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Ceri: Today we woke early. We ate breakfast in our room (I carry bowls, milk, cereal etc) and we were cycling before 7:30. We both love the fresh early mornings, the low light as the sun rises and the cool air. To start, the track was in great condition, alongside the river with some rather beautiful homes next to older dilapidated houses. Such is Slovakia.
Then the cold NW wind picked up, and then the rain. Not too much, but enough for us to seek out an early cup of coffee. We found a tiny village shop selling long sausages and plastic funeral wreaths. (Neil has always maintained that eating meat leads to an early death!). She had a welcoming smile and a coffee machine. So for just €1 we had 2 cups of delicious sweet coffee to warm ourselves and a fun chat with the owner . An elderly lady leaning against her sticks watched us for a while, then held out her hand for money, gave us a great big smile when we obliged, and very enthusiastically posed for a photo.
On we cycled against the wet strong wind, over many brain jarring concrete slabs, and agreed another cup of coffee was needed. We saw a cyclist facing the other way munching into his sandwich, so we stopped to ask if there was a coffee stop ahead. He replied “Right here!” and promptly produced a gas stove and a coffee pot. He was a young Hungarian cycling to England and we enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee together exchanging stories.
We continued on, passing villages and picturesque tributary rivers when Neil uttered the fatal words “It’s only 10 am and so much has already happened!“. Immediately I got another puncture. While he was repairing it, I received a text from our previous hotel saying we had forgotten to pay our hotel bill. Fun early morning starts should come with a warning!
In the next hotel I was able to settle the bill….. eventually. After many attempts of my app refusing to pay, I called Barclays and they made the payment. Thank heavens for IBAN numbers.
Pretty smaller rivers feeding the Danube
Suddenly autumn is upon us! The cycle paths were full of autumn leaves
Continuing ….. this hotel, which wasn’t expensive, offered us a €15 upgrade to their deluxe room. And why not? Its our last night before Budapest. Here’s the bath:-
We went for a long walk along the ‘beach’, yes a beach. It was so far down river that genuine sand had formed, with shells and pebbles. The whole shoreline is a beach. We bought provisions and returned to enjoy that luxurious bath.
Neil got in first but accidentally pushed down the central plug releasing most of the water.
Take Two: a minor wait before I joined him, but not for long and it was far more comfortable when he got out. Then I had an idea. Let’s fix that puncture! I’ve never bathed with an inner tube before. With his clever nano Fumpa pump, then sinking the tube into the bath, he immediately detected the hole, and fixed it. Far easier than in a cold October bike shed when we get home.
Pizza tonight. And there again were our German/Australian friends Brett and Cord. We joined them for a third night and ended with a final farewell… maybe. We’re all set for our last day of cycling. Fitting it’s Neil’s turn to write tomorrow.
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