I'm not exactly sure why at this late date I decided to start learning Hungarian. I have been married to a Hungarian for the past 25 years after all.  But our common language is German and that has been no problem. I imagine trying to communicate in Hungarian might have caused considerable problems. Hungarian is challenging, to put it mildly. 

Recently on a short visit to Budapest I felt regret that I hadn't become acquainted with the language of my husband's home. Then I thought, why regret, just get started now. I'm sure I won't become a stronger cyclist for all the hours I am spending learning complicated verb endings and trying to retain vocabulary that my brain seems to have no more room for, but I am having a great time with this Sisyphean task. My interest in the language seems to be a good enough reason to take a trip to Hungary, and to ride our bicycles there, of course.

Another, perhaps the primary reason for the trip, is to visit Janos's favorite cousin, one of his last living relatives. He has always been very fond of Éva and I am sure this visit will make her very happy, and Janos as well. Time is getting short for important things.

We will bridge the distance between home and Hungary by car and also between the stopovers we have chosen. We decided to target interesting cities and towns to explore and use as home base for day rides and not do any A to B rides for two reasons. Hungary's cycling infrastructure isn't very developed and much of the countryside in western Hungary is flat and not too exciting.

We plan to stay in each of our stopovers a couple of nights to allow time for day rides. It will be a day's drive to Sopron, close to the Austrian border. Next stop will be Szentendre, near Budapest, where we visit with Janos's cousin. Then we move on to Kecskemét, Keszthely and finally back to Sopron before we drive back home.

I just checked the weather -a heat wave is predicted with temps up to 37C! I hope they're wrong! Everything is booked, Éva is expecting us, there's no going back now.

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