September 17, 2011
Sep 17 - Esztergom to Visegrad: Along a Danube winding around the mountains
Hotel Visegrad 2,200 Ft
WE were all tired in the morning - I'd been kept awake by the booming of the disco down the road. Nonetheless, not wanting to sit around online I went down for breakfast of tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cream cheese and meats. Does not sound good but everything was delicious and I ate hordes of it! There is something about the freshly grown produce that is simply amazing compared to our crappy greenhouse stuff that looks the stuff out of a painting but actually tastes likes the painting, too.
Bikes packed, we were away by 8:50 am and headed to the Danube where the path followed the river for the first 5 km or so. The next bit followed along a somewhat busy road but it was manageable. Soon we veered left to the edge of the Danube where we caught a ferry across: 200 Ft for each of the bikes and the person. The ferry was 10-15 minutes then the bike path was a newly-paved nicely rolling route beside the train tracks as the Danube meandered through the mountains. There were barges, a hydrofoil as well as a kayak team on the river beside us. Just beautiful.
By 11:00 am we were in Nagymaros which is a short ferry ride across the Danube from Visegrad. We checked out the local weekend market in the square then had a snack as we waited for the ferry. There seemed to be something being organized in the square so we asked our waiter who told us about a festival celebrating the German heritage of one of the largest local minorities. A large festival, we started to wonder if we would find anywhere to stay or would be out in the cold.
When the ferry came we almost missed it since we thought we had to buy our tickets on the ferry rather than in the office. Just in time, as soon as we boarded away we went. It was a floating deck that was pushed across the river by a barge. Very simple; very effective!
The first hotel was full so we thought oh-oh. Festival. Weekend. Maybe trouble! The next hotel we came to was Hotel Visegrad and they had a room with a loft, balcony, and somewhere safe to store our bicycles. Sold! And what a nice room.
Lunch was across the road overlooking the Danube where I had sunflower-encrusted pike which was delicious. The only problem was that the service was terribly slow so we were there for two and a half hours! Finally done, we wandered around town to take pictures of the castle on the hill and the ruins of the Royal Palace. The long days were catching up, though, so we returned to the room where I read The Help and called Shelley on Skype. Very cool.
When we checked in we had seen a notice for a Liszt concert at a nearby church so we went; however, though the music on the grand piano was technically superb, it was kind of heavy for me and rather uninteresting. That, and the church itself was not a traditional one but a modern one that could have been sitting in Mississauga. There I go again about that city!
It was a nice walk back along the road seeing the churches on both sides of the Danube lit up as well as the castle lit up. We went to a restaurant where Tom had a salad, Kevin had ice cream, and I had pureed chestnut with whipped cream - a bowl of heaven!
Back at the hotel Kevin and I took some night shots of the church, moon and castle then we all called it a day.
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Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 318 km (197 miles)
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