Today has been a strange day. Not bad; just very different to any that has gone before. I was up by 07.00 and showered and waiting for reception to open at 08.00 to pay my bill and get my chromebook charged for the unknown to come. In the meantime, although I had all morning I took my tent down in record time before going off to have breakfast. Breakfast on the road is always the same porridge oats with orange juice instead of milk and yoghurt added with banana mixed in when available. Sounds horrible tastes great and lasts and lasts.
This morning there was a problem - I couldn't find my spoon. sometimes the system of 1 pannier for the kitchen,one for the bedroom, one for the clothes and one for the rest breaks down but try as I might I could not find my spoon. Have you ever tried eating cereal with a fork? It was remarkable easy and of course the spoon turned up in my cycling sandals. Where else? A quick au revoir to Joel and off I set for Vienna 14kms away.
The legs were feeling good after a day's rest and the route was flat and car free all the way to the centre of Vienna. I didn't see or hear one car. However my route was a bicycle motorway being shared by walkers (a few with poles), runners (many of whom were seriously fast) casual cyclists and touring cyclist (the majority) and the speed merchants (it was like trying to use tri bars on princess street in Edinburgh ON THE PAVEMENT) However despite a few near misses no one was harmed in the making of this blog.
When the bicycle motorway ran out I emerged in the very heart of Vienna where I had been walking yesterday. Yes there were bike lanes but you needed to know exactly where you were going so that you could position yourself appropriately on the big grand boulevards and squares. I quickly got the hang of it (I followed some people who seemed to be going the same way as myself) and before long I realised that I was cycling the route that I had walked to the station yesterday.
I was early so I settled myself in a cafe near to the station and started to learn a few words of polite Hungarian. I arrived at the station 30 mins before my train was due to leave (unheard of for me) and I was glad I had for it was not at all clear where the platforms were. In the end they were found logically laid out one storey UP and fortunately there were lifts. I left from platform 10. As in France there was a plan of the train so you wait at the right place. I was in wagon 412 and my bike was assigned space 91. I did not have an assigned seat. In Austria bike is king.As luck would have it the flat entry door to the bike space wouldn't open and I had to struggle up 3 steps to gain access to an area designed for the bikes to be hung up by their front wheel. However I was able to leave all my luggage on and push it into place. It was sticking out by about 15cm which I figured would do. Joke.
All was calm for the first hour then we stopped at the stop before Gyor and three fairly elderly German couples got on ( with a great deal of difficulty) with large bikes equipped with many panniers, clearly without tickets for bikes because all of the bike spaces were taken. They put their bikes in the spaces reserved for wheelchair users causing absolute havoc. No sign of the guard. Fortunately they got off at Gyor when the circus was repeated in reverse. Entitlement.
The train arrived ar Budapest Keleti and I exited to a completely different world. Bike lanes? Not a one in sight and the traffic was scarily busy. Madame Google informed me that my destination Donauradweg Radstation Budapest was 4kms away and attempted to take me on a reasonably (for a city) quiet route. I was glad to arrive at what is in effect someone's back garden. However they have provided everything that anyone could imagine for 8 euros per night. I am seriously impressed.
Unfortunately today is a holiday so all of the shops are closed. How awful I will be forced to eat out. I can hear two French cyclists discussing where to eat moins cher so I am off to join in the conversation.
What an incredibly small world. the Frenchman I have joined is Gerard who wanted to cycle with me for a bit on my second day in Swtzerland. Even more incredibly he comes from Les Sables d'Olonne like Joel my French companion of the last few days and THEY KNOW EACH OTHER. Their wives work together and they each knew that the other was on the road but not where. Incroyable.
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