September 25, 2014
The Long Way Home: Day 1: Budapest to Passau.
We were up on time, checked out, loaded the bikes again and set off along Kiraly utca, in the direction of Deli station. The worst of it was the ride through the tunnel under Castle Hill in Buda, on the other side of Szechenyi Lanchid, the Chain Bridge. The railway line follows a more direct route to Györ, than the one we'd cycled. It would be a hillier ride. There was the expected minor aggravation at Györ station, we had to change platforms and there were no lifts, but we had time enough. I spent the last of our Forints in the station shop.
We followed a different route into Austria, crossing the border at Nickelsdorf, where there was a change of crew. In Bruck-an-der-Leithau, a train waiting at the platform, I bought the Austrian equivalent, the Einfach-Raus* [local trains only, no bike reservations] of the German Quer-Durchs-Land ticket for €36. I forgot to include the bikes.
From here to Passau, across Austria by local train, our itinerary, [thank you D-Bahn], was Bruck to Vienna Hütteldorf [5 minutes to change trains], Vienna Hütteldorf to Sankt Valentin, [4 minutes] Sankt Valentin to Linz, [40 minutes], Linz to Passau, arriving at Passau around 7-00pm.
At Vienna Hütteldorf, we had to change platforms. There were no lifts and we missed the connection. That was no problem, we'd just arrive later, but we had to wait almost an hour for the next train. I went for a walk about the station. I wandered in through an entrance gate of the nearby Gerhard Hanappi stadium, until this season, the home of Rapid Vienna football club. Five of the players were taking part in a photo-shoot, posing on motor scooters painted in the club's green and white colours and marked with their appropriate squad numbers. I did a bit of a photo-shoot myself. No-one seemed to mind, so I snapped away. For any Rapid fans out there, the players involved were: Thomas Schrammel, Louis Schaub, Mario Sonnleiter, Stefan Hoffman and Dominik Wydra.
*A note: Same principle, different name; the German Quer-Durchs-Land means Right Across Country, whereas the Austrian Einfach-Raus means Just Go Out. Something to do with size of network, perhaps.
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Again, the railway took a more direct route to Linz, only reaching the Danube at Melk. At Sankt Valentin, we had another quick change, but our train was waiting on the next track of the same platform, no ups nor downs, no problem. From Linz we were home free, except, we got a tug from an inspector, for not having a bike ticket. It seemed he didn't have the wherewithal to issue a proper bicycle ticket to combine with our Einfach-Raus ticket, so he just issued one for a journey of equivalent cost.
Barbara had booked a hotel in Passau on-line. The restaurant was on the point of closing, so we ate what food we had left and waited till morning.
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