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.