Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Tour date: 1-17 June 2005. Total distance: 1400 km.
Bicycle Tour: Eastern Europe (Italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Hungary - Slovakia - Austria - Czech Republic)
Thomas Driemeyer2005-10-16 14:37:51
Displayed times (last time: )
of the hill. The town itself has some nice baroque streets but is otherwise unremarkable.
Food in eastern countries tends to be heavy on meat, although one can usually get more or less well-made pasta and some vegetarian choices. Pizza is plentiful. Juices are flavored sugar water, and breakfast in general is barely edible. There are many German items in supermarkets, and in fact there are German supermarkets and other chain stores all over the place. We also saw lots of old East German Trabant cars on the street, that have all but vanished in Germany. Trabants are ridiculous small plastic cars with noisy two-stroke motors that belch blue smoke.
SLOVAKIA
Since the rain started when we entered Hungary, it stands to reason that it would stop when we left Hungary. And so it did. The border check to Slovakia was finished in seconds as usual. The first 13km on the road that parallels the Danube are a little boring, again with no views of the river, but then trees and villages appear. The road is well-paved and there is almost no traffic (which is why we are riding here and not on the parallel road in Hungary - besides, I bet it rains over there). By then the sun was out and the temperatures soared from 12 degrees back in Hungary to 25 degrees in Slovakia. After 55km, in Komarno, we found an ATM at a giant supermarket called Hypernova, and stocked up on food.
Soon after, in Slatna, we turned left into what, according to our map, should have been an even quieter side road that followed the Danube more closely. This turned out to be a gravel road on top of the dike, then became a dirt road, and finally spongy loam with ankle-deep puddles the size of Belgium. I don't know where this sunny place found so much water, I suppose the Hungarians on the other side of the river donated some of their rain. After about five km we turned off onto an asphalt road, where a friendly farmer carefully
...
See photographs from:
Slovenia Gallery
,
Slovakia Gallery
,
Italy Gallery
,
Hungary Gallery
,
Czech Republic Gallery
,
Croatia Gallery
,
Austria Gallery
