to Budapest: riding on an island in the Danube

May 3, 2015

Budapest is calling us, so we are on the road early, anticipating a great day of cycling on the Danube River bike route. As we have found, bike routes and bike paths are great, then disappear. We are on the road, it's Sunday so traffic is not heavy. We will take two ferries today and not knowing how that will go because of timing.

The first we are lucky, we reach the ferry, load our bikes and cross the river to an island in the Danube. This is great cycling!! At the end of the island another ferry to catch and in luck only a short wait and we cross the Danube. Off the ferry, we get a cup of espresso coffee, Europe does not believe in supersizing anything. The coffee is tasty just in a small Dixie cup size. We see the bike sign for Budapest and we are off on a nice bike path along the river.

But only for a short time, soon the yellow bike and chevron signs indicating the bike lane takes us inland, sometimes disappears and we are on a sidewalk, then we are back on a marked bike lane. As Patrick has proven, just keep going in the direction you know you need to go and you get there.

Eventually though, we are on the Danube bike path along the river and we see Budapest! We will stay two more days to explore and rest.

A small pedestrian ferry takes us across one arm of the Danube onto an island.

After about 18km there is another, larger ferry at the other end.

Ferry making its approach across the Danube.

Riding into Budapest. The gritty suburbs and industrial areas along the river make for some interesting scenes.

Headed along the Danube towards the center of Budapest.

On our way to the hostel we pass some of the major sights. Here we are at the parliament buildings.

The hostel is on the second floor of a large non-descript stone building. After we get access through its main gate into the bowels of the building, we unload the bags and ferry everything up.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,842 km (1,144 miles)

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