Day 14 Budapest Epilogue

Returned the hire bikes to Buda Explorer and explained about the broken front mudguard but the young lady barely cast a glance at it. “No problem. I hope you have had a nice trip”. “Oh yes” we said. “It’s been wonderful”. Then we headed off to be bike-free tourists for the first time in two weeks.

Having had 24 hours for our backsides to recover we can now reflect on the last two weeks pedalling along between Passau and Budapest on our trusty steeds.

The sun shone every day without fail often reaching temperatures of 33 degrees by mid afternoon. The only rain that fell was one shower in the late afternoon in Vienna and one evening in Marbach. Sweat has proliferated from every orifice in the hot afternoon sun requiring many stops for radlers (shandy), fruit fill lemonades or just cold water in a variety of small bars and cafes that have littered the route. Some in small villages others beside the cycle track or by the river. The cravings for Austrian cake diminished as time went on and was replaced by a mad desire for ice cream in a multiplicity of flavours.

Every afternoon after navigating our way to our hotels and checking in there was a mad dash to the room to rip off all the hot, sweaty, sun cream-encrusted cycling gear and to stand under an ice cold shower until a state of torpor set in. After that chuck grotty cycling gear into shower, squirt soap all over it and then jump on it until you think it might be usable the following day. Wring out and hang up to dry and then put it on again in the morning. Most of the hotel rooms had no aircon so quite often another shower became necessary before bed just lower the body temperature enough to be able to sleep!!

The peloton dinner at some suitable hostellerie in the evening was always the best time of the day with cold beer in hand and a pile of food in front of you. The cuisine has ranged from Austrian schnitzels to Hungarian goulashes with a rich mixture of Italian pastas, Asian ramen bowls and Slovakian paprikash chickens thrown in. The dinner table was awash with exaggerated tails of the day’s ride and the trials and tribulations of the long distance cyclist. In fact, on reflection, I think we just forget about the cycling and just concentrate our time on the eating and drinking with a bit of sightseeing thrown in. I think it’s called a Danube River Cruise!!

Some fine sights were seen along the way.

Altogether the peloton completed approximately 640km from Passau to Budapest. The first 330km to Vienna was delightful with excellent asphalt and great signposting. From Vienna to Budapest the surfacing did degenerate somewhat and included more sections of cycling on roads sometimes with reasonably heavy traffic. For quite a few days we didn’t see the Danube at all except for the occasional crossing on a bridge or ferry. All the stopover towns and cities have been well worth visiting with plenty to see and do.

And so we come to the end of another epic cycling trip with our peloton chums. No punctures. One minor mechanical. 300 litres of beer drunk and five tons of ice cream consumed.

Of course we could keep going along the Danube until it eventually enters the Black Sea in Romania … hmmm….!