The Silver Lining: Day 42 - Komarno to Visegrad - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

September 18, 2017

The Silver Lining: Day 42 - Komarno to Visegrad

Well, after my wifi stushie (good Scots word for hissy fit) last night, we woke up this morning to a beautiful crisp fall morning without a cloud in the sky.

This is the first pension (B&B) that we've stayed in so far and we are very impressed. It's in a beautiful old building that's been updated, is immaculately clean and with very helpful staff. All this for about 40 Euro's.

It also turns out that the proprietor, who we met briefly last night when we were checking in, was an Olympian, having paddled for Slovakia in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. He won a silver medal in the K4 kayak at Bejing. Hence the name The Olymp Pension!

Komarno was a nice town, fairly industrial along the river as there are a couple of ship yards that have built and continue to maintain a lot of the large ships that ply the Danube. We took a little tour through the central pedestrian area in the morning (that took about 10 minutes!)

One thing we saw in the town centre, that I think will be an ever more common occurrence as we move south, was a woman with a hand cart filling multiple plastic containers at a public drinking water fountain in the main square. Later in the day we saw the same thing in Esztergom Hungary, and on my Pocket Earth maps, there are public drinking water fountains marked everywhere in Hungary .. Good to know as a cyclist ... and from what we've researched so far, the water is very good! Quite a contrast to Germany where everybody drinks bottled water (what a waste!) when the tap water is perfectly good!

When we left Komarno, we stayed on the east (Slovak) bank of the river on excellent dedicated paved bike paths along the river levee's. We has this for about 30 km and then had to take roads the final few km's into Sturovo, the southernmost part of Slovakia, where we crossed over the Danube into Hungary.

Most guide books and journals we've read have people cycling on the Hungarian side of the river. From what we've heard and seen, there is a lot of gravel and dirt path, and a lot of road riding as well, on the Hungarian side.

In contrast, the Slovak side of the river has been almost all perfect paved bike path along he river. There have been a few sections where the EV6 route has gone away from the river on very quiet (almost deserted) roads, but for the most part, you are totally free from vehicle traffic. The only downside (if you can all it that) is that there are very few towns or services. If you want easy stress free cycling with solitude .. ride in Slovakia. We really enjoyed it.

We also noticed over the last two days something that Tim Moore pointed out in his book, The Cyclist Who Came in From the Cold, that as a remnant of the cold war, all the border areas along the old iron curtain are largely devoid of human activity, and there are 50 - 100 m strips of cleared land, with evidence of footings for (big) fence posts every 50 m or so. This is exactly what we've seen riding through Slovakia the last two days. The fences are now gone, but not the evidence that they were once there. We're all better off now that the fences are gone and people can, and do, move freely. And what better way to make use of that old infrastructure than to turn them into bike ways!

We crossed over in Hungary at Esztergom and had a good feel about the place. Like Slovakia, a little down at the heels compared with Austria and Germany, but lots of street life and happy looking people. We rode another 30 km or so to Visegrad and found another wonderful pension, Villa Harmonia for 40 euro's. I think our camping days may be over!

Tomorrow is a short 50 km (ish) day into Budapest where we'll be taking a few days off and staying with friends Abhi and Tracy.

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Song of the Day

Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

About an hour into our ride this morning, when the path ducked into the trees for a short stint, we noticed a strange orange glow approaching us. A few minutes later we see an older guy riding along on a recumbent trike, decked out in a fluorescent orange hazmat suit! Given that we were essentially riding along in what was once a heavily armed no man's land, the song Radioactive immediately jumped into my head. Later on that night, while listing to tunes in our room, guess what came up on shuffle!

Our home last night - the very clean and comfortable Olymp Pension in Komarno. Shame about the dodgy wifi router on the first floor! First world problems

Checking out in the morning - the bike tourer carnage wasn't too bad

Turns out the proprietor of the Olymp (correct Slovak spelling - not me!) turned out to be a silver medal paddler at the Bejing 2008 Olympics. He was also at the Athens 2004 Olympics

Komarno waking up in the morning. We've stopped our Mifa (east german shopping bike) count now as they are everywhere in daily use around here. The father has the bike this morning!

I think we are going to be seeing a lot of this in the near future Getting the daily water supply from public fountains. We are still in Slovakia but from what I can see on my map (Pocket Earth) there are public drinking water fountains marked everywhere in Hungary

Today's riding. Much like yesterday - except for the weather! Quite nice and we can see the hills in Hungary in the distance where the Danube has to make a few twists and turns

Just about in Hungary - that's the cathedral in Estragom. Apparently it's one of the largest in the world and was built in the late 1800's. Franz Liszt played at the opening ceremonies! (consecration mass I've been corrected!)Kirsten also was struck about the fact the bridge was destroyed in 1944 and only rebuilt in 2001 with help from the EU. Two towns so close yet so far away.

I got another wasp sting this morning - this little bugger flew into my open shirt this morning and stung me on the chest! After my last episode we knew what to do - burnt the sting with the hot blade of our swiss army knife, applied some cortisone cream and took some of the leftover cortisone medication I had from France! All good the next morning - no swelling!

What's a day without food shots! Our last meal in Slovakia before we crossed over the river to Hungary.Looks pretty sloppy, and it was, but also pretty good. As with all bike tourers, we'll have to remember to change our diet when we are done!

Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 2,946 km (1,829 miles)

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