3-9 June 2008

We have made it through our first week on the road. What a week it’s been: we’ve had a 17 hour ferry ride, spent 20 hours on a train and cycled more than 300 km. We’re still getting used to the cycle touring malarchy but we’ve mastered the art of mixing a good batch of powdered milk and finding city campsites bordered by railways, motorways and under flight paths… every traveller’s dream.

Edinburgh to Vienna
We set off on the ferry from Rosyth to Zeebrugge on 3 June 2008 after four days of continuous send-off boozing and a final mad panic to pack up and clean our flat. The ship set sail and we were waved off by the Wagers (aka the Bats) from Granton harbour (see Wager’s account from the other side in our messages). We found a little energy to enjoy another beer and the onboard entertainment which was a couple performing 80’s power ballads with a few fellow passengers getting down on the d-floor.

After cycling from Zeebrugge into Brugge, we undertook a mammoth train journey from Brugge to Vienna stopping in Liege, Aachen, Cologne, Munich and Salzburg. A good opportunity to practice getting on and off trains with fully loaded bikes! We discovered it really is a good idea to book train tickets across Europe in advance – at least 3 days – luckily this early in the trip our budget can handle it.

On the first occasion of what is now many, Robert the Rolling Scab proved the value of his navigation skills in Vienna and we cycled through a maze of cycle paths and industry to reach our first city campsite. We had a look around the city that evening and sampled Wiener schnitzel (Di’s first piece of pork since 1995) and mused over how Wiener schnitzel became such a popular dish in NZ and why did it become beef…

Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia (75km)
Our first day of cycling, and in naive fashion we set off in the full heat of the midday sun along the cycle path following the Danube. We stopped for a sausage at a pathside stall and met an enthusiastic Australian couple (Kev and Shirl) who lent us their map which the Rolling Scab copied so we weren’t cycling blind into Bratislava.

Our first impression of Bratislava was blocks and the inner old town which is a pristine enclave filled with hen and stag dos and, on the Saturday, local weddings (we counted eight). We located the city campsite about 8km north of the centre reached by cycling a busy and bumpy road. The campsite itself was on the edge of a lake, bordered by a motorway, and party central for Poles and Croats. There was high security at the gate and regular police patrols which made us feel both safe and unsafe at the same time.

Bratislava to Komarno, Slovakia (111km)
A very long day of cycling and only our second! We were heading for a campsite that was marked on our map but unfortunately no longer existed adding another 15km to our journey. The cycling followed the Danube and several canals – we started off well on the official cycle path but then lost it somewhere along the way but were still able to use the fairly quiet roads to get to our destination (thought it a little odd not to see any other cyclists on the busiest cycle route in Europe??). The Rolling Scab got his first burst inner tube. It was a very rural landscape and the locals very much live off the land.

Kormano greeted us with an extreme thunderstorm which lasted through the night. In torrential rain we pulled up to the campsite reception which was also part of a hotel and the proprieter gave us a good deal to stay in the hotel. We must have both looked quite a sight and are thankful she took pity on us! We then proceeded to pull out our primus in our room and cook a mean meal.

Komarno to Esztergom, Hungary (58km)
Now wise to the temperatures, we set off relatively early for the next leg of our journey and made it to Esztergom in northern Hungary in time for a good lunch from the bakery. It’s a lovely village and we set up camp at the campsite and then had a good soak in the thermal pools. This assisted the Rolling Scab who has become the Rolling Rash as he now become susceptible to heat rash after 2 1/2 years of living in Scotland.

Esztergom to Szentendre, Hungary (58km)
We packed up and bandaged the Rolling Rash’s hands (sun protection) bright and early and had a quick and easy ride to Szentendre on the Hungarian side of the Danube, following quiet roads (as we still have no map). Szentendre is a small village 19km north of Budapest with cobbled streets and cute shops. It’s very much on the tourist trail with its proximity to Budapest but worth wandering about, and the restaurants along the Danube but not in the very centre of the village itself were better priced and pretty. We demolished a pizza each in preparation for our next day on the road.

And now we’re writing this in Budapest. Our quest today is to find a map! The Danube cycleway is not as well signposted as expected thus far and we anticipate it will only get worse… our next blog installment will hopefully not be such a novel but who knows when we will next get an internet connection! Oh and we’ll suss out adding a few pics to this very soon too.