The Lads, The Pest, Passau and the rest

The Lads, The Pest, Passau and the rest

If you want to see what you need for a bike tour, please check out my Bike Touring Checklist blog here.

Plan

This blog is about a 10 day trip with 4 friends. The dogs of war as I call them. Jan(Jannowitzbrucke), Damien(Tripple D), and Arron(Hot Rod). Day-cent folk. The plan was to cycle from Passau to Budapest. We followed the eurovelo 6 bike route.

LFG

It all started by taking regional trains all day on a Friday from Berlin to Passau, it took the whole day. We left it way too late (no surprise there) to book an ICE train so we reported to regional trains. We took about 5 different trains, each taking around 2 hours and changing between one train and another train was a hassle. We were always 5 minutes away from missing the next train. In some stations, the lifts were not working properly so we had to lift our bikes up and downstairs so we could make the next train. It's like something you'd see in a green party sponsored strong man competition, 4 guys lifting bikes laden with pannier bags and sprinting up several flights of stairs. I had actually injured my leg a few weeks ago and this heaving lifting caused it to flare up again, badly. I thought I might have to pull out of the trip. The pain was that bad, but, stupidly/sluggishly I went on.

We arrive late in the evening in Passau and hit the road straight away. About halfway from Passau to our first campsite, just over the Austrian border, it started to rain quite badly. Along with my busted leg, I was now soaked to the bone. Honestly, I was feeling pretty bad at this point. Not a great start.

The first campsite was a good experience. The lady who ran it let us stay in a building overlooking the hills and river, saving us the bother of setting up our tents on the wet ground. This was a welcomed gesture. Damien cooked that night and we had our first beers of the trip. In the morning both Damien and I rose from our slumber at the exact same time, both sitting upright, we laughed at each other.

Soon after we hit the road, we stopped for some coffee and sandwiches. The man behind the counter had an Irish surname, his great-great-grandfather (or something) came from somewhere on the island. I'm sure there was Kerry Gold in the sandwiches.

I did notice on the train yesterday that Jan had a nice clean white mask on. I wondered how long it would stay white on this trip. Long story short, I didn't have to wait long. Jan's spilled his first cup of coffee all over the table and mask. It was a sign from the bike touring gods.. don't expect things to stay clean!! Indeed, some days later on in the trip, my instant coffee opened in my bag got all over my sleeping bag mattress! The shame!! Still, the man in the shop must have felt sorry for Jan and gave him a free coffee for this trouble. Another nice gesture.

Soon after we left the coffee shop, the valley got narrower and the hills higher and wider, the path runs right beside the river. Honestly, it's beautiful. What makes it even better is knowing some history about the river. The Ancient Greeks navigated up the Danube from the Black Sea as far as the Iron Gate, Roman warships used to patrol the Danube, a Mongol army followed the Danube, it's incredible to think so many great cultures were traveled along this path. But now, the present is you... and a coffee-stained white mask.

After a few days of cycling, just as you pass (Aggstein castle)[https://www.ogham-stone.com/marker/aggstein-castle] on your right and (Bacharnsdorf)[https://www.ogham-stone.com/marker/bacharnsdorf] on your left, you'll end up going passing through Spitz. This is a beautiful little town. I've never really seen a town covered in vines before. I was impressed. Seeing as how we are in wine country, why not actually go to a vineyard? Well, that's what we did. After pitching up our tents, we rocked up to one 7k out of the river. We thought the further out we go, the less posh it would become. That logic did not stand up to scrutiny. This place was posh. We were told that there were no tables free (We could clearly see tables free) but we could wait. We waited. We asked could we drink some wine while we waited. They say sure. It was a game of chicken, 4 smelly cyclists against the staff of the vineyard. They eventually caved in and let us sit in the same area as the big wigs. We won. We ordered some food and wine. I resisted the temptation to order a beer. The food was delicious. The wine, even better.

We decided not to go into the city center of Vienna. For some reason, the city is not situated on the main part of the river. Apparently, while the river was vital to the city, floods regularly destroyed infrastructure and led to costly repairs. From the fourteenth century onwards, the Danube gradually moved away from the city. This marked the beginning of 500 years of human intervention to prevent further removal of the river and to preserve the waterway as a vital supply line. Read more about ithere. This was the hardest day cycling. The temperatures were up to 36 degrees.

Bratislava is not situated too far away from Vienna. If you look on the map, you can kind of make out in the distance the mountains surround Bratislava. The road from Vienna to Bratislava is pretty straight and eventually, those mountains make their way to you.

We stayed in an Airbnb when we got to Bratislava. Here, we got a very decent shower and nice comfy beds to sleep on. We also had a chance to wash some clothes. We were all running low on socks and jocks. The host of this apartment gave us a nice tour of the house and explained how things worked. For some reason, he went to great lengths to tell us the code for the adult channel on the TV. All we could do is laugh really. Maybe the next guest will have more use of that service than 4 tired smelly men.

Speaking of jocks, right from the start of this trip, we wanted to go swimming in the Danube every day. Just to refresh after a long day of cycling. Here is a tip for anyone who wants to do this in the future. Don't bring underpants with holes. I won't mention any names... you know who you are. But one time a friend and I got into the water by way of a ladder of a pier. I was the second person in the water. I was laughing with my friend who was also in the water when the third person decided to climb down the later to us. Unbeknownst to him, there was a hole in his underpants. What I saw that day will replace the whales in the nightmares.

Mosquito spray is important if you ever do these kinda trips. We stayed at 1 campsite and in the description of the campsite was 'Beware of Mosquitoes'. Sure I thought, I'll just apply my super strong anti-mosquito spray and all should be fine. Turns out, these were the most aggressive like mosquitoes I've ever seen. They are Roy Keane mosquitos and I'm Alf-Inge Håland. I was a bit quite a few times but I'm sure if I had not had that super strong repellent on me, I would have died.

There were just 3 more days cycling Bratislava to Budapest. I'll never forget the first day after Bratislava. It was the flattest, smoothest, longest straight surface I've ever seen. It goes beside the Danube once more and just goes straight for about 100k. Super east ride but boring as hell. Once we started crossed the bridge in Esztergom, very close to an old Roman fort tokod, things began to get interesting again. Hungarians are slightly crazy people. We stayed about 70k outside of Budapest in a campsite called 5billion stars camping. This so far was the nices campsite. We went from well organized expensive campsites in Austria, to find anywhere you can in Hungry. To be honest, I like the Hungarian set up more. People were walking around with axes chopping up any wood they find for fires in the evening. You wouldn't see that apocalyptic type attitude in Austria.

Once we arrive in Budapest, we cycled up to the bridge and our journey came to an end. We asked a few people to take pictures of us. Aaron exclaimed to these people that we cycled all the way from Germany. I don't think they understood him correctly because they just responded with 'You are welcome!!'. We all laughed. A good way to end the trip.

Still, the final stretch in Budapest was a strange one for me. Honestly, I thought before that I would be super happy to reach the destination, but I found myself with a heavy heart because cycling has come to an end. There is something addictive about bike touring. Maybe it's being out in nature, away from the normal hustle and bustle, but I didn't want it to end. We all said we could of just kept going. We had everything we needed to travel for a year with us. We looked at the map and eyed up Bucharest with envy.

We still had 2 more days ahead of us. Let's make the most of it. We went out that night but I found myself slightly tired so only managed a few pints. Our last day in Budapest, I tried to go sightseeing but ended up sleeping the whole day. I didn't see much of the city but I know I'll be back sometime in the future so not too disappointed. In the evening, we all went for some nice food at the Hungarikum Bisztró, and to finish the day, some cards.

It's worth noting that Aaron has yet to win any game of Oh Hell on this trip. Tomorrow is the day we get the train back to Berlin. Aaron has the whole day to try to win once. He didn't manage to win once during the trip. How embarrassing.