September 8th Stage 37 Gyor to Sutto

September 8^th Stage 37  Gyor to Sutto   87 kms

 I had ridden as far as the Kossuth Hid bridge yesterday so Katherine and I drove around Gyor and I cycled back to the bridge from the southern outskirts. This took me through the industrial areas by the railway tracks where men were enjoying a Saturday morning beer in the working men’s cafes and then surprisingly quickly into the very lively, sophisticated centre of the town. It was a late start and the bells of the Benedictine church on Szechenyi ter,  were chiming twelve o clock as I cycled back out to the factory car park where I had left Katherine waiting, patiently earlier. As I arrived at the bridge I noted with some satisfaction that I had reached 3000 kms from Galway city.

The first objective main objective of the day, the rather nondescript village of Gyorszentvan was quickly gained by a special cycle track alongside the new stretch of motorway that was nearly completed, but then the route over to the town of Bony took me through the old village of Nagyhagy (where, incidentally, there was a house for sale whose owners had advertised it hopefully in English and Dutch) on a remote, narrow road which deteriorated into a dusty track before eventually leading me out on to the dangerous road to Bony. After Bony I was faced with Hobson’s choice. Either keep to the road where the fast moving traffic was passing me far too closely for my liking (the drivers seemed to have no concept of waiting behind a cyclist if a vehicle was approaching from the opposite direction) or take an unpromising looking detour over a windy bleak low hill to a track alongside the railway line for a full thirteen kilometres. It was a hot, blustery day and there was no shade. Fed up with the traffic I chose the track. Riding up to the small village where the track began we noticed not only that many of the trees appeared to be dead, but also that the irritatingly bad odour in the air which had been with us since before Bony was not going away. Not a good sign. The first three kilometres alongside the main railway line, were probably the second worst section (the one before Monsorreau on the Loire still easily remains the worst!)  of the entire trip so far, but then for the next ten kilometres the so-called paved road gradually improved, until when I overtook a chap driving a horse and cart just before Acks, the only other person I had seen in thirteen kilometres, the road was almost satisfactory. A reviving, and I must say not only excellent but also very cheap, coffee in the local bar in Acks and I was ready to ignore any Eurovelo 6 diversions and risk the main road into Komaron which, although completely without a cycle piste, was not as bad as I had feared. Katherine and I debated whether or not to ride up to the lake town of Tata, which looked very attractive, but decided that as we were already three days behind schedule we had better not. Komaron is clean and ageeable but rather too full of square, Communist era apartment blocks for my liking. I seemed to have second wind as I hurried out of the town on the road to Eszrtergom  but was not disappointed to find an excellent camping site where, apart from another mad Englishman, who had cycled from the Hook of Holland, we appeared to be the only residents. 

Once again we could watch the sun setting over the Danube. Tomorrow with a bit of luck we will be in Budapest.

87 kms  Total from Schaffhausen 1174 kms     Total from Galway  3082 kms