VIENNA TO BUDAPEST (HUNGARY)

LOCATION: Szentendre, Hungary - 30 kilometres north of Budapest, on the Danube River. Tomorrow we will reach Budapest almost 2 months and 3,400 kilometres of cycling!

We have left the Germanic speaking countries and have entered countries whos languages have nothing in common with English. That makes communicating with most people extremely difficult. It also makes it difficult to know where you are and what you are permitted or not permitted to do.

This aquatic facility is in a small town in Hungary, perhaps the size of Owen Sound. The Hungarian (and Slovak) governments appear to be making a great effort to overcome the problems created during the Soviet era and are making great investments in renovating historic buildings and in infrastructure, such as this facility.

SCHEDULE: We are actually ahead of schedule by one day. Tomorrow we will head into Budapest for 3 days before heading home on Sunday, July 12.

DISTANCE: 3,345 kilometres / almost 1,000 more kilometres than I had thought it would be from London. I guess that refelects poor planning, however, it also reflects that we have had to cycle more days and have had fewer rest days that we had planned.

WEATHER: For the past week, the weather has been improving steadily. The constant rains have stopped and the amount of sun has increased as have the temperatures. For the past 3-5 days the temperatures have been 30 or more. Each day it has rained in the evening after we have finished cycling.

Jos follows another cyclist acoss a section of the flooded Danube cycle path east of Vienna. We carried our bikes and paniers across this section which was one of several flooded by the unusually heavy rains in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.

FLAT TIRES: No more flat tires since we left Passau on the German/Austrian border.

EATING AND OTHER BODILY FUNCTIONS: We continue to buy most of our food at grocery stores and have picnic lunches and dinners. That means we eat lots of cheese, salami, buns/bread, olives, wine, salads and fruit. The best fruits here are the nectarines. In Germany it was the sweet cherries.

We were surprised to come across this world-class white-water kyaking facility south of Bratislava, in Slovakia. Apparently, the Slovaks have been very successful at the international level in this sport and the government has supported them by creating this wonderful facility along side the Danube.

REPORT: Past Vienna, the cycle paths have been very flat and have hugged the Danube. Frequently we have been able to move along quickly (20-25 kph). Occasionally we have come across flooded areas caused by the unusually high rains in Germany, Austria and Hungary this June. We see that the river was 4-6 feet higher a week or so ago, meaning we would have not been able to pass through here if we had been a week earlier. Still, we have had to wade across flooded areas and have taken to travelling on the roads and avoiding the cycle path along the river to escape the flooded areas and the associated mud that is left once the water recedes.

We met this fellow and his neighbour in a village south of Bratislava. It was hot (over 30) and we were almost out of water. The villages were very quiet and stores were hard to find. This fellow and his English-speaking neighbour said hello in English and German, opening up an opportunity to find water. A half-hour later we had another friend and full water bottles. These experiences renew our faith in people time and time again.

Mavis and John, age 75 and 76 respectively, are amoung my new heroes. They are cycling the Danube Cycleway from Germany to Budapest. They have positive attitudes that have carried them on their 50 year old bicycles through the rains and floods. Hats off to people like Mavis and John!