Day 23, Gyor, Hungary. Loving the small towns of Hungary

Joan's View

Shortly after leaving Bratislava, we were back on scenic country roads. We passed this cool guy permanently parked on his bike at a restaurant along the trail. I guess it's human psychology. If there is a crowd there, it must be the place to stop.

We also passed tennis courts with people actually playing on them this time, so we took a picture.

Clay courts are the norm

We were on paved paths most of the 50 miles today. At one point, Tony was going to go off of the marked bike route to follow his map, but another cyclist whistled and pointed us to stay on the path. Farther down the trail, we could see that the road Tony had in his route was closed for construction. We would have had to turn around and backtrack, except that like many times before, that really nice guy had helped us out. We saw that guy later when he made a turn off of the path and we gave him a big wave.

It was foreign to us at what point we actually entered Hungary, but we know we did because Tony's phone gave us the welcome to Hungary message. Tony stopped at another point, and asked me, "What does that sign say?" I replied, "Dude, we are out of Germany." I guess he got used to me reading German signs.

We passed lots of crosses and Mary shrines again today, but we also found a few small chapels. It was neat to see this one decorated by some younger artists. 





It was at about the same time that we met a small road block. Lots of kids were going somewhere with their school classes. Since that was our bike path at the time, we just waited and waved.

Another interesting sight was a few workers setting these small buildings out in a grassy area. It looked to me like they are getting ready for the Christmas markets. We see lots of pumpkins and gourds for sale, and a few fall decorations are starting to pop up. It seems strange to us that we left Sidney in summer, but when we get home it will be cool and fall.

We really enjoyed the ride through all of the Hungarian small towns. We had to get a picture of this town's name. It used to be two towns that now merged into one. How would you like to write that for your address?

Tony spotted an ATM sign which was really helpful because Hungary uses Forints and we had none. Because the exchange rate is about 300 Forints / 1 Dollar, we got 50,000 Forints. How often do you go to the ATM to get 50,000? 

We often stop to check out the churches in the towns that we ride through. Usually, I get off first to see if a door if open. This one town had such a beautiful outdoor shrine. It was situated right in the Y of the road and lights up so it's probably even more beautiful at night. 

We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant in Hedervar. I got my first Hungarian goulash, and Tony got turkey topped with apricots, along with a large beer. Before our meal came, Tony took a slice of bread from the basket and put some of the spread in the little jar (above) on his bread. Then, he just started drinking lots of beer. Haha. He had to use his beer to cool his mouth off from that spicy spread. He thinks it was a hot pepper spread.
We were enjoying our meal, and amazingly, the American group of guys that we met on the way to Linz rode by. Tony waved at them so they stopped for lunch to eat as well. We got to talk a little bicycle talk and compare our travels. 

I also had Tony run out to the road to get a picture of this local farmer riding by. 





Next door to the restaurant was this amazing thatched roof house too. 

For dinner tonight, we first went to this floating restaurant because our host recommended it, and we saw it riding into town. After ordering drinks, we could feel some wavy movement where we sat outside of the boat. Tony, feeling a little motion sickness, said that he would just keep looking up while we ate. Instead, because there are plenty of other great outdoor restaurants, Tony chugged his beer and we found this other restaurant on a nice, stationary square. We even got to enjoy some gypsy music in the background.

Tony's Extras

 This was the bridge out of Bratislava today to the left. It was painted Choice One green and even the bike lane was green. Remember, Choice One is paying for this trip. The sign to the right is something for Choice One to use back in the U.S. when the pavement fails and trucks cause ruts. Instead of fixing the road, just do what the Hungarians do - hang up a sign.

This is a picture on the left of the first Church we went into in Hungary. Several churches were locked up today. We did get into the Cathedral in Gyor and that picture is on the right. They have a statue of Weeping Mary. We had strong headwinds against us today, but the temperature was in the 60's and no rain. Therefore, no complaining from me today. There was an area with many wind turbines. I took a picture and sent it to Jay Fleming to say that it looked like the people in Hungary wanted to look like Van Wert. 😀

The column above is a statue of Mary with Jesus, both with gold crowns. It isn't that old for the area. It was erected in 1686 commemorating the recapture of Buda from the Turks. The picture above of the fountain was something I thought that was pretty cool after having two big glasses of wine.