the river.

Esztergom to Budapest

June 15 2023

I was glad that we were heading east out of our hotel in the morning as it was down hill to the river.  West was a few blocks of 15% cobble stones.  At the bottom of the hill we found the bike path and we were off on the final leg of our journey.  Bob had warned us earlier that navigation into Budapest was not easy and I remember from 2007 when I rode the Orient Express that the day into Budapest was one of the hardest on the tour.  Today was to be an 86 kms day and that meant it would be a long day as we had not been making much more than 10 kms/hr which meant a 4:30 pm arrival. I had not done a Garmin route into the hotel as I had not known which route Bob wanted to take until  it was too late and I was out of time.  So navigation was all on Bob and his map book.  

At about the 15 kms mark we turned down a side road to take the ferry across the river.  It was clearly part of the Euro Velo route 6, but when we got to the ferry there was no ferry.  Ferry landing but no ferry.  We rode back a couple of kms and took a dirt road (I wanted to go back to the highway). I couple of kms in it started to get pretty rough and then it turned to sand.  After Bob nearly went down that was then end of the dirt and we headed back to the highway.  Yes it was a lillte busy but you could make good time and the cars were exceedingly polite giving us a wide birth.  

At about the 25 kms mark we got to the next ferry and it was running so we were now on the north side of the Danube where the bike path was.  It was pretty nice just cruising down the pathway.  However there was still another ferry to catch to get back to the other side and it's last sailing was at 12:00 noon with the next sailing at. 1:00 Pm.  We had lost a lot of time on the dirt road and looking for an alternative route. So we had to hurray.

About 5 kms from the second ferry Bob's rear wheel broke another spoke (having broke one a couple of days earlier).  So he was down two spokes. Bob quickly taped the broken spoke to the one beside it and we hurried off. Bob made a turn and called out that we were 3 kms out.  I looked at my watch and it was 11:47.  Around a corner there was a long straight and you could see the cars rolling onto the ferry.   As we rolled onto the ferry they pulled up the ramp.  A close call.  

On the other side we sat on an abandon cafe terrace and ate our sandwiches, reflecting on that close call.  

A few kms further down the road there was construction on the pathway and the workers would not let us through so we had to back track and go back to the highway.   After we had gone quite a way we tried to get back to the path which had to be between the highway and the river but it took several tries to find the path.  

This time the path lead us into Budapest and everyone was really happy to see the famous Hungarian Parliament buildings on the Pest side of the Danube.  Down the incredibly busy bike path into Budapest and across the river.  Finding the hotel wasn't too hard and everyone was happy.

I was pretty pleased to be in Budapest.  The journey was right around 1700 kms of which we rode 1580 kms having taken the train on a couple of rainy days.  It wasn't the longest journeys but having the extra load of paniers on the bike and the incredibly rough trails over so much of the route really took its toll.  

Bob gets the highest marks for organizing this trip.  All of the hotel accommodations worked out, we all made it in one piece,  and we had lots of adventures which I am sure will be retold many times over.  SO Thanks Bob for a great trip.

Terry