From our hotel window this morning we could tell the storm from yesterday evening had blown away the clouds and left a crystal clear blue sky.  Stepping outside, we realized the clouds may be gone, but the wind was still there and still at our backs, yippie!

We were quickly out of the city and biking along the dike, once again with no one in sight.  From the height of the dike we traveled, we almost had a bird’s eye view of the towns as we sailed down river.Occasionally, the wind would gust from our side and remind us just why we were making such good time on our journey today.  The Donau is quite wide at this point (much like the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay) with a well reinforced dike wall.

The stretch down river of Bratislava has not quite caught on with the bike tour traffic, so there are no cafes along the route.  The towns are sparse of shops, even a grocery store was tough to find when trying to hunt down a soda for lunch.  Eastern Europe is still playing catch-up to it’s western neighbors, homes are more modest, churches are smaller

but everyone has a garden of some sortand though the fruit was tempting, we only took pictures.

Luckily our route was relativity straight, as we certainly could not understand the language.But made it into Komárno and to a quite nice hotel (they even have a sand volleyball court) with ease.  Not bad after 74 miles.

The “Old City” is small, but quite nice. You can see the effort and money that have put into it to spruce it up, add restaurants and shops and make it “ready for the tourists”.Just hoping the price structure doesn’t change.  We both just had two scoops of ice cream for somewhere around $2. and change.  It is interesting, both yesterday in Bratislava and today in Komárno, the menus are in the local language as well as English and everyone seems to speak enough English to answer your questions.  Lovely people!

Another sunny day, but this one a bit warmer, started off at 78, but the wind was still blowing, so it helped to cool the day.

Most of our ride today was on a road and at many points, we could have been in “Anywhere USA”.It reminded us of our cross country trip, until we went through a village

where the homes were distinctly different.  We saw very few people in the villages, but the ones we did see where very friendly and offered hearty greetings. A few times our course pointed us toward the bike path/dike top, but with the ‘speed bumps’ along the waywe were always happy to be on the road again, though we did miss seeing a lot of the river.We find the drivers very courteous of us biking on their road, even with no shoulder for most of it.

There are so many things we could add to this sign, but sometimes the imagination is the best joke teller.

We have a short ride today, instead of a long one-day trip into Budapest we decided to make it in two.  Plus we wanted to see the sights of our destination today, “Hungary’s Rome”.  So we stopped in Stúrovofor lunch with a view of what was to come.And as we cross the river, we really get a treat.Crossing the Donau and we are in Hungary.We cross a second bridgefor our hotel room and to get into the old city, then the tour!

It’s a nice town, but we really came to see Castle Hill and the surroundings; first settled in the Stone Age.

This city is one of the oldest in Hungary and the Roman Catholic church’s capital.  The Basilica’s

construction began in 1822 yet was not completed until 1869 and is the country’s largest church and the largest in Europe.  Surpassed only by Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London………….Hmmm, where should we go next?

Not sure what the statistics are on the door, but it has to be the largest in some category.This is the largest alter piece in the world painted on a single piece of canvas.It is truly a site to see inside.

This side chapelis “the most beautiful Renaissance monument of Central Europe”,  Built in 1507 of polished red marble.  The outside views from this vantage point are awesome too.

So once again, the tour draws to an end and the quest for dinner begins.  We are struck with how few restaurants we see.  In fact, the only ones we can find serve ice cream and beer (?) only.  We find someone who speaks a little English and he tells us about a pizza palour down the street.  Our plan was not to eat pizza, so we walked the streets looking for something local, anything local, until we happen upon the restaurant we were told about.  Well, Rüzes Hetek is anything but a pizza palour.  Yes, they offer pizza, but they also offer Duck with mashed potatoes, pastas, The most fantastic salad we’ve ever had…….etc.  So if you end up in Esztergom with a dinner dilemma, don’t worry, this is where you want to eat.

This is where we will begin our trek down the Donau tomorrow.

So the Summer Solstice that arrived yesterday, brought with it summertime!  Two days in a row of sunshine and heat, except the wind that had assisted us for the last two days was now in our face. But all was good except for the roads we had to travel.  The first couple of hours our trail was along country roads,so we were able to pass through little villages and enjoy views of the Duna (as they say in Hungary).

But by mid-morning we were directed to the main road, poorly paved and loaded with traffic; which really would not have been a problem, if we had not been so spoiled by the previously isolated bike paths along the River.  The stretch between Esztergom and Budapest, we would not recommend for anything less than a heavy duty mountain bike and preferably a car……..sedan……..with air conditioning………..and bar!

In fairness, we did have an few miles on a rutted dirt path through the woods.It was a pretty day (just tough to take pictures without stopping) and we noticed the difference in the quality and size of the homes as we got closer to Budapest.There was a stretch a few miles before the city that, though still roughly paved, was a mini-vacation spot right on the Duna.Then almost in the blink of an eye, we were looking at the City of Buda across the river.The memory of the hot 50 mile ride from Esztergom disappeared as soon as this came into view.Getting closer only had our jaws dropping further; it is an unbelievable site (especially when not expecting it).  We crossed Chain Bridge (the oldest bridge in the city) and navigated to our stopping point.  Our head navigator and hotel picker found a beautiful one bedroom apartment where we could take care of domestic necessities like laundry and washing water bottles.

No touring today, the heat zapped us and we have one more chore for the day.  Found a Great local restaurant serving fabulous local dishes and wine!  Tour tomorrow.

Budapest is an old city and the architecture is incredible, unfortunately pollutants have darkened the buildings so all is not pristine.  However, where the buildings have been restored, you can truly appreciate the details as they were originally built. These two buildings in particular are perfect examples of before and after.Extraordinary details are everywhere.

Miles and miles of historic buildings, all notable for one thing or another.  Too much to cover for us, but we can highlight a few.

Hungarian State Opera House completed construction in 1884.

Dohany Street Synagogue is Europe’s largest synagogue.  Though it is one of Budapest’s most imposing historical monuments, our pictures are limited to the outside as there is an admission charge to get inside.

Castle Quarter and Castle Hill on the Pest side of the river.
Matthias Church (the spier on the hill), the royal cathedral, the Church of Our Lady, was built in several stages between the 13th and 15th century.

Chain Bridge, the city’s first bridge completed in 1849.  Destroyed during WWII, as was the case with most bridges in Europe, and rebuilt on it’s 100th anniversary.  Note the “guardians of Budapest”, carved lions. Besides these lions, here and at the entrance to important buildings, there are many sculptures throughout the city; liked this one in particular.

As we’ve mentioned there are many notable, impressive, fabulous, etc., etc., buildings in this city, but these two were the most impressive for us.

Parliament, largest building in the country, is almost the length of three football fields and most appreciated from the Pest side of the water. Otherwise it is very difficult to get far enough away for a good picture of the whole thing.

St. Stephen’s Basilica is a most amazing church. Budapest’s largest church with a dome nearly 315 feet high that offers very dramatic lighting for the alter; 

named after Hungary’s first king.

And that is the highlight tour of Budapest.  Not sure we really rested with the miles of walking, but it was worth it.

We have been debating, for almost as long as we’ve been on this bike tour……what to do once we get to Budapest?  Yes, our original intention was to follow the Donau/Duna/Danube all the way to the Black Sea.  But everyone we have spoken with (that are in “the know”) say the roads are bad and there are long stretches (100+ miles) between towns.  If our last couple of days of biking are any indication of road conditions, than changing plans is a great idea.  The second dilemma becomes, where do we go? We’ve decided on a Three Rivers tour instead of a Sea to Sea tour.

This morning we took an extremely early six hour train ride from Budapest to Prague, Czech Republic and will pick up the Elbe River and follow it to………who knows where!

Since I can’t go anywhere without taking a picture, this is from the train window.

Biking out of the Prague train station.

Tomorrow we will take you on a tour of Prague and Sunday we ride.  In the meantime, check out our most recent training regime!

It was a cool morning for our walking tour; once again rain showers from the evening before brought in cooler temperatures.  We got an early start getting into the old city to beat the “tourists”.It was nice while it lasted, but it didn’t last long.  The city boasts one million inhabitants and one million visitors during “the season”, of which we were in the middle of.Prague is a Very Picturesque City, probably one of our favorites (as far as big cities go) as every couple blocks opened up into a unique square of incredible buildings. 

Unbeknown to us, this tower offers a little show every hour.But as we were taking pictures, we noticed everyone standing around watching the tower.  At 10:00, the marionettes came out.As fabulous as this city is, we are really ready for the small river villages and less people.

We really tried to just give you a photo gallery today, without dialogue, but it didn’t work.  So one more photo,  the most adorable thing we saw today; note the dog is a statue, the child is not!

…….and now the picture gallery.

If you are new to the post, click on the first thumbnail and then follow the arrow on the right margin of the picture.

All that we have read about this part of our new course, promises an adventure.  Considering we are traveling through the Czech Republic with a map written in German and only speaking English, we already knew we are in for an experience.  We just didn’t know to what degree.

We left Prague in overcast and cold (55), certainly not the sunny 70 degree weather that was predicted, but then, the rain we had last night was not predicted either.  With our hotel situated a block from the bike course, we were quickly out of the city and biking along the Vltava (Moldau) River.The first 20 miles of our course was definitely the adventure promised, bike touring, not bike sightseeing (ok, maybe a little sightseeing). Narrow trails, rutty roads and broken rock paths, but the scenery was beautiful, when we stopped to look around.  Several times we climbed serious hills leaving beautiful vistas behind us,enjoying plateaus of beautiful fields, many filled with poppies.

We didn’t go into town, but Mêlmik (in the distance below) is where the Vltava and Labe Rivers join to form the Elbe.By noon we got our first glimpse of the promised sun and the 20+ mph wind that would be in our face for the rest of our ride.   Good time to stop for lunch,where we chatted with the owner’s son who had spent two years in America singing Opera.

Biked past two Olympic training courses, a man-made white water kayak course as well as a crew racing course.

We biked the last mile along the river then straight to our hotel, that sat directly on the bike course.  What we didn’t know is the rest of the city was UP the hill, straight up.  We did our touring, but luckily, though it is a large town, the ‘pretty’ part is small.  Found a local restaurant for dinner, with only one other table occupied and hoped it was not a bad sign.  The food was wonderful, surprisingly.  After dinner and our rough ride, we felt like spoiling ourselves, so ordered dessert……..Fried Ice Cream with Coconut coating and a drizzle of Raspberry Sauce…….OMG……over the top and worth the thousands of calories (that we hopefully burned off today)!!