Heading home via Vienna and Hong Kong.

Cake and coffee.

Esterhazaytorte

Bag lady
.. Wien Hauptbahn
After gloriously sunny 24-27 degree days, it is finally raining in Vienna.

Bike Beeeze Budapest City Tour

Breakfast?

Its no wonder we chose self catering over a continental breakfast when we could.
First stop on our sightseeing Budapest day, was Szent Stevens Cathedral.

Next, even though we had biked across town yesterday we were still a little bemused about bike road rules and safety so today we treated ourselves to a local guide to learn a little about the city.

Starting point...
Anna, our first guide, gave us a quick Hungarian history lesson.
"There was a war. We lost."
...apparently this was repeated throughout their history. Hungarians all proudly claim descent from the Mongol hoardes of Ghenghis Khan.

Our group included 2 Brits and 4 Toronto Canadians. Anna is on the right in black singlet and pink pants.

Heros square, where Anna gave our history lesson. The Kings of Hungary are between the columns, except for the ones they don't want to remember.
We ended up with 3 tour guides... Anna left us at lunch and Sarah took over, plus we had a trainee accompany us for half the day too.

The Opera... apparently there is some rivalry between Austria and Hungary so this is bigger!

This eclectic collection of building styles... medieval, baroque, roccocco, renaissance...reflects the eclectic collection of rulers Hungary has served under over the years.

Lunch with Sarah

Our group at the baths.

After lunch...goulash soup and bread, we crossed the Danube and pedaled UP hill, on cobblestoned streets, to take in views of the city.

And Saint/King Stephen. Note the halo... All their Kings are Saints...or is it thsy the Saints are Kings...
Coffee and food were our first priority after the tour... with one last bit of shopping at the markets before blatting back over the bridge to get that world famous picture of the second largest Parliament building in the world - yes it is bigger than Austria's. (Westminister is the biggest.)

Our final task, before returning to our hotel to pack, was to return the bikes ...

Safely locked under 24 hour surveillance.
Stats:
25km cycled
Total:380km
Steps:11000
Coffee:2
Cakes:0- whoops-how did that happen?
Number of times we crossed the Danube: 4
Shoes purchased:2 more pairs... only one pair each.

Country number Four: Hungary

In case I forgot to mention it anywhere else, one of the exciting things about this trip was the opportunity to visit 4 countries. .. Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary.

They day started with coffee on the deck

Followed by a quick bike trip up hill to the train station where we stocked up for the trip to Budapest.

Where we did a pretty good job of route finding across town from Nyugati station to Keleti station

Budapest Keleti Palyaudvar.

And our hotel for the next two nights.
Time to go shopping

With my 300 000 Hungarian forints!!!

Stats:
Todays kms:8
Total kms: 355
Steps:12000
Pairs of shoes purchased:5
(Laura-3. Me -2)

Bike -less in Bratislava

Breakfast

Well fortified we set out to help our fellow citizens. .
.

Stroll around looking at amazing buildings

And shopping. ..

After a busy afternoon at the Mall... yes shopping just like Sylvia Park, we finally climbed the hill to check out the castle.

Past Dragon snd Finch

Crumbling walls and gates

Gardens

And views

Piratislava

With no biking yesterday we expected to wake early and be on our way in the cool of the day. I wonder if there actually was a cool of the day. We slept later than we thought... but still made the train to Vienna explore office before our 24 hour tickets expired.

I swapped bikes as mine had clicked and clunked since Passau.
Next we ran into road closures for the Vienna marathon.

Leaving Vienna was super challenging. ..keep the river on one side and head into the sun doesn't work when there are canals and islands and flood plains and dikes.

Aufwiedersen Vienna.
And then there was the "nature park"... the one on our right where everyone was wearing their birthday suits and one on our left with lots of trails and wetlands and board walks and cyclists. .. so that's where we thought we should be....
Ww met such a lot of kind people who tried to give us directions... too many directions at once... hours later, almost back at the nature park, we stopped for coffee and cake...

Then pedalled and pedalled with almost no photo stops...

Getting quite confused with the directions, but following other equally vague tourists... over a very long 2 km bridge. Another cyclist fell just ahead of us so Laura helped her while I rode ahead to let her group know... it was a very long bridge to walk!
It was getting later and we still had to negotiate cycling into a city... and a new country, so with one more fuel stop

We made the final charge into Bratislavia and the Botel Marina.

With views of the castle

And a superb goulash with dumplings and potato pancakes. ..

Vienna

Our first DIY breakfast beat some of the Hotel ones... we had stocked up at a convenient supermarket.
First stop on our 24 hour train pass...

Schonbrunn Palace
Next we are off to the city centre to see the Opera... building and behind scenes tour...

Opulent ceilings, grand staircases, mirrors and red velvet...

Then it was time for shopping. ..

Cake... Birthday anyone?

Shoes...

Window shopping. ..

Churches

Shaded alleys

And of course icecream...

Stats:
0 km cycled
Total: 263km
Steps: 20000