Moving On

Another very hot ride this morning. I do not like going pillion at the best of times and found it most uncomfortable today. It was a great relief to both of us to reach the BMW dealers,pick up the 1200 and ride away individually, on our own bikes. We came back to the Bikercamp and booked a room B&B for the night. We've sorted the stuff we left here, unpacked my bike and repacked everything ready for the morning. Originally we had intended only spending a few days in Budapest then moving out of Hungary. This is our 11th night here but we have thoroughly enjoyed it all and have no regrets ( although the wallet is considerably lighter!)

We've picked a fairly simple route heading for Poprad in the Slovakian Tatra mountains for tomorrow. We much prefer the country to the towns and hopefully it will be cooler in the higher mountains. Will post again when we find our next internet access point. In the meantime keep up with the comments and I'll reply asap!

Elvie

Misckolz Tapolca Baths

Yesterday we went off on our own, to some cave baths. The route took us up a wide agricultural valley, which I have photos of (note the lack of traffic) and then wound up through narrow forest road over the mountain to the town.


No photos of the mountain road as one tree looks much like another but it was beautiful to ride through. The baths are based on a thermal spring with outdoor baths, indoor medicinal hot baths and, most fun, a complex of flooded tunnels through the caves.

The caves were natural although they had tiled or concreted the floors and walls of the pools for the sake of our feet and knees. It was nice but there were too many kids there to make proper swimming a possibility.

The ride home was very hot at 34C!

We rang BMW on our return and found the bike was ready so had an early night ready for the ride back to Budapest today.

Elvie

Szilvasvarad

After 3 days in web limbo we're back in communication! It's surprisingly frustrating to be unable to get on line but now we have returned to Budapest I can update our story. I'll do it spread over a couple of posts so easier to read and for me to upload.

From Eger we moved only about 40 mile to a rural village called Szilvasvarad where there is another biker's campsite & B&B, the Magyar Route 66. This was beautiful & kept in immaculate order by its owner, a dutch man, Leen (pronounced Lane). As well as the camping field there was a swimming pool, cave/bar and "kettle kitchen" as well as a separate house in which Ian and I were the only occupants.


The three campers there became good friends very quickly, Yuri (sorry if I have spelled that wrong) a Belgian, and a Dutch couple Jan & Jolande. We had a meal together in a nearby restaurant the first night, a train ride to a waterfall the next day


then a wonderful evening cooking together in the kettle kitchen. This was an outdoor structure with a witches cauldron hung over an open fire in a raised stone pit.



We took local advice and enjoyed ourselves immensely spending 3 hours cooking a proper Hungarian Goulash.



Of course it was hot & thirsty work so plenty of the local wine was required to help us complete the job! It was too hot to eat by the cauldron so had to sit outside the well stocked help yourself honesty bar!




Elvie

2 up to Eger

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Here we are up in the Northern Hills of Hungary in the spa town of Eger. We've left our camping and other surplus stuff at the biker camp and have booked a room there for a weeks time. We set off two up on my bike yesterday morning, through the Hungarian countryside which is very fertile – wheat maize vines and assorted veggies were growing in abundance alongside the main road. when we turned off to the hills we found ourselves on a magnificent biking road – the 24. Very wide hairpins wound high up one side of the hill, down the other side then up another, all through a huge area of mixed deciduous woodland.

Once in Eger we found ourselves a good hotel with its own spa and swimming pool complex then set off to explore. We have been around the castle, site of a famous defeat of the turks in C16 by a local garrison, outnumbered 4 to1 and wandered the many traffic free streets before a meal in a pavement restaurant. Here's a few views of castle and town. Note the ubiquitous Mcdonalds

and the intriguing street sign – third from top. Haven't managed to work that one out yet!

Today we chilled! Strolled around the town again and climbed the 97 steps of the minaret. Spent most of the day swimming & lazing around the pools & park next to the hotel.

We're moving on tomorrow to a bikers B&B further up country. can't guarantee internet access so don't worry if there's no posts for a few days.

Problem update.

Have taken the bike to the dealer, with the aid of a Jubilee clip and a cable tie! They have to order the part, and it will take a week. Now plan B kicks into gear! We are leaving the camping gear here in Budapest, and setting off 2 up into deepest Hungary and Slovakia for a week or so, and will return to collect my bike when it's fixed. So a good excuse for a lunchtime beer, and a folklore evening in the restaurant next door tonight. LB

Problems!

Heavy rain overnight and at 7.00 am we were lying in the tent thinking we wouldn't be moving on today when there was an almighty thump from outside. LB's bike had fallen over. He'd left it on the centre stand with the side stand extended, on grass.It had obviously sunk in and the side stand eventually pushed it over. The screen was broken and the mounting for the front brake lever and brake fluid reservoir snapped clean off.



We've cable tied the brake back on & think it's rideable. We're now waiting for the rain to ease off for a trial run around the block & if it's ok will venture across town to the BMW dealer. Looks like we're going to be in Budapest for longer than planned as they're likely to have to order the parts. B*gger!

Elvie

PS

Well I have a confession to make. The photos of the baths were off the internet - you probably guessed tht fro the aerial shot! When we got back to the campsite I did my usual chore of copying the days photos onto the computer. It weans we have a back up off all photos in case we lose the camera. Unfortunately I somehow managed to delete all the photos off the camera :( we've only lost todays photos but there were some good ones we wanted to post on the blog. We have found some file recovery programs which have identified the photos are still on the card but we can't retrieve them without paying. We'll do that at home on our main computer and in the meantime will use a spare xd card. So it could have been worse!

The other point to mention is that we might move on tomorrow, depending on the weather. If its raining in the morning we'll stay another day. If its dry we'll head up into the hills. If so we may not be on-line for a few days .

Elvie

Szechenyi Baths

Today we have again been exploring Budapest. In particular we visited one of the famous Spa baths in the city. We chose the Szechenyi Baths near the Millenium Square, mainly because it allowed mixed use of the facilities. It was a little daunting entering the grand building, paying, and finding the way around when there wasn't a sign in English to be seen anywhere. The attendants were very helpful and we finally found the outside pools after passing through a series of pools indoors, all at various temperatures. The outside pools were at 28c, and at 34c. The Indoor pools varied from a cold plunge, to one at 38c. The spa water emerges from the earth at 75c!! The photos don't really do it justice. We spent a very enjoyable 3 hours in the sun along with many residents of Budapest, before heading back, with thunder rolling in the distance.

Lake Balaton

Picked up some Scottoil at last from a little bike dealer on the other side of Budapet. He's the only Scottoil stockist in Hungary. So thanks to the internet for giving us his address and to the Zumo for getting us there. Afterwards took a drive around Lake Balaton. This is even bigger than we thought. It took us an hour and a half driving up one side, half way back we gave up and took the motorway! It was very enjoyable and we had a nice picnic on the lakeside

Elvie

Budapest tour

On Sunday we left the bikes at the campsite and took the Metro into the city centre. This was quite an adventure as we couldn't make head or tail of any of the language. We had problems getting out of the main station as we didn't know the word for "exit"!! Anyway after a bit of wandering around lost we went on a "hop on hop off" bus tour around the city. Hopped off for some scenic views at the citadel on Gelerts hill and again around the castle. It took us all day and was well worth it. It gave us a feel for the city and some ideas of where to visit. Here's a few views around the River Danube.




Back at the campsite in the evening we found we had company. Two Serb bikers turned up although they were at pains to explain that one was a Hungarian Serb and the other a pole. We got on well and after half an hour were invited to go back to stay with them in Serbia on Wednesday! We were tempted but its outside the EU and none of our insurance would have covered us. There's also a Danish couple here who speak very good English unlike the Serbs. we had a long chat in pidgin , English and bits of German over a few beers - great fun!

Elvie

Bikercamp Budapest

After our thorough soaking on Friday 13th Saturday was much nicer and we had a pleasant ride out of the Alps through progressively smaller hills in to Hungary. This again was quite hilly to start until we reached the plains around the enormous Lake Balaton. Arrived in Budapest about 6.00 to our planned stop here Bikercamp is basically Szousza, the owner's, back garden but with wonderful facilities. Theres the usual showers and toilets but also a cooker, tables and benches under cover, a washing machine and washing lines again under cover. We were disappointed to find we were the only occupants but the following night company turned up. I would highly recommend to anyone coming to Budapest. They also run a B&B so you don't have to camp.

Elvie

Here we are safely at the biker camp in Budapest. Since leaving Zell am See 2 days ago we have ridden over 400 miles. We had intended doing it in 2 easy stages, but the heavens opened as we were leaving Zell, and after 100 miles we had had enough. cold and very very wet we pulled over and found the Lindenhof gasthof and Marion it's owner.



We were made to feel very welcome, and ham and eggs served in the frying pan, washed down with beer soon revived our spirits. Later on we had a wander around the village and found a Pizzeria for supper. An early start was in order in the morning, and as we wandered downstairs Marion was waiting for us.





The rain held off and we rode into Budapest in the late afternoon, tired but well satisfied.