July 2022 - Ö, SK, H

Vienna - Stopfenreuth - March - return to the Danube - Bratislava - Rajka - Gönyü - Gönyü - Tat - Szentendre - Gödöllö - Gyöngyös - Egerszalok - Tiszafüred

After 5 days in Vienna, where we spend time with family and friends, take care of last bureaucratic matters, and fix our bicycles, we meet our friend and travel companion Martin on 11.07. to continue cycling together for some time.

The plan is to head towards Krakow. Sometimes plans are made to be abandoned and to explore what that does to you. And even though the three of us have traveled together several times in the past, it always requires a new adjustment to each other.

As a result, the route is changed. Actually, no one wants to go to Poland. We decide to take the Tisza Lake in eastern Hungary as the interim destination.

The landscape keeps changing. Even large agricultural areas have their own beauty. When the light of the late day turns the ripe wheat stalks into gold. When countless sunflowers stand out in their most beautiful yellow against the blue of the sky. When poppy capsules look like thousands of little creatures swaying together in the wind...

Much earlier than expected, we are back on our own. Hungary reveals itself in bright sunshine.

We follow the Danube Cycle Path until shortly before Budapest. The decision to travel on which side of the Danube is not difficult for us after cycling several kilometers on Slovakian cycle paths. We stay in Hungary. Apparently, they have a greater passion for this leisure activity on two wheels here.

Just after Budapest, it is as flat as I have only known from the Ebro Delta so far. That's something! Especially with the sun and wind at our backs! It turns out that our route planning follows EuroVelo 14. The official website describes this as the "Central European Waters" cycle path, connecting several river cycle paths in Austria and, in Hungary, "the Hungarian part includes the Őrség Nature Park and a well-developed cycle path along the northern shore of Lake Balaton". So we are amazed by the good signage along short cycle paths and mostly longer sections on side roads and lightly trafficked main roads. I quietly smile at the fact that Central Europe consists of Austria and Hungary. It seems that there are still some contemporary people outside of Ischl who cannot forget the monarchy ;)

The onset of a heatwave, scarce water sources, and the beginning hills before the Puszta prompt us to change our rhythm and pace.

The wind blows kindly. Mostly not much, but enough to ward off the heat. Sometimes it's even behind or from the side.

The landscape is gentle, everything quite calm, nothing too massive. The colors, the hills, the agricultural areas, the small towns, and even the Hungarian people, whom I perceive as calmly distant and polite.