7 Rain - Meadow Path - Village Inn

Saturday, 11th August 2018

Route: Danube Cycle Path 4 (Budapest - Apostag)

Total Distance: 99 kilometers

Highlight of the Day: Inn, grassy path, meeting the Germans, the guy who helped carry the bike, the footbridges

Today, the day started again at 6:00. We had packed a lot the night before, so after breakfast with fruit and salami (which needed to be eaten), we started soon. At first, we had to find our way out of the city, which was not so easy. It started drizzling as soon as we started in the courtyard. It was already raining a bit on the first bridge. And then we didn't know how to get from the bridge to the cycle path because there was a staircase... a young jogger passing by helped us carry the bikes down - very nice! Then it started raining harder and we continued until the next bridge to store the luggage in waterproof covers. As soon as that was done, the rain stopped. Well then. Slowly, we made our way out of the city. On our right, a branch of the Danube, on our left fields, forest and houses. And always many clouds and occasionally drizzling rain. That inspired me to sing the song about the giant Negro in the drizzling rain. The path became narrower. Sometimes they were just footpaths in the meadow. Finally, we reached another place. We didn't know right away where we were, and while I quickly disappeared behind a bush, a complete stranger, a woman, helped Julius find the way. Really cool! Meanwhile, I disappeared under a tree - but there was already someone there. A homeless person was sleeping with proper clothing. I quickly found another tree.

Then we continued. From now on, the river was mostly on our right and houses on our left. We also cycled through entire settlements. On the right were many small wooden footbridges that probably led to private fishing spots, and a lot of reeds. That soon came to an end and we came to a large intersection where the EuroVelo 6 sign was unfortunately quite ambiguous, so we continued straight ahead. After about 4 km, I wanted to stop because there was a post office and I wanted to send my postcard. It was then that we realized that we had been riding in completely the wrong direction. We had to go back on a busy road for the 4 km, where we arrived again at the large intersection (but from a different side). But this time, we decided against following the signs and went with our gut feeling and eventually turned left towards the river. There, we rode on narrow, bumpy paths to the south. Eventually, I got so hungry that we had to take a break. We left our bikes on the path and walked to the nearest unlocked footbridge, where we sat down, ate, drank, and admired the river with its birds and fish. At around 1 pm, after a 45-minute break, we started again - we already had 43 km on the odometer at that point.

Then we continued: footbridges on the right, holiday homes on the left. Always passing through villages. Very pretty. Before that, we had to ride a quite long stretch on a soaking wet main road, but we soon forgot about it. Eventually, we had to stop briefly because two Germans were in our way on a narrow road. A couple, they wanted to go to Belgrade, but to the Black Sea next year. For this reason, I gave them my email address to exchange experiences. Before that, Julius and I took a break at a sports field. In any case, we slowly moved away from the river and faced a meadow path. The path was a meadow. And that was the main route. We endured that for 4 km before switching to the alternative. It was nice there. The road was quite new with road markers. And there was heavenly peace, interrupted by occasional tractors. Unfortunately, we came to an intersection and we rode 6 km on a major road before finally reaching Apostag via the cycle path through Dunavecse. Everything there is old and dilapidated, there is nothing new, except for the church sponsored by the EU. We found our accommodation soon, but nobody was home. A man from across the street explained to us in German that we should call or come to him if it doesn't work. Very nice.

Well, we reached someone and an elderly woman without knowledge of English or German showed us everything. It was a very, very large vacation apartment with space for 6 parties. Everything quite old, except for our bathroom. There were some Tupperware containers in the refrigerator and there was a billiard/conference room. After showering, we didn't know what to do. We didn't see any restaurants, but there was a shop. But it was closed. However, next to it was a sports bar where people were already sitting at the regulars' table. We ordered salad and burgers and beer from the landlady. The music was good and the atmosphere was cozy. People constantly came and went. We all sat outside. Football was playing inside. A group of young people, just like our regulars' table at home, was also there. A real village pub - just like at home!