Day of Rest: Bicycling the Danube

They gave us Wednesday off (I guess that there are a lot of doctors in the group). I woke at 7 or so, got dressed in my biking clothes and headed to breakfast before embarking on my bicycling adventure. My plan was simple: head North along the Danube until I got somewhere interesting. I had a vague notion of visiting the outdoor museum of Soviet-era sculpture, but it was only vague, as the tour books were a bit vague about where it was. The river, on the other hand, I could see. So, after breakfast, I took off.Beautiful day, no wind and the brown Danube (I really never have seen blue in it) to my right. The bike was a mountain bike with thick tires, but it rode well and I had a reasonably well marked path to follow through the city. There were lots of bike commuters. I mostly followed them, although that sometimes led me into uncharted territory away from the river. The good news was that, if I ever felt lost, I just turned right until I found the river again. There’s one stretch of path that is unfinished- perhaps 400 meters on a path through the woods. Otherwise, lovely.
As I went north, I passed a commuter rail station, which reminded me that I could have taken the train to Szentendre and then biked around. There were factories and the ubiquitous Soviet-era apartment blocks, which are in varying degrees of disrepair. Everyone on the trip disparages them, yet none remember that they were built in response to the destruction of World War II, and, white the State was providing them, homelessness was not a problem. I agree that they are eyesores, but then again, Budapest did not have folks sleeping on the streets in the bad old days. No cup is ever entirely empty. At the north end of Budapest, I entered a little towm square, that had not yet opened its shops and restaurants. The Budapest city limit is a small stream feeding the Danube. On the other side, I entered Hungarian vacationland.

Turns out that the river north of the city is where people want to go on vacation. There is a lovely little path running along the coast (to which I was directed by a friendly Hungarian cyclist) with resorts and vacation homes and bars and kayak rental agencies. It was shaded as well, which was really nice. Some burned out Soviet era stuff as well. After that, the trail moved to the top of a levee- good riding, but exposed. The little town of Budakalasz has a lovely little forest path that is narrow, but takes you through the sort of primeval Danubian forest- dense vegetation that is used to being flooded regularly. The trail ended in the aforementioned bit of dirt biking that brought us into the town of Szentendre. I knew that I had arrived somewhere because there was a lot of traffic on the main road, and when I turned up to path, my way was blocked by a bunch of art students who set up their easels on the bike path. After the artists, I found this cute little medieval town with shops and cafes. I decided to stop for a bit, which turned into a two hour ramble.

Szentendre had tacky tourist art and some real craft work, I saw some neat pictures and design in a gallery, looked at handstitched linen tablecloths (almost bought one for our table, but I had no baskets on my bike) and eventually found ********* for Julie. (Sorry, she’s reading this online- no hints) I also had a milkshake for lunch, and visited the Orthodox Church (Serbian Orthodox, but it sounded like Russian chant in there, and the signs were in Cyrillic).  Sat in a café and read for a while, before I decided to head back to Budapest. Nice little town, and would be a good place from which to start a tour of that part of Hungary.

On the ride bike, I picked up parts of the path from which I had deviated on the way up- passed an Hungarian Defence installation complete with tanks, and stopped at a bar along the river for a beer. Also ended up on Elizabeth Island, entering from the north end this time, and exiting the south. The signs said that it was 25 km from Budapest to Szentendre.

The concert people threw us a nice banquet at an old castle on the top of Gellert hill, which has an amazing view of the city. Gypsy music, lights and castles- maybe Budapest is a fairyland. Perhaps.

On to Vienna!