May 29, 2013
Szentendre to Budapest 31km, total 1248 km
Astra Apartments €87 ($116) per day,
   Two-bedroom apartment with 
   living room/kitchen combo, sleeps 6 (no breakfast) 

 
First Stop, Szentendre

After a delicious breakfast, which even included crepes, we set off along the tree canopied path next to the Donau which had steady recreational cycling traffic.
 
Three km from Panzio 100, we landed in the cobble-stoned center of Szentendre. It was still early. In the narrow main street leading up to the small center square, shopkeepers, of the many souvenir shops, were busying themselves with setting up their beckoning displays. Lots of embroidery work, crystal, painted woodwork, T-shirts, mugs and key rings etc.
 

We parked our loaded bikes on town square and took off in different directions to explore. Dave stayed back to keep an eye on our bikes. We reassembled just in time to move the bikes to the museum before a drizzle began. It was a good time to be indoors.

 
Emotion, Laughter and Wonder!

We all went inside to visit the Margit Kovác Ceramic Museum where we spent more time than we expected, admiring the amazing art of this gifted artist. Her work conjures up emotion, laughter and wonder ! Five years before she died in 1977, she donated works to the State and the museum was established. In 2010 more items were donated from her estate and the museum now chronicles her professional life which fills eleven rooms here. Photography was not permitted inside. But the website has images of the collection.

http://www.kovacsmargit.com/gallery 

It was truly a worthwhile stop.


   
Silly Marzipan Sculptures

Next we dove into the Szabo Marzipan Museum, a fun and much shorter visit. Lady Di, Michael and a host of others are commemorated in Marzipan sculptures. Junko said she felt it was wrong to see these kinds of displays just after the serious and compelling creations of the great Margit Kovác. She is probably right.



 
Mosquitos for Lunch
 
And by 11:30 we got on the trail again. For 9 km, we stayed in forested area along the Donau. We found what we thought was a perfect tree shaded spot, next to some guys fishing, for a picnic. No sooner had we pulled out our sandwiches, the breeze stopped and we began being attacked by huge mosquitoes. Only Junko and Hiro were prepared when they covered their faces and necks with anti-mosquito bandannas. We had the fastest lunch ever, no lingering here.


 
 
The Buda of Budapest

The Duna (Donau) cycle and pedestrian way passes many small eateries with simple to elaborate seating as you get closer to Budapest. Beer and wine are popular here as well. The trail took us away from the river into urban jungle and soon the impressive historic buildings of central Budapest came into view, the cloudy sky adding to this amazing sight. Buda is on the mountain side of the river and Pest is on the flat (north) left side of the rivers. Across the wide river, we could see the massive Parliament Building, the largest building in Hungary, and Basilica on the Pest side of the Donau. Above us on our right, perched the Citadel and the Palace on the mountainous Buda side.


 
The Pest of Budapest

We passed under the famous Chain Bridge which was the first bridge to connect Buda with Pest and the second bridge across the Donau, the first being the stone bridge we saw in Regensburg  
.....I could see immediately that this is a place one could spend months to discover.

We crossed the Green Bridge to the Pest embankment toward the Synagogue which is near our apartment.. We had not received a confirmation of the apartment we had booked. We knew the street but not the house or building number. And no phone # either. We had a guaranteed booking so it behooved us to find it. Instead of all of us pedaling through the heavy traffic in search, four of us stayed put while Dave went in search of the apartment. He found the street easily enough, just 3-blocks long. The map pin on smartphone was inaccurate. He walked his bike up and down the street. He asked at a travel agent and another business. No one had heard of the apartments and there were no signs to be seen. He looked in vain again on the internet for a booking confirmation. Nada.

 
A good hour later, he returned none the wiser. It was nearing 5 pm now. We went in search of an alternative. We walked in tour agency that had "accommodation booking" sign up. But when we went inside to inquire they told us they only book Greek tours. The accommodation sign was not theirs.

I spotted an "Apartment Carmen" sign and a local guy stopped to help me ring the right bell at list of occupants of apartment block. The place looked old and bare bones, we didn't expect much. Junko and I went up to take a look. A small elevator took us to the 3rd floor. And friendly young woman who spoke decent English showed us several older, but clean ensuite rooms. Single €29 and double for €35. And the bikes were okay to bring up and store behind reception area.

Dave, in mean time, had gotten help. The helpful guy simply googled the phone number for Astra Apartments and dialed it. A woman answered. She had been waiting for us. With the proper address, it would be easy to find. (After we left Budapest, we discovered the booking confirmation was in my spam folder)

 
Apartment Life

I canceled the "Carmen" place. We were a stone's throw away from our apartment. We were let in and one by one moved the bikes up to our third floor apartment. Dave and I ended up with largest room with small balcony and stored four of the bikes. Junko and Hiro had small room with 2 single beds and Yolan slept on the couch in the living / kitchen area. The kitchen was provided with quirky 2-burner electric cooktop, oven, microwave, water cooker, toaster, pots, pans, dishes and good size fridge and even a small washing machine. The only drawback was that there was only one toilet, which luckily was separate from the shower/bath room. We made it work.

First we ran several loads of wash. Large drying racks were provided and soon the place looked like a Chinese laundry.

Yolanda dropped her rental bike off at a shop near the Opera House from where it will be returned to Vienna. The drop-off fee was €50 so it worked out much better than taking it back to Vienna by herself. She booked a flight to Holland leaving on Saturday.


 
Addicted to Hummus  

We went to supermarket and stocked our fridge with breakfast foods. We had planned on bringing home dinner too but this Tesco does not have the great deli we expected. Hummus Heaven (actually called the Hummus Bar) is a few doors down from our apartment. This was our first of many visits to this restaurant while we were in Budapest. But we’ll write more about that later.
_________________________________


 References: 

....1) The Danube Cycle Way; Donaueschingen to Budapest by John Higginson
... 2) Bikeline Maps & Guides; Donau-Radweg 1, (5 books in the series)

Our plan in a nutshell; 2900 total kilometers at 50 km per day - 2 days riding for 1 day off for a total of 58 riding days & 90 total days - April to July, 2013 :)