September 19, 2014
Orth-an-der-Donau - Mosonmagyarovar: Hungary.
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There was no bright blue sky this morning, instead a thick blanket of dismal grey cloud, but oh thank you, thank you, no wind. We rode back to the river and turned onto the track, through the Donau-Auen [Danube meadows] National Park, dead straight, in an easterly direction, in still air, for about 10 miles. The wonder of it. Beyond Stopfenreuth, we rode up to the bridge over the river and on the other side were forced to carry our bikes a long way down a series of stairs to the road below. This was real aggravation. I suspect caused by a mistake in navigation. I think we should have turned right alongside the main road, gone underneath it and come off the bridge on the other side of road.
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The Radweg showed us a convoluted way out of Hainburg, then, on a mazy ride through the fields, from which Bratislava's western suburbs were visible through the haze, to Wolfsthal, the last town in Austria. The headwind was back, but much reduced. Once past the buildings of the old border controls [Don't you miss those sour-faced border guards with sub-machine guns?], we rode on the draughty concrete bike path to the SNP bridge in Bratislava.
We picnicked in view of the city centre, across the river, but after eating, carried on eastwards, giving Bratislava, unjustifiably I'm sure, the breeze. Barbara said, after Vienna, she'd had enough of cities for the time-being. We were soon caught up by another cyclo-tourist, Kurt from Sweden. He'd spent the night in a hostel in Bratislava and got off to a late start after shopping and washing clothes. He'd ridden from Hamburg, via the Czech Republic and was mostly camping. He stayed with us for about 10 miles, where he stopped for a beer. We'd been making slow enough progress as it was, so pedalled on.
The route took us away from the river then and we stopped to take a couple of pictures of our first Slovakian village, Rajka.. Except, it wasn't. We were already in Hungary.
From Rajka the bike path follows highway 150 into Mosonmagyarovar. On the edge of the town a Danube trail sign directs cyclists away to the right down a suburban street. We ignored this instruction and rode straight into the town centre, then followed a sign for the hotel Panorama. The Panorama sits in what is at first sight, an unpromising location, but is pleasantly landscaped on one side, which fronts a small tributary of a tributary of the Danube. Compared to Austria it was cheap, and the food was good too. The dining room is decorated, in part, with various porcelain figurines, reminiscent of the early days of Meissen, which we gazed upon in wonder. The aforementioned Germany exhibition at the British Museum had an example of early Meissen ware. I would not have been surprised to see a similar object on my mother's mantelshelf. She had a taste for kitschy pot knick-knacks.
Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,578 km (980 miles)
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