September 22, 2011
Vienna: A nightmare on the trains
This has certainly been a different day. After our stay at the lovely Bristol Hotel we had to get ourselves across to the other side of Budapest to the station we needed. It looked like a daunting task - the traffic in Budapest is mind boggling and there are few cycle lanes - Ken estimated it would probably take around three hours. So we set off and it was amazingly easy, we rode on the footpaths and sometimes took our life in our hands and mingled with the traffic. We didn't get lost once and found the station, bought an international ticket from Gyor to Vienna and a Hungarian one as far as Gyor (the fatal flaw ) We were about two hours earlier than the train we had intended so leapt on an earlier one feeling very proud of ourselves. I sent Jane a Txt 'Mission accomplished in a carriage resembling a cattle wagon rumbling towards Gyor. Only problem is Ken thinks we are going in the wrong direction!' Well the problem was we were. After about an hour and a half the train stopped at a biggish town and the guy that had been helping us with bikes got out. I said ' How far to Gyor from here?' he looked surprised and said it was a long way he didn't know how far. This somewhat disturbed us. There was also a young couple in the carriage with us so Ken went over and asked them and it was confirmed, We were hurtling south east not north west. What to do next, we talked to the guar who shrugged his shoulders. But we had our wonderful new friends. They were getting off at the next station to visit their Grandmother, we would get off too and take the next train back to Vienna. Off we got and they talked hard and long with the lady in the ticket office. We would catch the next train back to Budapest but get off at the first stop in Budapest as there would be a better connection. We were lucky it is 'car free day' in Hungary today so bikes travel for free, I just wish ours hadn't taken such advantage of the Hungarian Governments genorisity. We are so grateful to these kind people, they could so easily just left us to fend for ourselves. if you read this thank you very much, we didn't even find out your names.
The station we were at was tiny. This of course had one advantage as you just walked across the rails to the appropriate platform. Hungarian Stations don't have lifts or ramps so in order to get bikes from one platform to another you have to unload your bikes, carry the baggage up the stairs then carry your bikes up, reload them, as you may need to do a mad dash along the train to find the bike carriage. The door of the carriage is about 4 to 5 feet above the platform so once again unload the bikes throw the bags on board then it takes two to lift up the bikes. May be I needed some weight training. We made our connection with just a few seconds to spare and the young woman guard held up the train while we got the last of our stuff aboard. It was a relief to reach Gyor, their coffee machine was out of action but I enjoyed the ice tea I had. The train from there to Vienna was a breeze and we met a lovely young Austrian girl who was an exchange student at Kaiapoi High School last year. She put us on the right track to get to this place so it was easy and we arrived just on dark. Have been to the Bahnhof and organised our train trip for tomorrow so hopefully we will have a day free of train stress.
The prize for the day was dinner at the most beautiful little restaurant Ken found. It is the best meal we have had yet and the whole place calm, with many of the patrons sitting around reading the newspapers provided by the restaurant.
Hardly any photos taken today - too much stress
Today's ride: 11 km (7 miles)
Total: 2,886 km (1,792 miles)
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