You is a cat(fish)

After spending almost a month in Hungary the longest phrase we learned is good night, which can be spelled phonetically as “you is a cat”. After Budapest we noticed more fish on the menu, so our inside joke with Robbie and Jessica was to constantly say “you is a catfish”, hilarious I know; maybe the heat wave is melting our brains.

Another thing I should mention is that Hungarians love peppers of all types, which they call paprika (fresh or powder form) - we probably consumed two peppers a day by eating them fresh or cooked into all food. At stage in the trip our body odour is kinda like a roasted bell pepper.

June 27 - biked 30 km from Hercegszántó to Mohács. The guesthouse we ended up staying at in Hercegszántó was awesome (Locomotive Hotel). The owner, Marinka, cooked us dinner and hung out drinking sangria. Marinka’s sister lives in Penticton, BC, so she was excited to have Canadians stay.
June 28 - biked 39 km from Mohács to Baja. Said our farewells to Robbie and Jessica, who were taking the train to Bratislava. We were very grateful to have them fly out to join us for the last leg of our trip. Without them I think we would have lacked in motivation. Jessica was all smiles as usual and kept the music going on her phone while we pedalled each day. Robbie aroused some good debate and told jokes as usual, which is always fun after a few beers.
June 29 - Rosie’s 1st birthday!! We celebrated by giving her a chocolate cake, which Patti ate most of. Rosie grew a lot during this trip and now understands a lot. We think she’ll be waking soon. Took the train from Baja to Budapest. Very easy to get the train back with zero issues. Biked our last 6 km to the hotel, which puts the final biking odometer at 2,055 km. Got bike boxes no problem and packed up. Caught a fireworks show from our hotel balcony just before heading to bed.
June 30 - last day in Hungary before heading home, chilling out.

Forgotten wheel and passport

Woke up on June 19 with Jess and Robbie magically in the tent next door. Robbie started building the bikes, but found no front wheel in the box for his bike - was in Ireland. Meant to take off from Budapest that day, but stayed another day to allow for wheel purchase. Fast forward to June 26 on our way out of Mohács Hungary we decided to lighten our load by leaving our camping gear at an apartment. Unfortunately, our passports were safely tucked into our camping gear, so we weren’t allowed into Serbia - hmm, ah well. We made it entirely through the Hungarian portion of the EuroVelo 6 and had only planned a short loop into Serbia and Croatia - not a huge loss. Robbie called it an omen, plus the house we had booked in Serbia wrote us to say the house had recently been flooded and the mosquitos were rampant. Maybe we were better off to stay in Hungary. Trail since Budapest had mostly been on grassy dikes of various quality from half meter tall grass, cut grass, single track gravel, double track gravel, to paved. Overall it has been better than expected.

June 19 - layover day in Budapest. Super loud/live polka music at the campground until 11 pm. Was cool for the first couple songs, then wanted it to stop.
June 20 - biked 51 km from Budapest to Ráckeve. Camped at a 10/10 campground - best on the whole trip (Aqualand). The campground had medicinal baths, playground, kids pool, swim-up pool bar, water slides, full kitchen, washers, etc. The paved path leaving Budapest was heavily overgrown to the point of single track.
June 21 - biked 35 km from Ráckeve to Szalkszentmárton. Trail followed a bumpy / grassy dike. Stayed at a funky hotel called “hotel, fitness, burger”
June 22 - biked 28 km from Szalkszentmárton to Dunaföldvár. Found the first major error in the guidebook; the guide said we’d have to bike with heavy traffic over bridges into Dunaföldvár, but it turned out to be a great bike path separated from traffic.
June 23 - biked 45 km from Dunaföldvár to Kalocsa. Stayed at a super nice hotel with tasting room from local wineries. On our way to Kalocsa we stopped at an amazing coffee shop in Dunapataj; we bought 2 cappuccinos, 1 milk steamer and 2 slices of cake for $6 cad, so cheap.
June 24 - biked 49 km from Kalocsa to Baja. Stayed at an English school slash guesthouse which was very nice and cheap (Bristol Apartment). The owner was from England and was some kind of celebrity from putting a jet engine on a shopping cart. Nice guy and shared his home made palinka (distilled fruit alcohol)
June 25 - biked 41 km from Baja to Mohács. Met a young French couple biking with their two kids aged 2 and 4; they had a very similar setup with a cruiser brand trailer and bucket seat for the older kid. One very smart thing they did was run a string over the handlebars of the trailer a few times back and forth to create a drying line. Biking with kids you’re always hand washing laundry and looking for ways to dry.
June 26 - biked 36 km from Mohács to Hercegszanto. Meant to head for Serbia, as explained above. Approaching the Serbian border there was a significant military presence with about four guys carrying AK47s every 100 m for several kilometres. We’ve been told the military is in place to guard against illegal immigration. A bit shocking to see for Canadians, but reminded Robbie of Northern Ireland in the late 90s.

Lake Balaton

On June 11 we arrived in Budapest as a team with Steph and John! Arriving via bicycle  was an amazing experience  - the Parliament buildings stood out on the east bank and grew as we approached; although not entirely the same, it reminded me of my first time going to Dawson City with Kaya by canoe in 2011. Arriving by human power gives you a very different perspective than getting in fast by car or train, etc. Budapest reminded me of Vienna, with tall / densely packed ornate buildings and trendy shops. We only stayed one night before taking the train to Lake Balaton (the Hungarian Sea) for a tour around the coastline which is just over 200 km. Lake Balaton is very shallow (avg 3.3 m deep) and is excellent for swimming with kids. The water is light green and was very warm during our time there. The north side is more mountainous and known for its wineries; whereas the south bank is flat and known for its resorts. Felt great to swim everyday in the 30 degree weather. About half the beaches (strands) require you to pay an entry fee, but we were able to find all free beaches that were recommended by locals or that we found by chance. Steph and John also came to the lake, but decided to not bike around and chill out. Although not entirely needed, we purchased a biking guidebook for the lake, which was in English and Hungarian - guide books for the lake are easy to find at bookshops in Budapest. There are several tours in the guide book that take you to nearby sites away from the lake and it looks like you could spend a fair bit of time tackling them all, but we elected to tour the somewhat flat coastline - which we definitely recommend if you’re touring with kids and are nearby on the EuroVelo 6 route.
June 10 - biked 49 km from Esztergom to Tahitótfalu
June 11 - biked 39 km from Tahitótfalu to Budapest
June 12 - train from Budapest to Balatonfured
June 13 - biked 52 km from Balatonfured to Badacsonytomaj. Nice clean campground. Passed many vineyards and tasting rooms. Trail is in excellent condition with up/down hilly sections.
June 14 - biked 38 km from Badacsonytomaj to Keszthely. Had a great dinner at an American style pub (Johns Pub - pulled pork). Decent campsite. Keszthely was settled in Roman times and is the biggest and most culturally impressive town on the lake. Big triathlon happening the morning we left, so had to navigate closed roads.
June 15 - biked 50 km from Keszthely to Balatonlelle. Getting tired of camping in hot / buggy weather - booked an a/c apartment.
June 16 - layover day in Balatonlelle. Swimming/beach day. Patti now has two squirt guns and a beach ball - she likes getting us with the guns at close range.
June 17 - biked 47 km from Balatonlelle to Siófok. Met up with Steph and John, who had been there already for 2 nights. Cooked a big group dinner and kids got to play together 😀
June 18 - biked 80 km from Siófok to Tihany, took a ferry across to Szántód and looped back to Siófok to complete the tour of the lake. Did this section on my own without gear as a Father’s Day gift. Said goodbye to Steph and John and took the train back to Budapest to camp at Haller campground - nice place, but super loud. Biked another 16 km to get there. Jess and Robbie flew in that night with bikes to join us, woohoo!

Other people are doing it

Met a young family from Anchorage on June 7 in Komarom (Pete, Emily and their kids Sam (10) and Mia (2)). They had the same beat up / sun baked chariot and were just as surprised to meet us. They were touring  from Prague to Budapest. They had cool Surly bikes with couplers that allowed them to break them down for flying. It was cool to swap stories and challenges about touring with kids. The cool thing about their setup was that Sam was on his own bike with a decent sized handle bar bag. Camped again with them in Esztergom before wishing them a good rest of their trip.
May 29 - biked 40 km from Krems to Tulln. Kaya had a slow-motion tip over and busted her left brake lever. Luckily it was the front brake and her and Patti were ok to keep going.
May 30 - biked 40 km from Tulln to Vienna. The trail on the north side was flooded at Langenzersdorf, so we had to take a detour into town - all that rain finally caught up with the trail.
May 31 - layover day in Vienna. Went to 4 bike shops to get Kaya’s brake lever fixed. One shop had the part, but nobody had availability to fix. Did it myself and turned out to be pretty quick and easy, plus I put new bar end shifting cable and handle bar wrap - good as new. Staying at the Meininger Hotel, which is kind of like a hostel with private rooms; great place and had washer and dryer. After touring for a month we stunk and all our clothes needs a serious wash. Ambur Braid (Kaya’s childhood friend from Terrace) flew in from Frankfurt for a ladies night with Kaya and Steph - Ambur sings Opera in Frankfurt and is in the middle of rehearsals - pretty cool she had the time to meet up.
June 1 - layover day in Vienna. Went to the Schloss Schönbrunn place - Maria Theresa’s palace. Pretty crazy garden with massive fountain. Went to Mumok museum of modern art - cool vertigo exhibit, but other than that I’m not sophisticated enough to appreciate modern art. Steph and John went for an opera date night while we watched the boys.
June 2 - layover day in Vienna. Date night with Kaya and I - ate amazing Indian food, drinks on the canal and live jazz club - great night.
June 3 - biked 40 km from Vienna to Petronell-Carnuntum (old provincial Roman Capital).
June 4 - biked 50 km from Petronell-Carnuntum to Rajka. We had breakfast in Austria, lunch in Slovakia (Bratislava - the capital), and dinner in Hungary.
June 5 - biked 60 km from Rajka to Gyor.
June 6 - biked 60 km from Gyor to Komarom. Rough road on clayey farmers field and sandy back roads. People have been much more friendly in Slovakia and Hungary. Food is also much better. The only thing is the trail is not as manicured, but that’s ok.
June 7 - layover day in Komarom at thermal bath campground. Felt great to soak our muscles.
June 8 - biked 57 km from Komarom to Esztergom. 28 deg! Getting hard to keep kids cool.
June 9 - layover day in Esztergom. Street festival with food vendors and live music!