Danube Bike Trail – Vienna to Budapest by Bike

Following a stop over day in Vienna we continued our trip along the Danube.

Day seven was an easy ride into Bratislava, under 50 miles. After a joint departure from Vienna we separated to cycle solo, but we soon caught up with each other again. There wasn’t much scope for varying the route along this section.

Once again we got caught out a little with our campsite. We could see a tent symbol on the map but because of the large scale it wasn’t possible to see just which road it was on. I made the best estimate I could and set the gps to navigate us there. On arrival, we could see the site but it was at the other side of a lake. We cycled very carefully along a dirt track round the lake, which was quite a tourist attraction if somewhat dirty around the shore, and ended up at a grubby bar. The site was a lot nearer but out of reach beyond a wire fence which extended into the lake – it may have been possible to carry the bikes into the water and around the fence but I decided against this due to the potential for accidents and losing my camera underwater. The only roadway that would have got us there was a motorway and there was no cycle facility. We had no choice but to retrace our steps round the dirt track and go the opposite way around the lake, along some very dodgy areas, to find the site entrance.

Once there it turned out to be something of a culture shock. The buildings were old and poorly maintained, the site was noisy, there was a dodgem car fairground ride near the tent space, and we felt pretty uneasy about camping there; but after the trial of actually getting there we knew we would be staying the night.

On day eight, we cycled just 36 miles and settled early at Kisbodak, on a site in a clearing in a wood. The shower was an outdoor affair, just a three-sided timber fence and a tarpaulin for a door, and solar heating. Despite the all day heat the water was cool.

The following morning, we had a detour into Mosonmagyaróvár to see the castle and town. The building may have started out as a castle but now looked more like a municipal building. Interesting enough but hardly worth a couple of hours extra cycling. So far we had cycled for three days on the Danube Bike Trail and barely seen the river; we wondered if we had to wait until Budapest. We continued to Győr, and found a municipal site on the edge of the town. It looked as though it might have been a repeat of the Bratislava experience, which we couldn’t face again, so we cycled back into the town and booked into a small hotel instead. At least we weren’t restricted to three minutes of hot water in the shower.

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Day ten brought us no sight of the river either, until we arrived at camp. We passed through Tata and rested a while, in preparation for a big climb just out of the town. At the top of the hill, the Danube was at last in sight. This was to be the last climb of the trip. We camped at the best site so far, with excellent facilities on the shores of the Danube.

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Our view of the Danube was to be short lived as on day eleven, the trail moved inland again until we reached the Mária Valéria Bridge at Esztergom. We kept our view of the river for most of the rest of the day, including waiting a while for a ferry crossing to the North side at Szob. We returned to the South side to get to our target site at Tahitótfalu.

Our final day was a leisurely 26 miles to Budapest, following the path along the Danube to the city centre. We made our way to the excellent “Biker Camp”, a small site in an urban garden with all facilities.

The next day we had a look around Budapest before our departure.

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