

The day was hot. We returned to the hotel and did laundry at a nearby laundromat, and we finished booking our Prague hotel and airport transfer for the end of our trip as we waited. 

After a late pizza lunch, we rented towels and took the metro to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, a spa housed in an ornate, hundred year old, neo-baroque building. After changing and stowing our street clothes in our respective, maze-like locker rooms, we met at the outdoor courtyard. In addition to the lap pool and hot pool, there was a tepid pool in the coutrtyard about 4’ deep with a donut shaped divider in the center that you could enter on one side. A strong current swirled in the donut shape and people packed in and walked/floated in circles. We never found out if the moving people created the current or vice versa, but we let ourselves be swept around in a circle with other laughing guests for a while. After some time in the outdoor area, where a few hundred people relaxed, sunned, and swam, we explored the indoor rooms housing pools of varied temperatures, aroma saunas (peppermint or cedar), and a salt sauna (not hot but very salty). There were even beer baths though we didn’t explore them. We finished with another swim, enjoying a change of pace from cycling and sightseeing.

Esztergom to Budapest

 Ride day 14: 55.3 miles, 1089’ climbing

Lodging:  Hotel Medos

We had a very nice breakfast at our hotel in Esztergom.  Part of what makes the determination of very nice is the coffee, and it was a good Americano.

After breakfast we readied the bikes and set off back across the bridge from the day before and out of town towards Budapest.

We rode about 30 miles on some roads shared with cars and on the Eurovelo bike path along grassy fields and trees, stopping along the way for a snack at a Coop grocery.  Then we arrived at an option in the town of Vac to take a ferry to a large island in the middle of the Danube or we could continue along the south/west side of River.  As luck would have it the ferry was just finishing loading, and we got aboard as the last passengers a minute before the ferry departed.  The whole trip to the island took maybe 5 minutes.

We crossed to the west side of the island, looking for a place to have lunch and stumbled upon a craft fair in a field with music and food.  We parked our bikes and went in, it felt like a wholly local event, and we got some lemonades and some mutton sandwiches which were a little questionable in quality. But the bread and lemonade were great.

After lunch we continued on and got closer to Budapest traveling on a nice path that got more and more populated with other rider and pedestrians.  The Sunday afternoon pedestrians here don’t really care much about the bikers or pay much attention to where they are going or who they might be blocking, so things got quite slow for a bit.  After a stop for a Coke at a cafe along the path, we made our way into Budapest, crossing the Danube, and onto streets to our hotel.  The traffic was occasionally intense, but helmetless scooter riders didn’t stop or hesitate in the face of cars, and we followed.  Directions got confusing and stressful, but we made it successfully. Our hotel faces a small park which is a quiet corner in the city.

After showering, we headed out for an evening boat tour on the Danube.  We decided to take the metro (subway).  The ticket system is a bit confusing, we purchased tickets at a kiosk but it never printed actual tickets, and we were never asked for tickets. The boat was one of those large tour boats, but we were able to get a seat on the upper deck in the cool air.  As night fell and the city lit up it was quite beautiful to see. The weather was perfect, and views were memorable. Budapest was full of people enjoying the evening on a Sunday, and it extended over many parts of the city.

After the boat ride, we grabbed dinner at an outside table in an area right off the Danube where lots of people were wandering about or eating too.  Then it was back to the hotel after a long day. Budapest is very charming. While there are a lot of tourists here, it doesn’t feel like a theme park the way Vienna does. We look forward to exploring more.

Gyor to Estzergom

 Ride day 13: 62 miles, 751’ climbing

Hôtel Villa Gran Esztergom

After a hotel breakfast, we rode out of Gyor, seeing some of the industrial side of town — a big arena, fast roads. We read that Audi is a huge employer in Gyor, but we didn’t see any Audi businesses. Except for a few shared streets downtown, our morning was on separated bike lanes past homes, farms, and patches of forest.

About half way to Esztergom, in the twin towns of Komarom (Hungary) and Komarno (Slovakia), we crossed the Danube to the north east side. We were soon back in Hungary having crossed another unsigned border. Our route passed fewer towns, and we didn’t find a restaurant, so we picked up bread and cheese and sodas at a small stop. Outside the shop we met a couple who were bike touring, clearly set up for camping as their loads were much bigger than ours. He was from Spain, and she was from Poland but living recently in Spain in addition to Wales and China. Together they are riding to Serbia, then she plans to continue to Vietnam. Big plans! We chatted for a while about bikepacking, travel, and took some pics. We exchanged social media contacts, and we look forward to following their trip on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/unicorntravels_?igsh=MWgyeHN1cXc2cjF1aQ==

We lunched at a camp site along the Danube, sitting on a fallen log, watching boats and birds going back and forth on the water. We cycled past the Danube Curve, a bend in the river, without being able to find a good view.

After some more riding along the river, we headed towards the towns of Sturovo, NE bank of the Danube, and Esztergom, SW bank and our destination. We started seeing a huge domed, historic building that looked close but kept getting farther away, kind of an optical illusion. Finally we realized it was the giant basilica of Esztergom. We crossed the Danube on a bridge and quickly arrived at our hotel, meeting a couple from Vancouver who seemed to be following our same route. We were all tired and hot and retreated to our rooms.

The « cats path », a long, steep, cobbled staircase leading up to the Basilica on top of the hill that rises above the city, started just opposite our hotel. We climbed up and were rewarded with amazing views of the town and the river and beyond. We took the whole tour of the basilica: over 400 steps to the cupola via narrow winding staircases, the treasury with an amazingly well preserved set of historic church relics, the church itself where a wedding was in progress, and the musty crypt. The complex was even larger, with many buildings not open to the public. A photographer was taking photos of the exquisite bride and groom, dwarfed on the front steps of the basilica. We later saw another couple in wedding garb taking photos also. 

We headed down the hill, hearing strains of music, and made our way to a festival. The band was playing covers of tunes that sent us tight back to the early 1980s. We had a beer, listened, and chatted with some locals as we watched. Afterwards we picked up doner kebabs for dinner and retreated to our hotel.

Bratislava to Gyor

Ride day 12: 49.3 miles, 381ft climbing

Lodging:  Hotel Icon

We woke up and got ready for the hotel breakfast that began at 7:30.  Our hotel offered the usual buffet style breakfast and it was ok, not great.  Then we packed up and headed out of town the way we came in, across the Danube on the UFO bridge and onto the Eurovelo 6 bike path, south/east side of the Danube. There are paths on both sides. 

After about 12 miles or so riding on the Eurovelo bike path we entered Hungary without any welcome signs other than our phones alerting us we’d joined a new carrier.

Hungary looks different from both the Czech Republic or Austria and even from the little piece of Slovakia we saw.  The homes are a little newer along the path and it looks a little more polished overall.  There’s very little graffiti, but we aren’t in cities. It was clean and the countryside was flat and pretty along the route which ran near the Danube.

We stopped at a bank after we entered the country and withdrew 20,000 Hungarian Forints which turns out is only about $60.  A little later we stopped off at a convenience store for a coke and some Crispy Fripsy chips and some cookies that tasted like animal crackers.  Then we tried our hand at thank you “Köszönöm” which was met with a smile by the lady at the store.

It was an easy ride into Gyor, the bike route was quite nice and maintained well.  We got to our hotel and had some salads at the restaurant attached to it and then checked in.  It’s hot out today (85 degrees) and our hotel room was stifling.  Turns out the front desk controls the ac for each room and we were able to request they get the room cool.

After showers we headed out to explore the old town.  It’s quite lovely with lots of shops and restaurants, with great signage hanging over the doorways.  It was busy with what appeared to be a lot of locals and tourists both enjoying the day out.  There were some nice churches to look at, a nice square with a fountain and lots of kids and families having ice cream and wandering, so we did the same.