Day 13 Komáron to Esztergom
Friday June 20 2014
Sometimes chanced encounters are what make the day
memorable. We started out in the Hungarian town of Komáron and crossed
the Danube to the Slovakian town of Komárno. Our directions gave us a
choice of riding on a dyke next to the river with a soft, gravel path or
riding beside a secondary road with no bike path. We took the wrong
road, thinking it would just parallel the dyke. It ended in a dirt path
and we had no option but to take the dyke path. It was the most
stressful ride for me. The path was very narrow and kept deteriorating
into soft sand and gravel. The only notable sight was a small Roman
ruins, part of a series of fortifications along the Danube. It didn’t
make up for the path. I rebelled at the next cross roads and said I had
enough of the dyke path, which stretched on another 10 km. I was turning
off and taking my chances beside the traffic on the road.
The road turned out to be a good decision for all
of us. The traffic was light and we made much better time than
struggling on the dyke path. I stopped to take a photo of an unusual
monument commemorating the Zitavan Peace Treaty signed in 1606 that
ended the 30 Years War between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg
Monarchy. The monument had an unusual combination of church bells and
the Islamic crescent moon.
The day had started cool and cloudy and gradually
warmed as the morning progressed. I stopped by the side of the road,
just after our coffee break in the small town of Radven. Across the road
from me a German Shepherd was protecting his territory, behind a tall
fence, barking at me. The dog’s owner, an older, shabbily dressed man,
saw me and starting talking in Slovakian, and pointing in the direction
we were travelling, none of which I understood, until he picked cherries
from a tree overhanging the road and offered some to me. By that time,
Jack had joined me and the two of us helped ourselves to the ripe
cherries. When Ray and Marg joined us, they thought the man was trying
to get rid of us. He was not. The man put the dog away and opened the
gate to beckon us into his small holding. We still were not sure what he
meant, but went in anyway. The next thing we knew the man had retrieved
a packet of photos, one of which was his son, who lives in Calgary. I
had been wearing my Ottawa Bike Club shirt that day, as was Ray, and
that was what had attracted us to us. He showed us his prize antique,
but still working tractors he was repairing, and offered us the chance
to sample his home-made wine from his small backyard vineyard; almost
every house we passed that day had a vineyard on their property. We
politely declined, as we were anxious to get back on the road. We
reluctantly bid us goodbye. He was obviously all alone on his small farm
and welcomed the opportunity to speak to bicyclists from the country
that had taken in his son.
We stayed on the road, still lightly travelled,
rejecting an alternative route back onto the loose gravel on the dyke.
We stopped for lunch in one of the few villages we passed and continued
to Sturovo, with a perfect view from the marina of the Esztergom
Basilica, on a cliff overlooking the Danube. Dedicated to Saint Mary of
the Assumption and Saint Adalbert, the Basilica is the biggest church in
Hungaryand the 18th biggest church in the world. Built on the foundations of
an 11thC church, the church was restored in 1820 as mother church of the country.
It was suitably impressive but we bypassed a visit.
Instead we crossed on a bridge to Esztergom and followed a bike path for
about 6 km through a wooded park to Hotel Bellevue, a large four star
hotel. We neglected to read our literature and missed the impressive
pool facility in the hotel, opting for a drink in the bar.
Our evening meal was a large, popular buffet in the
nice hotel dining room with views of the Danube, plus live
entertainment. The buffet was good but the “wanna-be girl lounge
singer”, accompanied by recorded music, was just raucous, as far as we
were concerned. Frank Sinatra or Bette Miller, she was not. We retired
to the quieter lounge area after the buffet.
Day 14 Esztergom to Budapest
Saturday June 21 2014
Traditional clothes for sale in
Szentendre
It seemed as if the only way to get from Szentendre
to Budapest was to take the one hour boat trip down the Danube. The boat
was packed full of tourists, some of whom had come for the day from
Budapest, and some of whom, like us, had bicycled to Szentendre and were
offered the option of a boat ride instead of another 50km. We took our
seats on the upper deck under a sunshade and bought beers and a soft
drink to enjoy while we snapped pictures of the other pleasure boats,
picnickers and a few swimmers along the way.
We had started our day by biking just 4 km from the
Hotel Bellevue to a ferry dock where we crossed to the north side of the
Danube on a very unusual ferry. A tug boat was attached mid-way along
the side of a flat-bed barge and pushed the barge across the river
diagonally against the swift current. It worked well. From the north
side we biked on a good, paved bike path to Vac where we crossed on
another, more standard type ferry, to 55 km long Szentendrei Island in
the middle of the Danube. We lingered just long enough to eat our picnic
lunch and then rode straight across the island to ride over a bridge to
the south shore of the Danube.
We had just 20 more km to ride beside a moderately
busy road to reach Szentendre, settled a few hundred years ago by
Serbian refugees, and now a stop on the tourist route. That left plenty
of time to explore the small town before our boat left at 5PM. Suitably
refreshed with ice cream, we split up to walk the harbour along the
river, dodge tourists exploring the many souvenir and craft shops and
climb a hill to get a good view from the plaza around the Parish Church.
The best part of the boat ride was the views of
Budapest as we approached this ancient city. The Parliament Buildings
were on our left side and the castle and palace of Buda’s Castle Hill
were on the right. We passed under the famous Chain Bridge, the first
built spanning the Danube, and docked.
We had only a few blocks to ride to get to our
hotel, the City Hotel Mátyás, named for one of the most famous rulers of
Hungary. We stowed our bicycles in a back room, bidding them a fond
goodbye. They had served us well over the 670 km we rode from Passau. We
arranged to meet Marg and Jack at 8PM in the hotel restaurant, Mátyás
Pince, which means cellar. The restaurant was a delight. The walls and
ceilings were entirely covered with paintings of Mátyás and other rulers
and their exploits. The restaurant was obviously a favourite choice for
celebrations of all kinds. We were lucky to get a table. There were
several groups enjoying the food, the four musicians playing familiar
Hungarian tunes, the good service and the atmosphere. We went all out
and shared good beef stroganoff and even had schnapps soaked plum
strudel for desert. What an introduction to Budapest.
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