Kapuvar - Vienna to Venice, with a detour through Budapest - CycleBlaze

September 5, 1994

Kapuvar

We both awoke very early - perhaps 3 AM, unable to get back to sleep - and waited as a heavy, brief rainstorm passed through Vienna.  It raised our anxiety level for a while until it harmlessly faded.

We were on the road - the bus, actually - by 7, on our return trip to the airport to pick up and reassemble our bicycles for our ride to Budapest.  Happily and unexpectedly, our morning ride cost us nothing.   There was a subway connection we hadn't known of that carried us all the way to the airport; and our 24 hour pass we had used yesterday to get around the city was still valid (which was verified by a conductor who examined it closely just before we arrived at the airport, raising briefly in our minds the threat of some sort of administrative fiasco).

Most of the day's ride was easy, pretty, and lightly trafficked, with a few strident exceptions.  Even departing from the airport was surprising for its simplicity.  It worked well to have left our bikes out here on the outskirts of the city rather than bringing into the core with us when we arrived two days ago.

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After briefly enduring a major highway, Rachael and I turned of and bore south, headed for the Hungarian border.  High points for our ride in Austria before we got there included a pastoral climb over the Leithaberge, with its lovely, open hardwood forests; and a break for lunch in Eisenstadt snacking on bread and cheese in front of Esterhazy Palace.

Eisenstadt was a special and unexpected delight, a colorful and spirited marketplace with street musicians, seemingly gypsies, performing.  The palace was painted in the same Maria Teresa yellow that we had seen yesterday at Schonbrunn Palace.  The façade was delightful, a procession of what looked like expressive theatrical masks along the eaves.

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After Eisenstadt we made several false starts in our attempt to find the correct route out toward the border at Klingenbach - once heading northeast on a lovely bike lane through vinyards toward Rust, then onto a bike path that ended at a dirt path leading to an unrideable major highway.  Fortunately, the dirt path continued on for about another kilometer to the correct route we were seeking.

The last few miles out of Austria and the miles to Sopron across the border were on a terrible, busy two lane highway - shoulderless, and with oncoming cars constantly pulling out to pass at unsafe locations.  At Klingenbach we rolled through customs, got our passports stamped, and braced ourselves for returning to the highway to Sopron. 

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From a distance, Sopron is really quite ugly.  Rimmed by grey, uniform blockish concrete high rises, it looks of little interest.  The old town at the center is wonderful however.  About a half mile across, it is rimmed by a narrow one way street filled with shops, shoppers, bikers, workers - it makes a very colorful and animated scene.  Inside the circle, the entire area has the feel of a museum - the fire tower, goat church and plague pillar stand out, as do its narrow medieval streets and alleys. 

Sopron
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We sat at the base of the tower cooling ourselves off as we watched the street life pass by.  It has a more Mediterranean feel that the rather cold atmosphere in Austria.  Afterwards, we climbed the fire tower, up a narrow corkscrew stairwell, to a splendid lookout of the town's tile roofs.

With careful navigation, we found the correct way out of town and on to the small road to Fertod, navigating past pedestrians, other bikers, sidewalk conversations and so on as we passed through Sopron's energetic neighborhoods.  The road to Fertod turned out to be a continual delight - very light traffic, flattish, passing through a series of colorful villages and hand-worked fields.  Among the many memorable sights: thatch roofed bus stops and small houses; workers hoeing and extracting potatoes they loaded into bushel baskets; and workers biking to the fields with their hoe and sickle or rake precariously mounted on back.

Fertod
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The final five miles to Kapuvar were on another awful road.  These miles convinced us to change our plans for our route to Budapest - rather than continuing into Gyor for another 60 or so kilometers along this terrible road, we will strike out to the east through the villages, hopefully finding our share of pavement along the way  (This passage reminds me of what it was like traveling in the pre-internet era, when detailed maps were hard to come by and you couldn't zoom in using the satellite view to scope out road quality).

We spent the night in Kapuvar's only hotel.  Not too attractive on the outside, was surprisingly comfortable on the inside.  For 1800 florints (about $18), we had a comfortable room with shower, bath, and breakfast.  It looks like Hungary has an amazingly low-budget economy.  Our dinner - roast port, pork cutlets and a beer set us back $9.  Navigating the menu was nearly impossible, until they found an English one for us to order from.

Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 73 miles (117 km)

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