September 15, 2011
Sep 15 - Gyor to Komarom: A 'short' ride with some cross-country detours... not on purpose
Aqua Hotel, 22,000 Ft including breakfast (C$1=211 Ft) AVS 17.5 km/h, T 3h41m
WE were all pretty tired this morning so we dawdled down to the cafe for an excellent breakfast - delicious sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, fried red pepper and onion combination, smoked meats, juices, teas and breads. We were starved and ate a lot!
We were done around 8 am so we got the bikes and loaded them up. Kevin had lost a screw from his rack so we had to zip tie the hole and this seemed to work quite fine. Then we were off to the old city which was breathtakingly beautiful, old traditional buildings all restored and piles of work to fix buildings, walls, roads and walkways. The interior of the Basilica was over-the-top elaborate.
I bought a bandana then we started to weave our way out of the city past old Soviet-style buildings, train tracks and even through one field which had black and white steel posts across the path with the nuclear symbol newly-painted on them. Yikes! And there was just a huge field with nothing in it so I don't know what that was about.
The route was tricky to follow so at some points we were off track. We decided on one alternate route that started out as paved but after a few kilometres became a packed dirt path; then sand; then two ruts in the field. We wondered if it would just end in a field and we'd have to back track. For many kilometres we weaved through the fields of sunflowers, plowed fields... until there were only two ruts in the grass. Then the path widened, became dirt and eventually was paved. We'd made it to Acs. Now that we were through we agreed it had been nice but lucky we didn't break a spoke or rip a tire.
This was a good time to stop for lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich - delicious. And were again on our way. Directions were poor so again we ended up in a lush bush ride though it was the original Danube bike path. We decided on the older route to town and soon rolled up to the Penny Farthing Model where we met a cycling group from BC.
We got to the hotel, put away the bikes then just relaxed and read e-mails before going out to the mineral baths beside the hotel. Not really my thing, it was still neat to see the baths and the dozens of old Hungarians in the sulphur baths just like in the photographs in Lonely Planet.
Back at the room I washed my clothes and surfed a bit until we went next door for supper. We all had beef goulash on noodles and it was served with the same hot pepper sauce as last night. I must get a recipe to make this sauce!
We all craved an ice cream but found the store across the road was closed so we took a walk toward the bridge to Slovakia for photos and on the way back went into the huge Tesco store for a few snacks. It was such a beautiful evening for a walk.
By now we were zonked so we just relaxed and crashed after I checked messages and read my e-book.
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The path eventually ended up coming to the town we were looking for.
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Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 231 km (143 miles)
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