The Danube, Part 2 (by Helen, photos by Will)


The second week of our Danube adventure brought us from Vienna to Budapest as a team of 6. We left Vienna via Europe’s oldest ferris wheel, with a quick stop at the bumper cars. There were lots of interesting sights leaving the city, including a surprisingly long nude beach and a rogue ferret from the “ferret wheel” :) 


That night we camped at an interesting urban campground next to an indoor tennis court and met an Australian cycle touring family. We ate at a pizza place in the small town where they spoke very little English and the pizza oven was on the fritz. A nice example of a full, random, cycle touring day. 

This week we mixed camping with a few apartment-like hotels. We were back to play-it-by-ear travel days, which worked well. We travelled by train one day to make the kilometres fit our timeframe, and had some longer cycling days (over 60km).  


One night we stayed at what an online reviewer had called his favourite campsite ever. I was a small deserted field next to a stream, but it did have a great restaurant steps away, power, a clothesline, and hosts who ply who with shnaps  in complex German at 7:30 am. 




Benny’s favourite stop was in Bratislava, which he is writing about. We managed to arrive just in time for a walking tour by a very talented guide.

 We had some epic euchre games, especially fun because Clara was leading the charge. There were a lot of jokes about being Hungry, especially the day we crossed the border. 



The weather was cooler this week and the trail conditions continued to be great. There were some impressive places to stop, including this incredible cathedral where they were fixing the floors. They also happened to have Europe’s best supply of Magnum ice creams.  


We ended our travels in Budapest- a gorgeous place to enter by bicycle. The architecture and public parks in the city were amazing. On our final day with Jess and David we swam at a huge hot-spring-pool on an island with an ornate musical fountain guarded by a LEGO lion. 




We had three more days in Budapest as a family, watching Spider-Man, buying shoes, reading the Adventurers Guild in pretty parks, and eating ice cream outside of the Buda Palace. Will and I biked to IKEA one afternoon and felt like locals. My favourite thing in Budapest was cycling over an ornate bridge catering  to bicycles. A city to remember. 






Comments

  1. MonicaJuly 20, 2023 at 4:31 PM

    love this and what a nice variety of activities!

    ReplyDelete

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