The last time we blogged, we were about to start a 4 consecutive day bike trip that would either make, or break us. The following is my account:
Day 1 of 4 – Bratislava, Slovakia to Nagybajcs, Hungary
Distance: 90km
8:45am- 3:45pm
This was the day I was probably dreading the most. It was officially the longest distance we would have to bike in the entire journey and I knew our training did not prepare us for what we were about to tackle. We went into it with the right attitude, we were prepared to take breaks and go at a slower pace and not beat ourselves up over it. After all, this was supposed to be our vacation not a race. I’m pleased to report that we actually crushed it! We made it to our AirBnb within the time we thought we would and we didn’t feel like dying at the end of the ride.
Day 2 of 4 – Nagybajcs, Hungary to Patince, Slovakia
Distance: 58km
10am- 5pm
This was supposed to be an easy day. After biking as much as we did the day before we may have gotten a little cocky and thought this day would be a breeze. Though we took longer breaks, it still took us the same amount of time to complete the leg. Now to be fair, we did stop at a spa for 2 hours and soaked our weary bodies, but overall the ride was a bit of a slog. Unfortunately we were a bit camera shy that day so I don’t have much photographic evidence of our day.
Our AirBnB host in Patince let us know in advance that she organizes the apartment for her parents who live on the property. Her father enjoys socializing with guests and is excited to meet every weary traveller that darkens their door. He also only speaks Slovakian so he had his wife write statements in Slovakian on their iPad that translated to English for us to read. One thing he needed us to know was, “They can drink downstairs”. He communicated that he brews his own palinka ”fruit liquor” in the cellar and that he has bee hives in their field with which supplies him with fresh honey. DawnO got to have a drink with him downstairs and we both got to sample some of the honey.
Day 3 of 4 – Patince, Slovakia to Vac, Hungary
Distance: 84km
9:10am- 4:30pm
This was the second longest leg of our journey so I believe we were mentally prepared for what lay ahead. Unfortunately what lay ahead were a few surprises. We discovered that the Euro Velo 6 bike trail we were following turned into a dirt trail in a field. Unfortunately this forced us to resort to riding along the major highways of Slovakia for a few dozen kms at a time. Though the highways are well paved, they are only two lane highways that are not wide enough to include shoulders. We did our best to stay as safe as we could and fortunately the traffic gave us plenty of room as they passed. We were grateful once we got to Hungary again because the bike paths returned to what we were accustomed to.
Vac was one of our favourite stops and deserves its own picture gallery:
Day 4 of 4 – Vac, Hungary to Budapest, Hungary
Distance: 39km
9:40am- 12:17pm
This was by far our best travel day. The shortest leg had us riding around like experts, navigating the Euro Velo 6 trail like it was second nature. We avoided highways, had a clear paved bike path the entire way and took our time to take a few shots:
We arrived in Budapest intact and dropped off our bikes, Ludwig and Wolfgang, to the bike rental place here. We learned that they were brand new bikes and we had just taken them on their maiden voyage. Overall I think we did pretty well navigating the trail system and staying out of trouble. Our bodies don’t seem too sore and we still get along so I’d call that a successful bike trip across 3 countries. Now it’s time to go explore Budapest, and by the looks of it, there will probably be one more entry from this holiday. First stop, the Beer Spa!
