Friday morning I awoke, walked across the street to the supermarket, and packed up my gear. Then I extended my stay in Leoben another day.
I hiked up to the nearby castle ruin in what was supposed to be a break in the rain.
I trackes down a sporting goods store in the local mall for a replacement inner tube. Picked up some toiletries that were running low.
I then spent time catching up on life maintenance and ongoing projects: t-shirts for the Carolina Canoe Club; electronic kayaking trip registration. All made more awkward working from a mobile device! I had hoped to end up at a hostek at some point with a shared computer. What I should have done today is find the local library. The local libraries used to be my go-to when traveling in Europe, before a more ubiquitous cell service and mobile device universe.
Weather or not, I’m headed to Liezen Saturday. I’ll definitely get rained on, but hopefully within tolerable levels. Once I cross over Schoberpaß I hope to make good enough time to extend well past Liezen. I don’t see any significant elevation change after Liezen for quite a while. I need less water with the lower temperature; I’ll drop weight by carrying about 2 liters less water. Every little bit helps!
I left Graz early Thursday, before 8:00 a.m., planning to beat the incoming 4:00 p.m. weather in Leoben, forecast to last for several hours. Leoben had a campground, multiple booking.com listings, and a potential warmshowers.org host that I had reached out to the night before but hadn’t heard back from.
Mountains majestically surrounded me for most of the day. The climb, while almost constant, stayed a steady grade as I rode between the river and the rail.
I could occasionally see the break in the mountains ahead of me.
And sometimes I couldn’t.
Occasional exceptions to the steady grade occurred ironically when there were large flat sections next to the river, agriculture then pushing me up the side of the mountain. The steepest signed grade, 12%, lasted only 15 ft in my favor, one of the many times I crossed under the rail line.
The Mur River carved the valley I’m following up into the mountains. I regularly passed (or crossed) hydro sites. The Austrians believe in green power, as well as being environmentalists. Here you can see the track created for fish to work their way back upstream.
During one of the longer descents I missed seeing a rock, and slammed into it hard enough I thought I blew the front tube, not to mention a momentary struggle to not go off the side of the mountain a hundred and fifty miles an hour sideways and five hundred feet down at the same time. Nor into the side of the cliff.
I stopped for lunch in Deutchfeistriz only to discover that my cell plan no longer worked. Translating some text messages, 30 days had passed on my cell plan, and I needed to renew. I’d wondered whether I had 6 gb until the data ran out, or whether I had a 30-day plan. Answered that. I couldn’t refill the card without Internet, and I wouldn’t have Internet until I refilled the card! I stopped in Frohnkeiten and used the free city Wi-Fi. Took a bit of untangling, but I restarted my plan. At that point I learned that my warmshowers.org host had responded he wasn’t available.
It wasn’t until Bruck an der Mur, 60 km from Graz, that an errant storm cell caught me. I ducked under bridge to check the weather. An hour’s wait would let the rain pass, so I settled in. Not all that patient, I checked the weather again in 30 minutes. If I waited out the cell, I’d run directly into the rain I planned to beat at 4:00 p.m. Well damn. Close enough to Leoben, I booked an apartment on booking.com, so I’d have a place to land. I waited until the worst of the cell had passed according to the weather radar, girded myself for rain, and set out.
Five minutes later, directly into the storm. I slammed into thunder, lightning, gusting wind, and torrential rain, with water gushing down the streets. I pushed through the weather, and eventually the rain ebbed.
8 km out of Leoben I hit a small bump and realized the rear wheel has lost some air. Not wanting to stop in the rain to fix a flat tire, I babied the rear wheel hoping I could reach the apartment before I ran out of air. 5 km later I pulled into a bus stop to pump up the rear wheel, staggering the last few kilometers to the apartment. Once I checked in, it of course stopped raining.
By the time I got out of the shower the rear tire had completely deflated. I swapped the tube for one of my spares. In the process of changing the flat, while I had the bike flipped over, I also noticed one of the screws had unscrewed on one of the pedals, but hadn’t fallen out yet. Fixed that as well.
Wandered out for dinner and to explore.
I almost got mugged at dinner – some very aggressive chickadees.
The weather has changed. The forecast for tomorrow calls for heavy storms, and high temperatures in the low 50s. Looking farther ahead, still more rain. There’s not much between me and Liezen, 80 km away. Except a 400 m climb up and over an 800 m pass, surrounded by 1500 m peaks.
Yesterday was rainy, and I needed to buy a few things, so I went to the big shopping mall in the area, Europark. Very nice. And Austrians bring their dogs to the mall! One little pup visited me from a nearby table at the waffle restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel desk person. I had the waffle with cherries, ice cream and whipped cream. Yum!
I found a replacement pair of shorts (my others were just too big.), a fanny pack (the new shorts didn’t have enough pockets to not carry a bag), a new pair of socks, some food, and other miscellaneous stuff. The weather was better by the time I left.
Today was lovely! So, I wandered around the town a bit. Started at Mirabelle Garden.
Happy Corpus Christi Day! (According to a couple on the elevator, EVERYTHING is closed today!)
I took my time leaving the campground in Jennersdorf on Wednesday. The sunny morning gave me time to hang stuff up to dry. According to the GPX track, Graz was 72 km away, and I’d taken 16 km off of that by bicycling in the rain on Tuesday. 102 km later I pulled into the hostel in Graz.
As I rode toward Graz, I could see the walls of the valley in which I rode. I rapidly realized the track I followed wandered back and forth, mostly on tractor paths, although paved.
The track took me back and forth across the river and railroad tracks. I realized whoever created this GPX track had saved time by occasionally drawing perfectly straight lines where in reality the path wandered all over the place. As I rode up the valley, navigation added wandering back and forth along the contours of the hills. Every time I checked my odometer, Graz was always a bit farther than it should have been, because EV 14 spent so much time going back and forth. Still, I didn’t have a lot of options. Between the valley, the river, the highway, and the rail tracks, no valid path ran directly through everything. Fortunately there were signs at almost every turn, some simple, some complex.
The farther I rode, the closer the mountains got. Up until the 60 km mark, while torturously indirect, the route climbed slowly. After that the gradient started to kick in.
Then I reached the head of the valley in Laßnitzhöhe. The last couple of kilometers I rode until I had to stop. And eventually walked the last 500 m into the city.
From there everything was downhill to Graz. I rode along the river, flat and through parks and gardens, until I reach the hostel. Resting in a valley, Graz lends itself to cycling. Every street seems to have cycle lanes, and cyclists ride everywhere. I’ve never seen a city with this many cyclists. Cyclists ride literally bumper-to-bumper,
with parking to match. They all use hand signals because you have to!
The hostel, the typical big urban city hostel, offers laundry, which I desperately needed to do. After figuring it out myself, I got to help a group of Asian men do the same thing.
Stepped out for a bite to eat before picking up my laundry. Thursday looks like a lot of up, headed for a pass I’ll reach on Friday.
Reviewing the weather Tuesday morning, I would be cycling into rain around 4:00 p.m. I left my lovely B&B to walk over to the supermarket across the street, which was more of a convenience store. Having wandered back and forth through Vasvar the day before, I knew where everything was. I loaded up my bicycle to ride down to the supermarket before leaving the city.
I had a wonderful day of cycling. The first 25 km flew by, although I encountered multiple 10% grades in both directions. When I’m climbing into mountains, I resent every single 10% grade down, because I’m just giving up the work I put into getting up there. But I either rode on dedicated cycle path or quiet lane.
At the 25 km point I stopped to have lunch at a church with a beautiful garden.
From there I had two choices, continue on EV 14, or take an alternate route past three potential castles. I spent time while eating lunch examining my alternate, and the impact for elevation. My alternate route looked like it was a long slow steady climb for the next 30 km. EV14 on the other hand was up and down, sometimes a LOT of up and down, as well as 20 additional km to reach Szentgotthard, Hungary – my destination for the day. When I was expecting rain.
I had amazing cycling on the alternate route. No castles, although I found a couple of manor houses. But I had left the 10% grades behind, instead having gradient I could usually tell only by looking at my speedometer and my slightly reduced speed.
Due to my early arrival in Szentgotthard at 1:30 p.m., I looked ahead. A campground lay 20 km ahead of me in Jennersdorf, Austria and then nothing for the next 30 to 40 km. I could feel the weather starting to turn.
I had a confusing call with the campground, but in the end I’d hopefully learned the campground was open and had a place to camp. I pushed onward, racing past one storm cell. But 5 km east of Jennersdorf light rain caught me. I stopped at a bus stop to consider my options, and eat. The forecast called for increasing rain. I headed out.
I arrived at the campground at 2:30 p.m. not dry. With Reception closed. Reading the sign, Reception opened again at 3:00 p.m. I settled in to wait. Another couple showed up, went through the same process I had gone through, and also decided to wait. 3:00 p.m. came and went. Someone else arrived and called the office; you could hear the phone ring inside.
I had entered Austria, and the Euro zone, with no valid cash, having given all of my euros to Linda. I had 25,000 Hungarian forint — not much good here. Fortunately a sign in the campground window indicated they took Visa.
The host arrived around 3:45 p.m. The website for this campground describes him as a friendly fellow always happy to welcome people. He doesn’t speak English, and came across as a cranky old man. Fortunately the couple waiting with me spoke some English, and we got everything squared away.
A break in the rain let me get my tent up. Afterwards I went back to pay only to be told they only accepted cash. So I rode the short distance back into town to an ATM. Again, not dry. When I returned the host was nowhere to be found. Eventually he returned and we squared everything away. Again, without any registration paperwork. The rain, anticipated to stop at 6:00 p.m., did not.
The rain stopped at 8:00 p.m., and I dashed out to pick up a pizza before heading off to bed. I also made a reservation at a hostel in Graz for tomorrow, 80 km distant from here.
Temperature is the last couple of days have been in the high ’70s. Cooler and dry the next few days. The last couple of days I’ve ended the day covered in white patches of salt from perspiration.
I’m back for another update. On Saturday, I checked out of the spa hotel and rode the length of Magrit Island. It’s a big park. Really lovely with different gardens and activity areas.
I heard a bunch of kids and sounds like a little carnival, so I stopped. I think the idea was carnival type activities you might have done in medieval times?!? Maybe?
So, in this one, the guy in the funny hat gets a kid to come up to the “catapult” (a net strung across 2 poles). He has a bunch of round stuffed animals with ears and he shoves an ear through the net. The kid pulls in the ear, stretching the net, lets go and fires the stuffed animal at a ring in the ground. So lame and yet so funny.
Here we have rock’m sock’m knights.
And in this one, the guy revs up the crowd really well. The kid on the ground has on 4 sleeves (one in each arm and leg). I think maybe they represent something (dragons???). The other kid has on a special shirt. And on the mark, she runs over and pulls the sleeves off the other kid while the man counts. It’s literally over in a couple seconds! Again, just so lame, but I couldn’t not watch!
Then I headed off to the nearest full train station, on the Pest side. The plan was for me to ride the train down to the far end of Lake Balaton to meet Rick. So, I got to the huge station. Can’t figure out where the human ticket office is. Try the ticket machine but can’t find the station name I need. Sit around got a long time trying to figure things out on various apps and decide that the train line to from Lake Balaton connects to station Buda Deli (on the Buda side of the river), but I can’t figure out the connection from there to the station where I am, on the Pest side. So, I went looking further for a ticket office and eventually find it outside.
The first lady I talk to doesn’t speak English, so she points to her right, so I go to the next one and she also points to the right. On the fourth and final one, she speaks a little English. I say I want to go to station Balatonberemy and she says “Buda Deli”. So, I ask how do I get to Buda Deli station and she points at my bike! So, I biked there! Got the ticket and all went well from there.
Rick met me at the little station right near a naturist camp where we stayed 2 nights.
While there, I tried to figure out where to go next. I really wanted to go to some farm in Austria that would be more or less along Rick’s path, but the problem is that there aren’t that many and when I’d find one I liked, it turned out I’d have to bike 3 miles up a steep hill to get there from whatever station (which would actually mean me pushing a bike up a hill for 3 miles). And train connections moving from Hungary to Austria (or for that matter, even within Hungary – see previous train story), can be tricky. Each line is run by independent operators. So, you can’t necessarily even get a ticket all the way to your final destination until you get to a station where you shift from one operator to another.
I finally decided to just head to Salzburg, Austria, which is on the border with Germany, so a short way back to Munich when it’s time. Rick thought I could do it by going to Gyor, Hungary, then getting a train to Salzburg from there. And that was mostly right. The unexpected part was on the first train when one of the conductors told me, in Hungarian, that I needed to get off the train at Celldomolk. But when we got to Celldomolk, there was a little 2-car train to Gyor right there. Hop off one and get on the other! (I make sound easy, but I literally needed help getting the darn bike up and down stairs of the train every single time.)
At Gyor, again I found a ticket office, and while they didn’t speak much English (they spoke Hungarian and German), they got tickets for me and my bike (yes, a bike requires its own ticket) with no train changes all the way to Salzburg! And I had plenty of time for a bite of lunch before the train. Got to Salzburg around 7 pm tonight. Checked into a hotel, found a nearby restaurant for dinner, and settled in to do THIS!
Sounds very hectic, but it wasn’t horrible. Just takes time to figure stuff out. And the language barrier adds a bit of uncertainty. But it all worked out fine. And Salzburg is full of English speakers.
Saturday I left Zamardi in a flood of bicycles. Huge packs (herds? Ahh pelotons) of cyclists. I took some glee in being able to pass people.
Fortunately soon thereafter everyone turned to catch the ferry (mistakenly including me, as I was at that point following the cyclists in front of me). A peninsula on the other side of the lake provides a short ferry point for cyclists riding partway around the lake. Hundreds of cyclists awaited the ferry.
That significantly reduced the flow. All in all, the 100 km along the southern coast of Lake Belaton was spectacular — well-marked (mostly) level path, spectacular views, multiple parks and beach access, and plenty of bathrooms.
I made great time, arriving in Balatonbereny a couple of hours before Linda. I scouted out the train station, texted Linda, and headed to the campground to settle in.
Rail staff helped Linda load her bicycle of the three steep steps onto the train, and take the bicycle off the train. When her train was due to arrive I biked back to the train station to pick her up.
We spent Sunday lounging around on the beach, working on taking some of the edge off of cyclist’s tan, and taking a swim in the (cold!) lake. And doing laundry. Always doing laundry.
We also spent a lot of time on Sunday determining Linda’s plan. She wanted to stay at a farm or other agro tourism location, and generally follow along my path.
As we work through that I started to get frustrated. I was headed for a mountainous border, and there aren’t typically a lot of different ways to cross a border. To get Linda in front of me with a train required multiple train changes, including cases where the train schedules didn’t overlap until the next day. Or taking the train back to Budapest and then come back around. It began to look like I would need to travel with Linda instead of cycling.
However, we came up with a plan. My first step in the process had been figuring out that it was fairly easy to take a train to Vienna via Gyor (the rest of the conversation not helped any by me constantly getting Gyor and Graz, one of my intended destinations, mixed up). We were trying to get Linda to Graz.
Linda asked if the train via Gyor could also go to Salzburg. From there she can rent a car, wander about, and return the car directly to Salzburg when I get there. With only one train change (although it ended up being two), on trains that ran every hour or so, so no rush between train transitions.
I left Linda at the train station Monday morning, and headed out towards Vasvar, where I intended to camp for the night, 80 km away.
When I turned away from the lake several things happened. The incessant stream of cyclists dropped off significantly. I rejoined EV 14. Climbing began; I came across several 10% grade roads today — some in my favor, some not!
I ran across an environmental solution I’ve run into before, telephone poles that have a specific platforms on the top for storks to live. Today I saw a nest with the mother store can multiple fledglings.
I spent almost the entire day on dedicated bicycle path, barring my own foolishness. That which was not dedicated path, was back roads. Most of the day I stayed on asphalt, with the occasional exception.
Arrival in Vasvar included a steep descent (which I’m always bitter about, as I worked hard to gain that elevation that I just lost). I rode down a steep hill to the out-of-the-way campground which, more significantly, was closed down. I had made good time for the day, and had arrived at 4:00 p.m. Examining the math, I could either ride another 35 km towards Munich to the next probably open campground, or ride four kilometers out of my way to another campground nearby, with no other options from there. I chose … poorly.
I chose the closer campground. The route then required a road that did not permit bicycles. But at that point I was committed, with no alternate route, mostly riding on the shoulder with the occasional big truck passing me by.
Arriving at the second campground, I discovered it was also abandoned. Damn. I retraced my steps (again, on a big road I was not supposed to be on) back to Vasvar. On the way into town I saw a sign indicating accommodation 1200 m ahead. Winding my way through the city, following signs, I found a B&B. No one present, I was dialing the number on the sign when the owner came out to tell me that they had no rooms. He kindly directed me to another one down the street.
Which was also closed. I spun back around and went halfway between the two places so far, and started studying my map. The owner of the first B&B saw me and called me over in Hungarian. Keep me in mind I don’t speak any Hungarian (and unlike other Romance languages, I can’t make heads or tails of any Hungarian), he told me in Hungarian to wait a minute, and he would call around. He called several places that were full but on his third try found somewhere where, via Google translate, he told me the host would arrive in an hour and pointed it out on a map.
Having some time to kill, I cycled to two other B&Bs that were closer, figuring a bird in the hand is always better. But to no avail. I also checked out booking.com, and Airbnb, neither with options anywhere nearby. So I cycled to the recommended location and waited. And waited. One problem with the waiting was burning through daylight, further limiting my choices if this didn’t work out.
Then the host drove up. In Hungarian, he explained I should bring my bike inside, and I should wait. Then he went about frantically cleaning the apartment. When he was done, he showed me the room. Pointed out the price. Showed me the Wi-Fi password. Explaines that he has a real job; the cleaning is normally done by someone else. He also asked if I cared about registration? I told him whatever worked best for him. And he handed me my passport back unopened. Broken bits and pieces of that accomplished via Google Translate. But most of the time I generally know what people are trying to tell me, if only because it’s the same conversation I’ve had so many times.
And I had a place to stay (even if it is under the table). Even comes with an exercise bicycle. Just what I needed.
By the time I had gone to the other campground, visited the first, second, third, and fourth B&B options, before finally navigating to my final destination, and waiting for the host, then waiting for the host to clean everything and get me settled in, it was 7:30 p.m. I walked back into town to check what my dining options were, which as I expected equaled zero. Worth noting that between OSM and Google Maps, the error rate for things being open (meaning still in business) is extremely high.
I walked back to my B&B and made dinner. There’s a supermarket across the street, so I won’t have any problem resupplying in the morning.
By the point I found a place to stay my intended 80 km for the day had worked out to be just under a 100 kilometers. Tomorrow, barring incident, I’ll pass a 1,000 kilometers for the trip so far.
Linda successfully settled into her hotel in Salzburg.
Whike I will leave Vasvar following EV 14, careful examination of the map suggests an alternate route along a river valley 25 km from Vasvar. Passing 3 castles. Looks like a shortcut! What can go wrong?
Ok, going back to my previous update from Veroce. We took a stroll after dinner to see the Danube.
Next day we made the last leg to Budapest. Saw God on the way.
The biking into Budapest was at first boring (ugly buildings), then at times harrowing when I lost the bike path and got into traffic. Oops. But Rick blocked the traffic, and we made it back to the path.
But we got to the pretty part. Got an apartment in a great location! Budapest is actually 2 cities, Buda and Pest. Buda is on the west side of the Danube with steep hills right close to the river. Pest is on the east side, which is relatively flat, so that part has expanded kind of endlessly out. There are a couple of islands in the middle of the river. We stayed in Pest, close to Magrit (Margaret) Island.
Above is a view we got from a hill on the Buda side. (Buda on the left, Pest on the right.) Way off you can just see Magrit Island in the middle. We hiked WAY up before we got to a sign saying the ruins of the old castle were under renovation. So, at that point we just kept going.
Oh, just saying, Hungarians are fond of the letter Z.
Here is the Orszaghaz, the Parliament building.
We went up to the old part of Buda on a funicular. Here is a view from that ride.
You can see one of the bridges across the river that ends at Parliament. Apparently, the cultures of Buda and Pest were pretty distinct for a long time, as there were no bridges across until the 1800s!
We watched the changing of the guards at the palace, then later the full inspection of the guards. Pretty cool!
Enjoyed a garden.
In the evening, we walked over to Magrit Island to watch a wonderful fountain show of music and lights! They would play a song (varying between rock and classical) and the water would dance to the music in all different colors.
Then we walked back across the bridge and got to see the Parliament and other buildings all lit up.
If you are curious about the currency here, the Forint…
I think that’s about $50.
So, then we reached the half way point of the trip. Next morning Rick and I each picked out what things we wouldn’t need for the rest of the time, and I took that stuff to Mailboxes Etc. and shipped it back to the US. That significantly lightened my load! Which is good, because I’ll need to be able to wrestle the bike into trains by myself mostly. So Rick headed out by bike to the lakes that are southwest of Budapest. I, on the other hand, checked into a spa hotel and signed up for badly needed massages!
The thermal water here is supposed to be quite healthy.
But it smells a bit of sulfur (holding nose).
What was the final biking distance? About 380 miles because we took a train for part of it. Would have been closer to 540 miles otherwise. There will be more bike-riding, but the 20-40 miles in a day part is probably done.
Rick, on the other hand, will be going much longer distances each day, with lots of hills/mountains.
I work Friday morning to the sound of rain on the tent. Still half awake, I got up for a run to the bathroom and to put a plastic cover over my bicycle seat, then snuggled back into bed.
Then woke up. The rain was light, but the weather forecast showed more rain inbound. I prefer packing up when everything isn’t wet. I scrambled to pack. By the time the rain began in ernest I was tucked under the shelter at the campground, eating breakfast and charging my phone.
I spent a while intently peering at the weather forecast and weather radar. By my best calculation, a gap in the weather would occur at, unsurprisingly, 10:00 a.m. Destiny.
I started out on dedicated bicycle path, but with the weather as it was, I took a shortcut onto a heavy highway. Too heavy. When I passed a ” bicycles are not permitted here ” sign I detoured off to a smaller road.
That worked great until it didn’t.
A little bushwacking later I found myself back on the road, and finally on Eurovelo 14.
Thursday I ended up at a beach without Linda. Friday I saw a camel (and a llama) without Linda as I passed by a circus. I don’t do these things on purpose, but she’ll be sad she missed them.
I stopped for lunch at noon in a shelter with signage suggesting bathrooms, water, and a shower. All locked, but an active charging station let me top off my phone — not a complete loss. By the time I had finished lunch a storm had rolled in. So I waited. Then the weather radar showed thunder storms and hail. I finally rolled out about 2:00 p.m.
However, more storm cells were moving south to north south of me. By my best estimate I could move west fast enough to cross in front of the next one. That worked.
For the NEXT storm cell, I think I’d have to call it a tie. But, moving hard and fast I managed to mostly stay ahead of the rain. Same for the next one.
At one point I passed a German cycle tourist headed the other way. You shouted something to me, and I stopped. So he stopped. His question was effectively, what’s the weather ahead of me. We were both racing against the rain!
I crossed over the hills to Lake Balaton in sunshine, a gentle ride along the southern edge of the lake. I passed by my originally intended campground to add an additional 15 km my planned day (and 15 km fewer tomorrow).
Arriving at the next campground in Zamardi, I could see what would have happened if I had been caught by one of those storm cells. Tree limbs had fallen across multiple campsites. Heavy rain had left puddles of water everywhere, although they pointed out a dry spot for my tent. All told, it’s a dinky little campground, on a lot in a residential neighborhood with only about eight sites. The bath house has only one shower, which is jury-rigged off of a sink!
They had lost power, and they informed me in broken English I wouldn’t have hot water for 3 hours. Skeptical, I set up before heading out to grab a bite to eat.
When I came back, jury-rigged or not, I had a hot shower. After they rebooted the Wi-Fi I had internet. All good!
Tuesday Linda and I rode uneventfully into Budapest. We both saw God (a town near Budapest).
We rode on dedicated bicycle path most of the way into Budapest, although traffic increased as we closed in on Budapest. Definitely better cycling on the Slovenian side.
On the way in we booked an apartment near Margit Island for the night. As we neared the apartment we lost the bicycle path for a bit, leading to terrifying moments for Linda. When I realized that, I blocked traffic enough to let her switch back to the bicycle lane.
Linda planned we would only spend Tuesday night at the apartment, to then relocate to a spa-like resort. But the apartment was lovely enough we added Wednesday night to our stay.
Wednesday Linda and I explored the Buda side of Budapest, also known as the castle side. In this case, a funicular brought us up and down the mountain.
We visited the medical and atomic bomb museum, a museum built from a hospital created in the 40s underneath the mountain. The very realistic wax figures provide a somewhat horrifying example of the conditions at the time.
From there we walked to Buda Castle, discovering it closed for renovation (which we only discovered after we climbed the mountain). We had a lovely view of the city, but we didn’t get much of a view of the castle. We did manage to see a butterfly though. And a playground. And a garden. So Linda was happy.
After figuring out how to purchase public transport tickets on our phones, we caught public transportation back to the apartment, had dinner, and spent the rest of the evening viewing the musical fountains on Margit Island. I had known Linda would be a fan, and I was not wrong.
Back at the apartment, the time had come for us to finalize the rest of our trip. I’m headed back to Germany via bicycle. Linda is spending a couple more days in Budapest relaxing, and then joining me for a couple of days glamping next to Lake Balaton, a huge inland lake in Hungary popular for water and beach activities. For the next couple days she made reservations at a hotel/spa, and then she will travel to meet me by train. Budapest marks the end of Linda’s distance cycling. But over the last 3 weeks she’s ridden 639 km!
We pulled out all of the gear she doesn’t need for the next 3 weeks, as well as a few things of my own, and identified a Mailboxes Etc near her hotel si she can get everything she no longer needs shipped home.
Linda lost one of her two credit cards a while back, and didn’t know the pin for the other one. To increase her redundancy I gave her one of the three credit cards that I normally carry, and gave her much of the cash we had on hand.
Thursday morning we packed up and road out together, as the route to her hotel/spa on Margit Island matched my own.
Then I headed south on Eurovelo 6. Eurovelo 6 and Eurovelo 14 cross in Budapest. My initial plan had me following Eurovelo 6 south until I turned onto Eurovelo 14. Eurovelo 14 later crosses Eurovelo 7 just south of Salzburg. So from Eurovelo 14 I eventually will follow Eurovelo 7 into Salzburg. From there I find my way a few days west to Munich.
Historically, the Eurovelo routes and I occasionally have differences of opinion. Looking at possible routes on OSMAnd today presented a different option. When I reached the turn west onto Eurovelo 14, I instead chose to continue south before later turning west. The elevation track looked less severe. It did include a bit more highway travel. And I had a tailwind!
The ride Thursday was lovely, split between dedicated bicycle path, some distance alongside a highway, and some tracks that were slightly smaller than that.
After 5 km of that track I switched back to a larger road. No longer as flat as Eurovelo 6, I had to get used to the occasional climb.
The campground where Linda and I decided to meet back up is three days of moderate cycling, or two days of extreme cycling. I chose the latter. I rode most of the 70 km Thursday with few stops. I did stop at one point at a bank to withdraw more cash. I ate lunch on a bench in a church courtyard.
I arrived at Lake Valence and Gardony by 2:30 pm, with a multitude of camping options. I took a break at a beach while pondering my choices. I decided to stay at the campground the farthest from me, passing a half dozen campgrounds on the way, just because that put me 5 km closer to where I was headed Friday, the eastern side of Lake Balaton.
I arrived at my target campground to be told by the host that the campground was full. Didn’t really look full, but whatever. The next campground was only a few hundred meters back. From a tent camping perspective my final campground was almost vacant. The host didn’t speak English, but figuring out one night with a tent doesn’t take much when my bicycle is propped outside Reception!
I instead could have chosen to ride another 30 km to the next campground, although it’s in the middle of nowhere. Or I could have chosen to bike another 60 km to get to the beginning edge of Lake Balaton. I still have plenty of time, and energy. However, I chose the bird in hand.
Tomorrow (Friday) I continue west, towards Linda, Germany, and home. I merge back with Eurovelo 14 and follow it the rest of the way to Lake Balaton, where we again diverge as I follow the southern coast of the lake.
Linda spends a couple more days in Budapest before meeting me on Saturday. From there she’ll either take a train back to Budapest, and a boat ride back towards Austria, or find some agro tourism place to hang out for a while, or, really, a wide variety of things. Shipping much of her stuff home means her generally moving about by train should be more manageable with a lighter bicycle.
