Writing this journal a day late, as we were so hot and tired when we arrived in Vac yesterday, a cold shower and dinner took all the energy we had left.
We left Esztergom around 9am, after not much sleep in our hot, hot room. The cleaning staff told us it was much too hot to cycle today...no shit, Sherlock! We went about .5 kilometres before we stopped for coffee. About 7 kilometres down the trail, MUD! We followed a Hungarian guy, who had just moved back after 36 years in Calgary, who was wondering if he had made the wisest decision. He led us to a road that would take us out of the mud bath, and up to the highway. Just when we started on this small road, a man came out of his house, asked us what language we spoke, and said "come, I have a garden hose with clear water, that you can use". What a godsend, as we had more mud on our shoes and bikes, than we ever have had. I had been looking for a hose to clean up Mr. & Ms. Surly, for weeks. It is amazing how much better they road after a nice, clean bath. The highway was not bad for traffic, you just had to watch out for those potholes than can swallow an entire bike. Just before we got to the ferry to cross over to Sznob, on the left bank, we came upon a couple from France who were on their way to The Black Sea, or maybe just Budapest, if it didn't cool down. We exchanged our bike stories as best we could, with the language issue, had lunch together on the other side, and set off to Budapest separately. The next several kilometres around The Daqnube Bend, was some of the most spectacular scenery of the trip, but it was hard to really enjoy it with the intense heat and humidity. After dropping down to river, we had a couple of minor detours, and then........more deep water...whatever. Since we still had wet shoes from mud bath and hose, plus getting pretty good at cycling/swimming, we just went for it, through two big areas. Keep in mind that this water has now been sitting for at least 10 days, so the colour and smell was not at it's prime! We saw by the water level on the trees, that the cycle path had been under 7 feet of water. After cycling over lots of plastic sheets, (not sure what that was all about), we came to a sudden halt with a 7 foot wall of sand bags. Ron climbed up and over to survey the solution, but there was no way out. Thinking we would have to cycle back at least 10 kilometres, through the nasty water, and HOT, HOT temperatures, was not that exciting. Fortunately, Ron discovered some stairs a little way back, and we were on our way. Tired, and hot we decided to call it a day in Vac, rather than go to Szentendre, which was another ferry crossing and 18 kilometres. We were having a hard time finding accommodation, and Ron talked to a young guy who escorted us about 2 kilometres through the streets with his flashers on, and us following on our bikes. Such hospitality! The hotel wasn't our finest, but it was clean and had nice welcome showers. We had a great dinner that was recommended on Trip Advisor, and barley had the energy to walk back to our NON A/C hotel. Vac is a very pretty city on The Danube, with lots of water sports.
