BALATON
24/06/2021
Car packed tight, we
leave Luxembourg
at 08:00 o'clock. It is a hard start since there is some heavy rain and a lot
of traffic and traffic jams. Then, slowly but surely the temperature starts to climb from 16 to 30°! The traffic
doesn't stop, it gets even worse and in the end it nearly took us 12 hours of
driving to get us to the outskirts of Vienna,
to Fischamend Lifehotel.
Lifehotel offers
long term parking (3,50€ per day),
our car is safe until our return.
We order a pizza and build up the bikes
again. (We had taken the bikes apart so they would fit into the car…). We can
leave the bikes in a storage room, very helpful, that gives us the
opportunity of an early start the next day.
25/06/2021
Leave the hotel rather
early and cycle through fields and plains. It looks like rain and
thunderstorms, a lot of wind but mercifully in our back. In this area and later
as well on the Hungarian side, we see some lovely lavender fields,
deep purple colour.
The cherries are already ripe
(ours are still yellow),even the sunflowers are quite high although not
yet in blossom. This is a different climate and nature's development is
proof of it.
At the „Glashaus" we just get the best
elderflower/lemon/mint drink before we get to the „Neusiedlersee"
and its nature reserve. The cycling track follows the Eastern side of the
„Neusiedlersee" where we get some beautiful views of the lake with all its
activities. We arrive in Illmitz, Guesthouse Haider after a ride of 81 km.
Dinner at a „Heurigen"
26/06/2021
Leave Illmitz fairly
early, cycling through the last Austrian villages before getting to Hungary. Many
houses in these villages have giant wooden gates transformed into front
doors. The huge gates were designed to let the horse and carriage
in. Today they are eye catchers. At the border we don't get controlled or
bothered in any way, it is abandoned. Right at the Hungarian side we see
a most beautiful baroque style castle "Esterház".
We find a nice cycling
track, quite busy with other bikers. The Hungarian houses and villages are well
looked after. We see quite a number of stork’s nests, packed tight with huge
"baby birds", on high poles along the streets. It is the rose season,
delightful endless bushes of all kinds of roses, nice and tidy spreading a
lovely smell as well as Linden
trees in full blossom.
We called a hotel in Sárvár, but they refuse us.
We suspect they prefer "non-cyclist" clients that stay longer than one
night. (hotel Bassiana) Second call, we get a room in the Victoria Hotel,
very friendly and helpful! After 95 kilometers we end up in Sárvár, check in,
shop for the next day's picnic, stroll through Sárvár + dinner at Neo
Restaurant.
27/06/2021
Start our ride from
Sárvár after making a reservation at the Balaton Lake,
it is high season after all...Panzioń Karat at Balatongyörök. The sun not as
blazing as the other days. We follow the cycling track of our
“Wien-Balaton-Budapest” bikeline book from Esterbauer. After Káld we decide to
follow a quiet side road running parallel to the Esterbauer track.
Unfortunately we end up at the entrance of a main road with a “bikes forbidden”
sign. So we walk along some fields and dirt tracks, very sandy, to make it to
the cycling tracks No. 14 and No. 1. It is getting hot and the paths lead up
hills, quite strenuous in the heat. After a very long ride we are running out
of water. Luckily we find a little thermal town and get a delicious cool drink.
We fill up on water.
Some time later we enter Keszthely town and take a break
to visit the castle Festetics, the third biggest and one of the most visited
castles in Hungary.
After a small ride through Keszthely we have our first view of the Balaton
lake. A very nice sight with a lot of reeds, birds, greens, people
enjoying the sandy shore of the lake, terraces and restaurants, a popular
holiday destination. After a day ride of 92km we find our pension “Panzión
Karát” uphill in a pretty setting with a very friendly landlord. A short walk
takes us to the lake where we have a great dinner at Mòló Bistró.
28/06/2021
Leaving
Balatongyörök, we cycle along the North side of the Balaton lake to end up
after 100km in Balatonkenese (pension Sorompó Vendégház). The northern cycling
track is not really flat and leads us many times up into the vineyards and back
to the lake. The track is partly very small with a lot of cyclists coming
towards you. So the ride is not easy at all. You have to be very attentive,
especially since there are many cracks, crevices and bumps. The views of the
lake with its lovely turquoise colour is beautiful. We get some cool drinks
twice during the, what I think, was the hottest day since we started our trip.
In the evening we have a simple dinner at Sorompó Kisvendéglő.
29/06/2021
Leaving Balatonkenese we decide to take the northern cycle route through
Balatonakarattya. This part goes uphill, but gives us some stunning views on
the Balaton lake. After some 25km we arrive in Siófok. Since we found a nice
hotel “Janus Boutique Hotel & SPA” we decide to make a break and spend the
day leisurely in Siófok, with some swimming in the Balaton lake, (we first had to buy swimming suits).
Back at
the hotel we want to find out more about its bath and ...what a nice surprise, the Spa turns out to be absolutely luxurious and beautifully decorated (Budapest style), which is
famous for the old stylish spas.
Since we
want to cycle the southern cycling route of the Balaton lake, too, without making
the same route twice, we buy train tickets for us and our bikes, so
that tomorrow we will be able to jump on the train and at station Keszthely
we’ll get off and cycle back (without any luggage) to Janus Hotel for
a second night. This is a rather unusual experience for us: enjoying the
sun, the lake, the Spa, good food and have a holiday. Dinner at Roxy's.
30/06/2021
09:57
train to Keszthely. It is not easy to get onto the Hungarian train. Four big
steps, a small entrance and the disturbing handrail right in the centre of the
entrance. You really have to be two people to lift the bike in. The trip is
nice, we can see the typical Lake landscape
glide by. In Keszthely we got off and start cycling. This is the Southern side
of the lake and the quality of the cycling path is excellent. We cycle from
west to east. The road is well signed out, there are new layers of concrete so
it is much easier to cycle here than on the Northern side. The path stays
close to the lakeshore, through little villages and new settlements. I can imagine that people (well off) have a little summer residence here. That's
exactly what the houses look like. On the whole, a very relaxed ride, back in
Janus Hotel we enjoy the spa for a second time. The water is very helpful for
cramping muscles.
01/07/2021
In Siófok
railway station I tried to get tickets for us to Székesfehérvár. Besides from
the town's complicated name it is not so easy to get us launched. Only at the
very last minute, rushing upstairs, downstairs carrying the bikes with full
luggage, we catch the train.
In Székesfehérvár
we get off the train and cycle through the town and around Lake Velence. There
is a little Harbour and we have a quick look.
Then the cycling path leads us to
a main road, with horrible traffic; the only option we have is a dirt track,
but I mean a dirt track: the path is so sandy that even pushing the bikes turns
into a very hard job. Around us is an invasion of butterflies, beautiful, but
unfortunately some nasty stingy-horsefly-mosquito-stuff too!! We get to
quite a busy road ,no options again, we have to ride on it.
On our
way, we see a road sign “Ráckeve”, a small town we drove past 16 years ago, when
we cycled the EV6 from Nantes
to the black sea https://stong181.blogspot.com/.
We come to
the ferry, get on it, cross the Danube and
cycle towards Szigetszentmiklós, Oazis Hotel. Some more busy roads and tracks
until we arrive at the Oazis. The people are friendly. We have dinner there and
relax from the hard day.
02/06/2021
Threatening
sky, a hard wind blowing, unfortunately for us not in the good direction. We
leave the Oazis towards Budapest
on rather good tracks. The Eurovelo 6 is well signed out. Gaston has some
trouble with his bike: the rear suspension has lost some air and now the
luggage bangs against the porter.
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| BUDAPEST |
Through Budapest
we follow the EV6, very good quality, very easy to find. We take some pictures
and out of the corner of my eye I discover a tiny cycling shop. The friendly
shop owner refills Gaston’s suspension with his special pump so we can cycle
on. In the outskirts of Budapest the track follows the shore of the Danube
through some woods and parks with a lot of food stalls, restaurants, terraces…a
very relaxed atmosphere. Unfortunately the EV6 leads us again on a terrible
main route, a lot of traffic, not nice and rather dangerous. There are no other
options, so we ride on… we try to book a hotel. Some hotels take only clients
for 2 or 3 days, other ones are fully booked, or do not respond on the
telephone. Luckily we find Butikhotel Beatrix in Visegrád, a nice hotel 2km
away from the Danube. In the evening we have
some trouble with Gaston’s mobile. The smartphone has a total black out (with
all the bike maps and track logs etc….) We realise how dependent we are on the mobile during all our trips.
03/07/2021
We leave
Visegrád fairly early and get back to the EV6, which unluckily continues to
follow a main road with a lot of traffic. In Esztergóm we drive past the Dom
that we saw last 16 years ago. It is under restoration but still a very
impressive sight.
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| Esztergóm |
The Eurovélo 6 follows, on the Hungarian side, again a very
busy main and dangerous road. After 2-3
km we were so fat up, turn around and cross the Danube to enter Slovakia. The
cycle path EV6 on the Slovakian side is much more pleasant. After some km we
get to the “dam” a not so nice experience: the dirt track is slippery with a
thick layer of small stones and the wind has increased so much that it is hard
to keep the balance and advance at a reasonable speed. Gaston discovers a tiny
concrete path below the dam a bit sheltered from the wind. After some kms the
road gets much better, but a strong wind still blows in our faces. There is no
real fun in this anymore, we just want to get to Kómarom an find our hotel. We
enter Komárno (the Slovakian side), get a cold drink and a break.
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| KOMARNO |
On our way to
the bridge over the Danube, we drive past the
hotel Európa, where we slept 16 years ago. It turns out to be a Chinese casino
now. We then cross a spectacular bridge back to the Hungarian side (Kómarom),
where we check in at Hotel Forrás. The hotel is combined with large outdoor
swimming pools and spas. In the evening we have a nice dinner (“buffé ettérem”)
dinner at Kosci Hotel, Hungarian “all-you-can-eat” version.
04/07/2021
We leave
Kómarom very early and cycle back to the Slovakian side of the Danube (Kómarno). We still have a strong upwind. The EV6
here is really pleasant. Slovakia
has invested in its cycling tracks. After some “poor quality” km, we get on a
dam, smooth layer of tarmac, large and clean! This makes cycling pleasant
again! We speed on, trying to do as many kms as we can in the early morning
hours, since the wind is not that strong yet.
At 12:00 we’ve done already 75km.
25 km before reaching Bratislava
we hit a huge dam. It looks a bit like being on the seaside. The cycling path
is fantastic, but we are cruelly exposed to a strong upwind. We pedal very hard
and when we enter the outskirts of Bratislava
we stop for a drink, and make some phone calls to reserve a hotel. As we enter
the town centre we find it totally changed from what we remember 16 years ago. Bratislava turned into a
modern town, with a lot of new buildings
as well as good restoration of the ancient buildings. Check in at the Marrol’s
Hotel, 108km
Have a stroll through the old centre, searching for some sights we
might remember. In fact we managed to find back the statue of the street worker
“Čumil” and the soldier of Napoleon. Have a delicious pizza on the main place +
back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.
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| BRATISLAVA |
5/07/2021
In Bratislava we cross the “Starý Most” (ancient bridge) to
the south side of the Danube. Some km later we
pass the border into Austria
without any control. After “Hainburg an der Donau” we switch back to the
Northern side of the Danube. There the cycle
track leads across the ancient floodplains of the Danube
(Donau-Auen), a national park. This is very nice, the colour green is
overwhelming. Around us only woods, little lakes, reeds, pastures and meadows,
no road and very quiet. At the height of “Orth an der Donau” we find a tiny bicycle
ferry, which takes us to “Haslau an der Donau”.
After another 10km we arrive in
Fischamend where we left our car. Since the last part of our trip was much
shorter than we expected, we decide to cancel the hotel, pack the car and drive
back home, where we arrive at 22:45h rather exhausted. At home the summer
feeling is gone immediately, it is chilly and we switch on the heating. On the
whole we made a bit less than 900km.
