Budapest, Bratislava and (nearly) Vienna

I don't know why but today I hardly took any photos so this will be a bit thin on the visuals. The building opposite my 'hotel' was in a pretty poor state but still occupied. The entire front of it is peppered with bullet holes. I thought they might be from WW2 but the receptionist told me they were from the uprising in 1956. Apparently the Russians just drove down the street and blasted away at the windows of all the buildings. Strange that this old building has been left in this state for 67 years….

Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest separated by the Danube. I had spent all my time in Pest and so I thought it only fair to leave via Buda so I spent an hour wandering through it on the way north. I decided that I would follow the Danube for as long as it went in roughly the right direction. At the start it was very slow going as the hungarians pretty much observe the speed limits and they are 50kph through towns…..which meant a long slow drag to reach the end of the city. I was aiming first for Bratislava the capital of Slovakia which meant crossing the Danube again.

Slovakia does not appear to be doing as well as Hungary from my little survey from the roadside. It is not scientific I know but there was definitely a marked change once I crossed the border. Everything had a little less shine on it and petrol is a lot more expensive. I passed another aircraft in a strange location….I guess it is the eye-catching element that makes people do it.



Bratislava is a much smaller deal than Budapest. Their logo on the trams is 'Little Big City' and I would drop the 'Big' bit. I had had hopes of breakfast in Budapest, lunch in Bratislava and Tea in Vienna but there was very little doing in Bratislava so I popped over the border to Austria for a coffee and the obligatory 'Apfelstrudel mit Sahne'. Still following the Danube, I headed for Vienna to do the tea bit but took a couple of wrong turns on the outskirts and ended up on a motorway going south west. It was 530pm and I had only covered 130 miles all day so I took this as a sign to keep going despite it being against my religion to use a bike on a motorway. Many of the motorways in this part of the world are pay-to-use, most via a Vignette system. For 10 days (the minimum period), it costs E4.60 for a bike so I bought one rather than risk those efficient traffic cops and the nasty fine.

I took a left off the A1 motorway after about 100km and found what I consider to be one of the finest stretches of biking road I have ever seen (the 25). It was 730pm, well past my stop time and I couldn't help myself, I just kept going it was so good. Clarkson, May & Hammond need to revise their list.

I am camping tonight for the first time in a month and I had nearly forgotten how to put the tent up. It looks like being cold enough to actually have to get into the sleeping bag…that's a novelty. (note to self……stop drinking beer or you will be getting out of the tent in the middle of the night) Tomorrow the Timmelsjoch and I have unfinished business to attend to.

The Route
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