September 10, 1994
Szeckeshfehervar
Up early, we ate, visited briefly with Laurie (Alan was still sleeping it off) and then taxied back to the Dominick Panzio to retrieve our bikes. The same attendant was still there, still helpful and considerate. It turns out that he too is a biker, and wanted to know the details of our trip - our itinerary, our pace and so on.
From the hotel, we endured the expected hour of confusing and wearying city riding until we arrived at the west end of Budapest's two million person sprawl. The next sixty kilometers brought little to comment on, except that the countryside was quite lovely, with gently rolling terrain, scattered hardwood forests and broad fields of corn, sunflowers and grain. Surprisingly though, this region has a somewhat modern feel - newer homes, broad streets, and less street life.
This was the shortest day so far; and after 80 km we rolled into Szeckeshferhervar in midafternoon. We checked into their top of the line hotel - a two star affair with showers and WC in the room, red carpet in the hall, TV, the works - for 3800 florints ($38), including breakfast. After cleaning up and napping for awhile we set out to explore the town and find a meal. It has a lovely old core area, which although only a few blocks wide and mostly shut down for the weekend took us quite awhile to explore. In addition to three churches, it has several other striking and colorful structures - all with the same baroque style (actually Copf, according to our guidebook).
We had some difficulty finding a restaurant. Finally Rachael spotted one unobtrusively hidden away down a small alley a few blocks away from our room. A fairly modern place, it offered spaghetti and pizza. After a satisfying meal we strolled back to the room for the evening.
Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 283 miles (455 km)
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