Budapest was always going to be the biggest milestone of the journey for the auld dear especially! because from Budapest my brother was capable of and had offered to drive and collect me should anything go wrong. Bryan reckons Budapest is about a days drive for him and he would just have a night out with me wherever I felt i was wanting to stop from there down the river, this meant a lot to me not only that my brother was willing to drive out to meet me but also Budapest meant i had almost reached my original objectives,
I had been texting grace form breakfast we knew we had to get away sharp in the morning neither of us are morning people, but we had two ferry's to catch if we were to get to Budapest that day by using the best recommended route, I was up and ready in plenty time the hotel breakfast was perfect the weather was perfect,
finding grace was difficult I had no idea just how far out of town she was staying, i presumed it was just along the river and headed down to the shore at the back of the Big chapel and cycled downstream on a decent cycle path, sure enough it was two miles out of town my cycle path brought me out onto the main road eventually, i then had another half mile along this busy narrow road to see grace waiting outside her hotel, the previous evening she had done all of that distance in the dark, but she done all of it not on the cycle path but on this narrow main road which was always busy with fast cars! i was then not surprised she was so grateful about my head-torch
I had definitely got the better place to stay the previous evening, we set off along this busy road for a few miles then turned down to the ferry station, the ferry`s here like most places leave at set times and it looks like it was seasonal and would be finishing for winter next week by the look of it, the weather was lovely, i can understand the Scottish winter timetable but i think here its a bit early, it was a simple short barge ferry journey to the other side and we were back on the Slovakia side
we cycled for a few hours along some lovely cycle paths weaving into villages then back down to the shore, the cycle paths were good in places, but mostly they have got far too many pot holes and tree trunks pushing through you need to concentrate, our next ferry along the river left on the hour and we just made the 12:00 ferry, grace was delighted to be actually cycling alongside the Danube for a change as the previous days we were mostly cycling miles away from the side of the Danube,
Back on the Hungarian side with no ferry timetable to worry about it was stress free cycling for a while, we had achieved our ferry objectives and the weather forecast was no rain until five PM the sun was out all was well, the cycle path was great at times there was a bad section of flood dyke gravel and we got lost twice but all in all good, we arrived at the picturesque tourist town of szentendre where we had a walk through town, I found a vegan ice cream parlour, due to my year off dairy this was dreamsville and it was easily the best ice cream of my life ok its not ice cream as there was no dairy but it wasn't sorbet either! i had two scoops raspberry and dark chocolate and it was wonderfuel! nice place but we had to keep moving
we got a little lost leaving this town but soon back on the route by the river and heading to the city, we came into an area beside the shore with riverside bars restaurants and amusements then through the suburbs with 60`s style blocks of flats ,then into a modern city road network with no landmarks tricky to find our way in, the rain came on! we stopped to put on waterproofs and found our way nearer the centre, i later discovered we could have went on an island here and took better cycle routs to the yellow bridge which was our destination,
grace had her hotel booked when we got close i stopped at a roadside bar to check where i could stay while she left me to get to her hotel, two beers later I discovered the quirky fortuna boat hotel which I couldn't resist not only was the price right but i would then be sleeping on the river, it turned out ideal for me, I work beside blokes who were once lodged in barges and boats like this and moaned like hell here I was paying for the quirky`ness
grace dumped her hire bike at her modern hotel and the hire company would collect it from there, her cycling was over, we arranged to meet for dinner our hotels were close i walked by a cool bar that served Guinness and told her we should check trams for any restaurant she had in mind she is the foody not me, i wanted beer so i met her near her hotel then said we should have a beer in the bar I had seen before we move on,
she said we could get tram number 4 or 6 and was looking at tickets when A tram came in, i said lets go she was shocked lol. i dont think she has ever jumped on a train without a ticket before! we got to the bar area it was jumping, the place she had chosen was actually street food, so i had soup she got what she wanted then when leaving I spotted a brew dog sign! must do! i got a beer and ordered her an alcohol free beer but it was 0.4% and she said she could tell so i drank it along with mine
we then went to a Hungarian style restaurant as i was still hungry had some food and a few beers, by the time we got outside it was dark raining and cold, grace looked like a ninja with her black clothes I suggested we hire some scooters for our journey back, it was a different company from scooters ive used previously, so i showed her how to download the app scan the qr code and get going! these were lime scooters and they seemed different they did not like you pressing the go switch all the way down when you set of once we both loaded apps phone and bank details much quicker than it sounds we were off 😊! But it was raining we weren’t 100% sure of our direction it became dark we lost the cycle path I bumped up a kerb and hit a divot BOSCH I was flat out head over handles ankle rattled by scooters body ! For a second I thought my ankle was broke but I jumped back up I’m fine ! Grace shouts no more scooters, we didn’t have far to go I soldiered on to tomato bar and we parted from there while I tried for a beer at a shut pub lol night over limp home
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