The day was already heating up as we prepared to leave a little before 9am, and we were soon in open countryside, passing oil pumps interspersed amongst the wind turbines. We made a brief stop in the town of Oberweiden which had some interesting sculptures made from twigs. continued...
I had booked us into the earliest possible city and castle walking tour, as it was forecast to reach 36 degrees by mid afternoon. Whilst waiting, I explored the square with its fountain and old town hall. Once the group gathered, it turned out we had a choice of two tours starting at the same time. After a quick discussion, we shifted to the 20th Century Tour which covered the stories of the Slovak people over the past 100 years, led by Jakub, who had created the tour and was passionate about the recent history of his country. continued...
We had left our bikes locked in the courtyard thinking they were secure. Unfortunately, someone rifled through our top bags and repair kits and helped themselves to things of interest. They took the repair kit off G’s hire bike, and the first aid kit from Si’s bike, as well as some tools in his top tube bag. Nothing was removed from my bike – the toilet paper stored in the top tube bag apparently not of interest. continued...
With a shorter ride planned, we took some time to explore Gyor and picked up a map from the tourist information centre. We started our tour at Gyor’s main square with the Esterhazy Palace, now an art and historical museum, Iron Stock House and the Church of St Ignatius. The Column of the Virgin Mary in the centre of the square was erected in 1686 to commemorate the recapture of Buda from the Turks. continued...
A quick check on bakery opening times found that bakeries didn’t open in Slovakia on Sunday mornings. We had decided to stay on the Slovakian side of the Danube, so detoured via the supermarket to pick up morning tea pastries and bread rolls for lunch. continued...
With a long day ahead of us, we were out early, detouring to the bakery to ensure we had supplies. We had decided to stay on the Slovakian side of the Danube as the cycle path was meant to be better and quieter, with most of the towns being on the Hungarian side. continued...
As G only had one day to spend in Budapest, we wanted to make sure we saw all the highlights. We booked the All in One in Budapest walking tour which seemed to offer the broadest range of sites in Pest. continued...
G was out by 9am to head to the station to catch the train to Vienna. We followed more slowly, though allowing enough time to help G on the train and wave goodbye. Unfortunately, when I tried to board the tram, I was unable to open the ticketing app. It turned out that I had lost internet connectivity. This was resolved in the short term by hotspotting to Si’s phone so we could at least catch the next tram. continued...
We were due to leave to the airport just after midday so we packed our bags and left them in the AirBnb as we had arranged a lift with Melinda. Knowing we didn’t have a lot of time, we walked the short distance to the Mika Tivadar Secret Museum, located under the Mika Hotel. continued...