September 7th
Stage 38 Hainburg to Lipot
(Gyor) 98 kms
Just as I left Hainburg this morning along the river side
the Twin City Hydrofoil shot past me heading downstream with a strong current
for Bratislava. For a moment I envied the few passengers that seemed to be
aboard. It was such a civilized way of getting about, I thought, not like
pedalling a bicycle for kilometres on end. However, perish the thought and I
was soon on my way over the shallow rise behind Hainburg whereupon, to my
surprise, appeared suddenly the monstrous concrete blocks of the Slovakian
capital’s suburbs, a definite blot on the landscape.
Crossing the border into Slovakia was, for me, an important
moment. The last time I crossed from Czechoslovakia into Austria we were
checked and double checked (no pun intended) and guns were trained on our car
where our children were sleeping in the back seat. How wonderful that today
no-one took the slightest notice of my passing through the old custom post, now
little more than a group of dilapidated buildings and a weed-ridden huge
concrete car park. By the side of the cycle track leading into the city there
was an old bunker but I think it is now a tourist attraction.
The excellent cycle piste wound round to the Novy Most
bridge with its impressive observation balcony and then via a protective
embankment onto a road which is completely closed to traffic and dedicated
entirely to cyclists. I said yesterday that today would be a gallop through
Slovakia and so it turned out to be. I was in fine fettle but I think my energy
was generated as much by anxiety about Katherine, who was driving round
Bratislava on the motorway; we had arranged to meet in Rajka in Hungary and I
knew I would be relieved to see her. I lost the way as I approached the border
in Cunova. “Yes, I do in fact speak some
English” the elderly gentleman of whom I asked directions answered most
charmingly, though he was disappointed that I wanted to go into Hungary and
suggested most persuasively that I eat lunch in the excellent restaurant in the
small town. I was sorry, if only for his sake, that my first visit to Slovakia
had been so brief.
True to form Katherine was waiting at the railway station in
Rajka. Her journey had been easy but not uneventful, having been stopped by a
policeman on the motorway for not having a “vignette”. However, he was in
agreement that at the border crossing post there had been nowhere to purchase
such a sticker and the potential 140 euro fine was waived. Nonetheless, he
urged her to buy the Hungarian sticker as soon as she entered the country.
For the next 30 kilometres or so we travelled almost
together hopping from one quiet Hungarian village to the next. It really was
delightful cycling along very sparsely travelled country lanes in the wide
flood plain of the Duna as the Danube is called in Hungary. The bicycle route
is indicated but you have to be vigilant and sometimes, such as at the exit
from the horribly gravelly levee leading to Puskis, important turnings are not
marked. Here I must praise the Bikeline editors for their meticulous work on
route description.
Finding an excellent campsite at Lipot we decided to set up
the tent and then I would continue the further 25 kilometres to Gyor returning
to the campsite in the car. This section was not as enjoyable as the previous
30 kms but the cycle track alongside the road into Gyor was always adequate if
narrow and often very good indeed. Thus I joined the locals, which is always
nice, on their late Friday afternoon business, as I rode down to the iron
Kossuth Hid bridge and took some photographs.
98 kms Total from
Schaffhausen 1087 kms Total from Galway
2995 kms
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