Day 26 Budapest, Hungary. Wonderful Adventurous Last Day of Riding

Tony's View

This was one of the more beautiful rides today. There were mountains, valleys, ferries, different types of trails, small towns, and interesting people. It was a very nice ride to end our cycling days. 

We got out on the trails today and below you can see the road to the left was in worst condition than the bicycle trail. We saw cars sneaking over onto the bicycle trail. They would get over to the road when we approached them and back on the bike lane when we left. We were on many interesting trails today and the picture to the bottom right is just one of them.

We were traveling along the trail and the pictures to the right and left are just a few of the beautiful views we had. There are two different mountain ranges converging here at the Danube Bend. This is where the Danube River turns from going west to going south at the convergence of the mountain ranges.

 We got on a ferry across the Danube again today, twice. The picture to the above right shows a logging semi getting off the incoming ferry. The picture of the above left is Liam, someone we met from Brighton England. He walked up and said that our bike must be a Bilenky. He was the first one ever to know what kind of bicycle it was, and he knew it was from Philadelphia. He is a bicycle mechanic and worked in Australia for a while before working in England again. He was with his family. They all went on a bicycle trip. together. There whole family is in the picture below.

The picture below shows what the Danube River looks like when you are halfway across. It's definitely different than the wide creek we saw when we started out in Western Germany.

 Here are a few more pictures of the amazing trails we were on today. It was an adventurous beautiful day.

These pictures show another castle on top of a mountain over looking the Danube, one picture with the roses and one zoomed in.

This is another look at what we saw on the trail today. The house to the right reminded us of the houses in Florida along the coast. They were beautiful and reminded us of a vacation house.

I had to stop and pick some wild hops. Along much of the trail today wild hoops was growing like weeds. How awesome is that? If it can grow in the wild, I should be able to grow some at home for some home brew.

Here is our second ferry and this one had a second floor for Joan to go up and get some pictures. It is the one of the few ways to get to the other side of the Danube.

We got off the ferry and my route took us to this trail to the left. We looked at it and decided to turn around and get back on the busy road instead. The picture to the right shows thick stone just beyond the pavers that would slow down a bicycle to a stop. It reminded me of the truck run off on a mountain descent. Obviously, we turned around where it said the trail ended too.

 So there were some trails today that could of been better. My routes weren't always desirable. The one to the left was bumpy and muddy. On the trail to the right, the asphalt trail was so rough that it was better to ride on the gravel shoulder. It did keep the car traffic to a slow crawl at least. There were several times today that Joan could have used Jan's shock absorber. In fact, I could have used it. 

There were some neat trails today also.  We went  miles on this brick path that made it feel like you were on a hiking trail, curving through the woods. The other picture shows where we went through areas of food trucks and vendors for miles. Most of these areas were full of pedestrains that kept our pace slow.

The picture to the top left shows us following a guy carrying his kayak. It was one of the racing ones. The other picture above was beautiful house that we had to get a picture of. It had so many details, the picture doesn't do it justice. The picture to the left was me cleaning the bike on the island about two miles before we got to our Airbnb. I thought it would be helpful before we took the bike apart carrying it up four flights of steps. The last 2.5 miles was quite an adventure. It took us about 1 hour through heavy traffic. There were times I was scared. We got lost a couple of times and Google Maps didn't help find the exact location. We finally decided to do it on our own. After much walking around downtown, we found it. Yea. The picture was within our complex after finding our AIrbnb and knowing our bicycling was successful.



We got in and saw our luggage, It was full of stickers. Thank goodness Andrea came through for us. After getting everything into the room and settling in, we decided to go out to eat. We ate at a Burger Joint just outside our gate. You can see from our outdoor eating place (below right), we didn't fo far. I think htat is because we were both so hungry. What an adventurous day and so much fun. I will miss the riding.

Joan's View

We experienced such a wide range of adventure today. It really was like a summary of all of our travels in one day. In addition, we met our goal, so it's a great feeling that we are here in Budapest. We'll spend the next few days exploring Budapest and packing the tandem.

We had a little loving to start our day with Kylie, our host's cat, who put a little cat scent on our bags. Kylie had hung outside with Tony last night on the patio, and this morning as we prepped the bike wanted to come in to our place. 

I guess Kylie was a sign for another sign we saw on the route. This sign was along one of the water front properties, and it was even in English.