Day 13 Esztergom to Budapest.

Today was always going to be tricky. It involved approximately 80km and potentially 2 river crossings by ferry with hopefully a third ferry to end the day from Szentendre to the centre of Budapest.

The day started badly. Overnight in a locked garage my bike had contrived to fall over all by itself and once uprighted it’s front wheel refused to turn. The mudguards had somehow bent out of alignment and were jamming the wheel freezing it solid. After a lot of huffing and puffing plus a few choice swear words we managed to detach the mudguard supports and get the wheel to turn. Much black tape was applied to hold it in this delicate balance with the hope that it would last until we reached Budapest which I am glad to say it did until about 500m from our hotel when it all pinged apart on a busy pedestrian crossing and disappeared beneath a torrent of cars.

This somewhat delayed start meant just a little more added pressure to the already complicated itinerary for the day. The Szentendre ferry was due to leave at 5pm. Miss that and we had to cycle another 24km into the centre of Budapest.

The first of the two cross river ferries we intended getting from the right bank across to Szob on the left bank had ceased operating two years ago, so along with another cheesed of group of French cyclists, we had to back track a km or so to the main road and wrestle with the traffic again. Luckily the next crossing some 16km further downstream was running so we hopped aboard and floated over to Nagymaros. From there we cycled on down to Vac where we hoped to catch a ferry back across to the right bank at Tahitótfalu which sounds like it should be a village in Fiji not Hungary. We arrived just in time to roll down the slipway and cough up our 5€ pp to a Captain Jack Sparrow lookalike. We were the only passengers on the ferry except for a very large concrete mixer. Blooming heck it was hot. Needed cold drinks and fuel. The time is ticking by and this Szentendre ferry isn’t going to wait for us.

We pile on a further 10km and eventually arrive in Szentendre with half an hour to spare hot, disheveled and thirsty. Two other English couples who we have bumped into several times on this trip (and with whom we had shared our bikes-on-train debacle a few days ago) had arrived over 2 hrs ahead of us and had spent a pleasant few hours drinking cold beer in a lovely bar.

Now we don’t have a ticket but they do as provided by their tour company. We try to buy tickets at an automatic ticket machine but it’s bust. Oh no surely we can’t fail at the final hurdle. At 4:30 the crowds begin to gather. A slight shuffling and jostling for position amongst the ticket holders who, when the barriers are lifted smugly walk down the gangplank and nab all the best seats on the boat. As the crush dwindles to a trickle our chance has come – “we don’t have tickets but can we please come aboard your lovely boat to take us to Budapest. We are very hot and tired and can’t face cycling the last 24km through the traffic leading the suburbs into the city”. “Of course – come aboard you can purchase a ticket on board. Enjoy your trip” YES – we’re on. We stack our bikes and panniers in the tangle of other machines including two tandems and go looking for a seat. There aren’t any. They are all full. So we have to stand on deck for the 80 minute boat ride but it was worth it.

Arrive in centre of Budapest. Disentangle bikes. Climb gang plank. Rumble across cobbled quayside. Search for hotel. Nearly get run over by trams. Bike finally pings to pieces on zebra crossing. Try and get across a massive road junction by running with bikes to avoid having to bounce down underpass steps. Find the right street and eventually find hotel cunningly disguised as a building site behind a digger and a very large lorry. Made it. Check in. Go and find cold beer and food.