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Sunday 26th September 1234.8 miles, Krems, Austria
We had a welcome break this morning in a little village called Weißenkirchen where a local Reisling festival was taking place. Everyone was in costume, celebrating the harvest of grapes, apples and squash. Our second breakfast consisted of curried meat in a bun from a road side BBQ in the town and was wonderful and kept us going from 10.30am until 2pm when our tumtums started grumbling again. We felt that the 9 Euros was justified since the lady at the campsite in Emmersdorf (last night) kindly gave us a free night as she wasn't there to give us shower tokens when we arrived. So here we are in the historical town of Krems for a couple of days of R & R and lots of food (Katy really is becoming a little piggy - even though you are looking slimmer all the time pooh!) before we push on through Vienna and Bratislava to Budapest for early October... Greg and Eoin, we hope that you've now settled in your lovely spacious and welcoming apartment by the time we arrive - not hinting or anything!? At least looking outside now it seems a lot brighter.
Just want to also say that whenever we've had the chance to check up on the website the words of encouragement have been really inspirational. We only wish we had more time and money to send individual emails but we'll try our best. Missing everyone a lot at the moment - it's been a month today since we left and when you're sitting on a saddle for hours on end your mind starts wondering... we hope Reece is settling down well as an NQT, whilst mum and dad (Williams) are enjoying work! We wonder how Kate's fans at Community Training Services Ltd are getting on. You'd better be missing me (Kate)! She hopes all her trainees are happy and behaving themselves ?!! Hope exams went well for you Ser. Jade, Becks, Helen and James - we hope to meet up some time in Africa. Becky.L keep those emails coming honey! J and L - keep working on those darn phd's! Hope you had a nice holiday Clare - enjoy Wales mum and dad (Testa), and if you come across any weary cyclists whilst at work Ruth, don't give them a hard time! A big hello to everyone else and sorry we haven't mentioned you personally. You are all in our thoughts and sometimes we envy you with your daily routine and warm beds particularly when it bucketing it down outside our tent! Monday 27th September Resting in Krems. Tuesday 28th September Resting in Krems. Wednesday 29th September Krems - Vienna
And here's where we left off. Over the next week our journey will take us from our stay in the lovely town of Krems, where we never managed to taste any of the local wine but lots of local beer instead, through Vienna, Bratislava and round the great bend of the Danube into the wonderful bustling and hilly city of Budapest! Our stay in Vienna was nice, if very short. The hostel accommodation allowed us to meet plenty of like-minded travellers who we otherwise never seem to meet in the campsites. Ken Livingstone should definitely take note - Vienna is definitely the most cycle friendly city we have ever seen, even if the "uninitiated" (us) still found it difficult to navigate. Thursday 30th September Vienna - Bratislava - Rajke The 70km stretch between Vienna and Bratislava was flat, straight and uninhabited. This made it very fast but so boring...when our minds and bums become numb our conversation is not at its best. Even for Kate! At least we got to stop in Bratislava for a stale bread roll and some jam (never mind about forgetting to pick up the darn penknife from the park bench - what's money anyway?!) That evening (the second out of Krems) we passed over into Hungary and camped in the closed campsite in Rajke. The people here were extremely helpful and friendly despite our lack of common languages (knowing some German can help you get by with some of the older generation). This friendliness has set the tone for most of the Hungarians we have met since. Friday 1st October Rajke - Komarom
Over the next three days we followed the Danube valley through both Hungary and Slovakia seeing the incredible poverty that is still evident here, yet this is the only place where farm workers would stop and wave enthusiastically to cyclists as they pedal past. Often giggling at us because of our poor attempts to dodge the massive potholes with helmets, bags and bodies flying about whilst at the same time trying to remain cool, calm and collected. Humpf! Hungarian and Slovakian driving is slightly erratic. After a brief and close encounter with a driver who saw no merit in de-misting his windows before reversing out of his drive we had to re-fit Kate's front pannier rack! (Sorry Paul - all those tedious painstaking hours of sweat and hard work trying to fit them in the first place!) Slightly shaken but not stirred. We spent the night in Komarom next to the thermal baths (which we arrived too late to use but still had to pay for - bugger!) was at a lovely campsite where we could buy eggs and use the communal kitchen to cook them. Delicious! Saturday 2nd October Komarom - Esztergom - Szob Arriving in Esztergom this afternoon we had hit a bit of a low point in our trip. There was no internet cafe to check whether we could stay with the boys - our only way of staying in Budapest for any length of time on our budget. We were desperate for the rest and the prospect of it slipping away just became too much. In a rare flash of logical brilliance, Kate got her parents to check our emails for us and within an hour and a half of talking on the pay phone Kate finally returned to Paul, grinning with the news we had both been hoping for. Thanks boys and ma and pa Williams. A bottle of coke and a rare bar of chocolate also helped us to perk up as we watched another harvest festival parade through the town. Due to Kate and her parents' extensive conversational skills we were slightly late in leaving for our overnight accommodation but we were in much better spirits. We crossed the Danube on the ferry to Szob with an enthusiastic group of Hungarian cyclists only to find (yet again) that our map was wrong and the campsite in Szob didn't exist. This forced us to pedal on another 10miles to the next campsite which was also closed. Not to be outdone, Kate put on her best "damsel in distress" look for the young man in the campsite office who eventually allowed us to stay the night. After three and a half years with Paul you haven't lost your touch! The view across the river to the citadel at Visegrad was stunning as we walked to a local bar for a celebratory drink (we really are trying to stay up later than 8.30pm!) Little did we know that the security gates of the campsite would be closed on our return, forcing us to climb, commando style, over them to get to bed! Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire