2nd day: via Austria

Following a good breakfast we pack our belonging onto the motorcycles. THe weather is overcast but dry. After riding a while we bank the bike on curvy roads up the Scheiben pass north of bayrisch Eisenstein. After a short stop up there we continue passing the Arber-cable-way and Lake Arber. Later we follow the pass of the Regen river. Soon we reach Zwiesel on national road B11 where we need to find a gas station. It turns out there one only at the opposite end of town. Stephan needs a coffee as well.
Some hairpins near Flanitzmühle offer an opportunity for me to speed ahead, stop, and take a few photographs of the other two riders. We pass the border into Austria near Schwarzenberg. The old custombuilding still stand in the center of the road. Today it is abandoned and useless at an inner-EU border. After a short break we enjoy the Austrian road, which are perfektly built and well adapted to the hilly scenery. The tarmac offers excellent grip and we let our bike fly. I try to buy the "Pickerl" which is how the call the stickers in Austria which we have to pay and display because of the highwaytoll. But I am directed towards the next ÖAMTC-shop in Freistadt. We get there around noon and the town is a single gigantic traffic jam. We buy three stickers for a ten-days-period. Despite our different plan we follow the B310 direction Linz in order to avoid to re-enter the congested town. But traffic is a hassle there as well. So the GPS is quickly being re-programmed and we now head east. For the first time we cross the mark of 1000 meters altitude.

Soon we pass down a nice series of hairpins offering a beautifull view toward the Ranna castle. In Spitz we reach the Danube river. It is a scenic winery town in the Wachau region. The next photostop is in the equally beautifull town of Dürrnstein. Vehicles pass the town in a tunnel underneath which is obligatory. After we passed Krems a town which I already know from childhood days, we follow a boring highway heading towards Vienna. We start looking for a place to sleep in Kirchberg. We pass several villages with long rows of single-store buildings al places with their roofs parallel alongside the street. This architectural pattern often is found in Hungary as well. Finally we check in at Pension Christine in Grossweikersdorf, a comfortable and resonably priced place.

Tag 3: to Esztergom

Today we will enter Hungary. First we head toward Vienna. We pass a series of automatic radar speed detectors on our way. More, we will be targeted at least twice by mobile speed controls with policemen pointing their laserguns at us. By the time we reach Vienna, our speed will be checked at least fifteen times. In general I respect speed limits but this permanent observance by austrian authorities is beyond what I feel comfortable with. I decide to avoid the Vienna area in the future.
As soon as we cross the Danube we run into a fat trffic jam. We barely manage to escape through an exit right at the tail of the congestion. We manage to find our way through the harbour area of Vienna and avoid the delay. While we briefly halt alongside the road, a guy on a bicycle returning from fishing stops to offer all kinds of hints. We don't need any, but nevertheless we think it is a friendly experience.
We follow the road B9 towards Carnuntum. There are a few traces left from waht used to be a huge town during the times of the roman empire. First we approach the amphitheater, a huge arena. We stop for a visit on foot. There are rest of a roman bath, a roman villa and a triumphal arc called Heidentor. We approach the arc with our motorcycles. In the meantime the heat damps all enthusiasm to do excursions on foot. After a short detour to Deutsch-Altenburg we approach the hungarian border near Nickelsdorf. There is a special check point north of the highway for walkers, bikers and motorcycle riders. This check point is sign-posted and helps us to avoid the main check-point where trucks pile up. In seconds we pass the check point without problems and approach the gas station on the westbound side of the highway. It is here, where we buy the "matrica", the hungarian sticker for the higway toll. There is a low price version valid for ten days. The guy at the gas station speaks german and patiently performes the registration procedure for us. This is a time consuming procedure an a few drivers who want to pay their gas bill will have to wait a while because of us. Finally we are done. We also look for a cash dispenser to buy our firt hungarian currency, the forints. However there is none here.
We succeed to get the money in Magyarovar. From there we want to follow th motorway M1. We try to quickly reach Györ. But the entry ramp is closed because of on-going construction work. So we have to return to the city. This offers an oportunity for me to stop at the train station and shoot a photograph of an old steam engine. I had already noticed the thing when we passed here before on our way out. Now, we decide for yet another stop in a Restaurant. I had the intention to go to a bakery which was sign-posted in german language, but due to missing language skill we end up in the retaurant next door. They do offer coffee as well and they ofer an excellent "Palatschinken". This hungarian specialty is a kind of a sweet omelette, which often comes with cream and nuts.
Finally we enter the highway to Györ and Tata about 15 miles further east. I set the GPS to point me towards the next target which is Pusztamorot. The navigation system leads us along tiny roads through little village up into the mountains. There is less heat here and the road leads through shady forests most of time. In the small village of Tardos there is an old fire pump on a horse carriage on display.
A tiny road leads uphill to Pusztamarot, which is basically a piece of lawn with a memorial in the center in the neighborhood of an old farmhouse. The final piece of road is unpaved. Many families are here to picknick on the lawn, enjoying the cool air in this altitude.
In order to avoid the unpaved road with our heavy baggage we turn the bikes around and head down to the river Danube which we follow towards Esztergon. The road, however, passes through a highly industrialized area. The city of Esztergom on the other hand is very attractive. Its skyline is dominated by the cathedral, a citadel and the so-called king's palast.
Easily we find a place to spend the night at Ria Panzio, a small hotel. Besides the pleasant rooms there is a place to store the motorcycles behind closed gates. After we changed dresses we visit the cathedral and the castle hill. The view across the city and the river is fantastic. Slovakia is on the opposite banks of the Danube. The river forms the border between Hungary and Slovakia here.
A small stairway leads us down from the castle hill to the "small Danube", a dead branch of the river which is being used as a marina for yachts and boats. There are pubs and cafes along the waterfront. We grab a chair in front of a cafe on the central square of the city and enjoy a beer. We watch families with their kids playing, plenty of swallows chasing insects in the air in the evening light. Their nest are glued in between baroque ornaments of the builings around the square.
We walk to Csülök Csarda for dinner. This is a recommendation from the lonely planet guide book. What they don't tell you, you need to sign up in a waiting list to get a table for dinner. Luckily, we meet two cyclists who checked in into the same hotel who offer us to join their table. The two ride their bicycle from Bratislava to Budapest along the river Danube. Together we enjoy the evening. The food is very good, the service speaks german with an hungarian akzent often heard in old german movies. A wonderful evening!

Africa Twin Club Hungary

Yesterday we have already contacted Tibor via SMS and made up for a meeting. Around half past ten he picks us up at hour hotel. His friends who join the tour are: Balázs and Orsi, plus György on a BMW GS.
Five Twins and a GS first head for the next gas station. Next we head for Dobogokö, a high peak with a view. Tibor leads the pack directly to the summit. Unfortunately, the weather is slghtly overcast. The view isn't quite as far as it could be. Next stop is the small village of Piliszentkereszt. We wait next to a little shop for there is yet another Africa Twin joining us. She belongs to Zsolt.
The now even larger convoi dashed through tiny roads until we reach the so-called rocket museum. This is one of formerly seventeen site of russian SAM-rockets aqround Budapest. Today you can easily spot those sites using Google Earth. Aside of a mobile rocket ramp plus rocket, there are plenty of Ural-trucks with equipment and antennas, tanks and artillery. The control units of the rockets appear to exhibit analog electronics. There are old-fashioned control-knobs, switches and dials. Some coordinates are hand-written onto the front panels. Everything is open. You can touch the equipment, open boxes and shelfs, no problem. We climb up tanks and trucks and walk the old hangars.

Next we head down to Budapest. Once we survived the traffic bound inwards to the city we aproach the castle hill. A tunnel passes underneath. Once we passed the tunnel we stop next to the tunnel exit at the lower terminal of a cable car running uphill to the castle. Some of us buy a drink or some icecream. There is plenty of time for the traditional group photograph.

We continue passing the famous chain bridge between the formerly two town Buda and Pest. On the opposite bank of the Danube we perform a u-turn to cross the bridge again, now enjoying the famous view of Buda from the side of Pest. We take the road immediately next to the river to head north. Accidentally, we meet yet another member of the Africa Twin Owners Club who come along her in his car. We all stop vis-a-vis the building of the parliament.

Tibor explain to me that the curvy road to ride next is part of a former race track used for uphill racing. Passing Szentendre we reach Visegrad and a view point high above the Danube. It appears there is a BMW convention in the restaurant at the view point. The parking lot is already fulll of bikes. Six Africa Twins showing up here now appear to be provocative. While parking the bike I manage to touch the exhaust pipe with my trousers melting the outer layer of the fabric. Nothing serious as this dress has reached end of lifetime. But the exhaust hasn't been this hot for a long time.

The restaurant Vadaszcsarda Nagyvillam is situated at a fantastic spot. Wemanage to get a large table with beautiful view. The meal is excellent and, given the extraordinary spot, not at all expensive. Especially a soup made from deer may be highly recommended price at about 2.5 Euros. We spent a pleasant afternoon there. While eating and talking we can watch young folks flying downhill along a series of cables. The use iron rolls to hook onto the cables an then dash downhill towards the river. I can't imagine this kind of low tech roller coaster could be legal in Germany.

After dinner we turn our bikes downhill. There will be another fotostop in the hairpins and soon we board the ferry across the Danube. While we buy the tickets the vehicle arives. It does not look terribly convincing to me. It is basically an old barch without motor plus a tugboat attached alongside. Once all bike have boarded the ferry the tug boat starts pushing the barch across the river. As the tugboat has a rudder at her rear only, the need to change position to get the ferry into the proper position for debarkation. To do so, the disconnect the cable and leave the barch floating. Then the tugboat pushed the barch onto the slipway. A quite scary manouver.

Once we are north of the river we need a re-fill and stop at a gas station. Here we say farewell to our hungarian friends and start looking for a hotel in Vac. This town has obviouly seen better days and when we finally discover a hotel I have my doubt whether this is a good one. The lady at the lobby is wearing a somewhat sexy dress. But the rooms are good and the twins find a nice place to park behind a gate. We walk downtown, towards the banks of the Danube and find a good restaurant where we close the day with Palatschinken. The one filled with oranges is highly recommendable. Prejudice of guide books, that food in Hungary is greasy and hard to digest, is definetely proven wrong during this trip. Some more beers and we call it a day.

Matra montains

The night in the hotel was o.k. The breakfast was dissapointing because there was only one kind of bread. This was a variety containing cheese. It doesn't go well with marmelade and jam. But the hotel had a big advantage, there is a motorcycle dealer next door (KTM). So we could buy clothes, new glovesfor Carin, a rain suit for Stephan and new pants for me to replace the melted ones.

Equipped like this we first head west out of Vac along the river to Veroce. There we turn north towards the mountains. From Retsag on we follow small roads heading east. The roads passing trough a large forest provide fresh air, very enjoyable with respect to the general heat. The roads are a little bumpy but easy to ride. There is almost no traffic. The villages show series of long houses. Each house has a long porch at the south side. These buildings are generally placed at a certain distance from the street with a large garden between them and the street.

Soon we reach Hollokö, a world's cultural heritage site. There is the old village plus a castle. From a map at the parking lot we draw the conclusion tha we would need a long march on foot to see thesite. With respect to the heat and to the fact that we hav an appointment with Tibor to meet him at noon in Paszto, we skip the idea. When we arrive in Paszto, Tibor is already waiting for us.

Our guide leads the way through forest and hairpins with great view to Galyatetö. A detour to Kekestetö takes us and our bikes to the highest peak of hungary. Well, the last few meters are actually not open for trafiic, but nobody objects our sportive desire to park our bike at the summit. Next to a memorial there is a TV-tower. Ane scalator provides for a way to climb the tower in a manner suited for people in motorcycle dresses. You can go up for about 2 Euros and enjoy a magnificent view and a coffee as well.

Via Parad we reach the castle ruin Sirokivar. Tibor guides the way to the parking lot under the castle hill.

The empty paring lot has a sign telling us about prking fees. The sign is an obvious hint to times with more tourists. Without hesitation Tibor directs his twin up the paved footpath which leads us steeply directly to the castle's wall. No way we would have walked up eher in this heat. We park the bikes and climb into the castle. The castle is partly contructed of stone walls. Other parts are cut directly out of the rock. The rooms and tunnels in the rock are pleasantly cool.

As we decide to leave and start the engines, Stephan decide again to practice how to drop a bike without damaging it. Carin has some doubts about the steep decent on a bumpy footpath. This is understandible because even on level ground only the tips of her feet touch the floor. Africa twins are heavy and tall. But she overcomes her hesitance and masters the descent without incidence.

Next we approach the city of Eger. At a gas station north of the city we meet a couple on a Susuki DRbig to join us. They are Gábor and Adrienn of the hungarian DRbig Club. The two clubs often ride in common excursions.

We head north now to Belapatfalva. The place is famous for the best-preserved romanesque church in Hungary. However, we pass through a gap at the end of the parking lot and use a steep road up to a quarry. The white rocks of the quarry are visible above the village of Belapatfalva from far away.

The road is paved with tarmac for most parts but a final piece is unpaved and ends at a rockfall. We halt and enjoy the magnificent view. On our way down we detour to a rock which stand like a needle.

Back in Eger we check in at Hotel Corona. We are not too convince by the room which is towards a noisy street. We mange to change rooms and finally get a really nice room towards the inner yard where the bikes park. These room have a terasse as well. While we are busy handling our baggage a little boy show interest in our motorcycles and of course we put him on the seat to try out.

A brief shower and we meet Tibor and his friends. They have been downtown in the meantime visiting the vineries of Eger and bought three bottles of best Eger vine which they offer as a present. As our baggage boxes are jam-packed anyway we will have to taste the today.

First, the six of us walk downtown. After some sightseeing we find two tables in a restaurant inthe pedestrian zone of Eger. Dinner is very good and we are happy to have checked into a hotel already. Thus we may enjoy a few beers whil our hungarian friends hav to refrain from alcohol because they still need to ride home. There is a zero-tolerance police in hungary for alcohol when driving and everybody respects it.

It is dark already when we say farewell to our new friends. Back at the hotel there is a bus arriving. Obviously, he brought a wedding party. There are four men outside with traditional costumes. Carin asks them for permission to take a photo and captures the szene.

We make ourselves comfortable on the terasse of our room to enjoy the warm summer breeze this night. First we open the red wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon made by Juhasz Peter is a good discovery. The same holds for his rose' wine made from Merlot grapes. We don't open the white wine. It would have been too much for the three of us. And Stephan manages to repack his belongings in such a way that the precious bottle will make it all the way to Germany.

To end the day the party guests start some fireworks which lasts a quarter of an hour. What an experience immediately in front of our terasse! We toat and drink to our friends from the Africa Twin Owners Club! Egeszsegedre!

Bukk mountains and Puszta

The next morning we leave Eger northbound towards the Bukk montains. The forest takes care for a comfortable climate keeping the heat away. These are so to say "fully airconditioned roads". We pass Lillafüred with its old-style Grand Hotel. A little further along the road towards the skiing resort of Bankut we pass a museum for mining and steel production. We skip the visit. because we believe to know similar place from the Harz mountains near our home.

In order to avoid the industrial area of Miskolc we leave the mountains heading north. The road is tiny but cool. The forest is too dense for the GPS to catch a signal from the satellites.

Along the streets there are usually electricty lines in the villages. Most pole of those lines have a stork with his nest on top. From now on one of these big birds will always be watching us. Next stop for gas is in Edeleny. Froom there we pass Miskolc on the east following the M90 and M3. We leave the highway in Hejopapi tohit the river Tisza near Aroktö. An ancient ferry allows for crossing the river. The boat is propelled by a tiny paddle wheel. There is a wheel on the upstream side of the ferry only. This takes a while to cross the river.

On the opposite side of the river we halt for a coffee in the Halaszcsarda which translates to something like fish restaurant. There a szent of hot fat in the air. Fortunately, there are tables outside. An old woman sits in the shadow of a large tree trying to sell basquets and stuff.

We continue our trip eastward through the big plaine called the Puszta. We stop every once in a while to shoot photos: wide plaine, the traditional Puszta well, hungarian cattle and things like that. Each time the engines stop there is an immense sound of birds and all kind of creature living here.

We even come accross a herd of hungarian grey longhorn cows. I wave my arm towards the herdsmen. He poses for a photo.

West of Drebrecen we reach the eastmost point of our trip through Hungary. (GPS N 47.56159°, O 21.49529 °) We turn towards the west sharply to head for Hortobagy.

Hortobagyi Csarda, the ancient reststop is situated immediately next to the famous white bridge with its nine arcs. We have dinner in the arcades of Hortobagyi Csarda while watching storks fly by. For the night we found rooms in a nearby Inn.

Even though this place is in the middle of nowhere it offers an interesting atmosphere. The night comes with pleasantly cool temperatures and we sleep well with windows wide open. We didn't have any problem with mosquitos on our whole trip, not even her in the Puszta.

Tisza Lake to Kecskemet

Today we continue our tour wetbound through the Puszta plaine. Sometimes we stop and watch storks. After a while we approach the Tisza Lake. Tibor had recommended to ride along the dam which runs between the river and the lake. However, this is not feasible because of current construction work. So we cross the lake and turn south on the western shore. Near Kisköre, we cross the river again using a narrow railway bridge which is open to road traffic. Passage is possible in one direction only at a given time.

Soon we hit the road No. 4 and follow it into the city of Cegled. We park the bike under some tree on the central square and get a cup of coffee in the Arizona Bar. It is here, that we have to say good bye to Carin. She will return to home now on her own, travelling via Vienna and Ingoldstadt the next three days because she wants to join a friend's wedding party. She will travel in rain and hail when in Germany.

Stephan and me, we will continue south. On small country roads we circumvent Kecskemet and visit Fülöphaza. The travel guide book promises sand dunes here, but we can't find any. Nor can we find any indication to such thing at all. We do ride our bikes along a sandy path for several miles, but this doesn't pose any problem for an Africa Twin. To make things worse Stephan looses his guidebook somewhere on the way.

We meet a nice english rider on his BMW GS. He works as a teacher in Kecskemet and has an hour off-time. So he is giving his motorcycle an oportunity to run. I check out the sandy roads twice hoping to rediscover the lost items without success.

Stephan is fed up and rides towards downtown Kecskemet.

The first hotel which we find turns out to be too expensive. But just around the corner we find Hotel Uno which offer a safe place for the motorcycles.

Kecskemet is a wonderfull city. The central square is full of life much like Boulevars in french towns. There is a lot of beautifull architecture to be seen with some remarkable art noveau style buildings amongst them. We take a seat in front of one of the restaurantsand later decide to simply stay for dinner when they start to fire up a barbeque. I get an excellent steak with a touch of thick Balsamico and hungarian Lescho.

Kalocsa and Pecs

Using small roads we come to Kalocsa. The guide book promisses "the most colorful train station in the world". We find the station with some searching and asking people (GPS N 46.5345 °, O 18.99485 °). At first I discover only some flowery ornaments on the front side. The whole station is behind a fence. Body guards watch the scene in their fine dresses. Finally, one of them starts talking to me in German. I explain what I read in the book and why I am interested to see the place. He opens a door in the fence and allows me to go in. Another guy guides the way to the railroad side of the building and the the inside all of which is painted with beautifull flowers in a folkloristic style. The scene is really beautifull and very surprising at this location. I can shoot many photos but I never find out why there is all this strange behaviour going on here. In spite of this slight irritation the event is friendly and the guards were very polite.

We pay a short visit to the cathedral and get a cup of coffee near the bishop's palast.

Next we ride to the little village of Hajos. On a hill there are more than a thousend winery houses. Most of them are run by farmer originally immigrated from Swabia. Today, everything appears to be closed. But this must be a huge party, when all these are open during harvest time.
We pass many vinyards. We watch horse drawn carriages more frequently now, since they are still being used here for transportaion purposes. I also observ a farmer plowing with two horses.

In Janoshalma we find an old wind mill (N 46.28986°, O 19.31126 °). We stop for coffee again in Baja on the grand square near the old branch of the Danube river. Passing Vaskut we notice a nice church with stations of the cross along the hill in front of it. We cross the Danube river near Mohacs. Here it is an ordinary car ferry. In Mohaacs we visit the old mosque and the national memorial for the battle of Mohacs.

We ride our bikes uphill to gthe castle of Pecsvarad. From there we head down to Pecs, where we try to find a hotel in the heat of the afternoon. Traffic is a hassle here. The engines of the Twins get extremely hot. The fans of the water cooling system run non-stop. We fight our way in steep streets up and down from traffic light to traffic light. We follow signpost to hotels which don't exist any more. At a certain point in time the engine of Stephan's bike starts wining loudly whenever he uses the clutch. Probably even the sythetic oil which we use looses efficiency under these circumstances. I hope there is no severe trouble arising. I have never experienced an Africa Twin get hot like this before, not even in hard off-road rides in the heat of south of France. We find a hotel uphil from the city but it doesn't offer a safe place to park the bikes.

So, back again downtown. Stephan ask a lady on the street for guidance, she calls her husband and he again ask a taxi driver for us. Finally, we end up to check in at the Patria, a concrete block left from the socialistic era. We pay 62 Euros per room which is the highest bill by far on this trip. But in turn the twins rest next to the red carpet in the permanent view from the porters lodge.

After all this hassle, we walk the pedestrian area which starts immediately behind the hotel and find our first beer for the evening. Shops are still open downtown. There is a party going on in the whole city. Band are making music on the small squares. There are many people enjoing the evening here. We have dinner next to one of the stages. Later we change to a bar to relax and have enother beer. There are some students at a table nearby. They explain to me tat it is possible to study medicine in german language in this hungarian town and that is what they do. Probably because of the difficulties finding a place to sleep, we can't really relax. Finally, we don't quite enjoy this town. Maybe it is not quite fair, but we liked other places more than this one.

Balaton and Szombathely

By now Stephan is kinda allergic against large roads with heavy traffic. So we use the most tiny roads to head north. Approaching the lake Balaton we eventually even hit two radar traps. Fortunately we are not too fast.

We line up for the ferry boat. After some 40 minutes we may board the boat. The trip is short and we have a nice conversation with german tourists. Once we have crossed the lake we ride our bikes uphill to Tihany but this is way too touristic for us. We therefor continue west along the lake for a while and then turn north into the mountains.

We enter Sombathely quite early and find nice rooms at hotel Wagner. There is a roman temple ruin (the Iseum) in this town as well as further relicts from roman times including a piece of paved roman road. Unfortunately, all these places are closed for the public at least today. I can only try to shoot through the fence to have a few photos. Somewhat dissapointed we continue to explore the town. There is a large central square her as well. We halt in a Kaffehaz. Because we haven't spotted a convincing restaurant so far, we decide to go back to our hotel for dinner which turns out to be a good decision. After dinner, we go downtown again and discover a small street with several open bars and a DJ presenting techno music without stopping for the whole evening. We stay there for the rest of the evening and we even get a short show of a fire-eater for free.

Austria

We cross the border to Austria near Steinamanger. Excellent country roads allow for a fast ride to Mürzzuschlag and Mariazell. There is a long road construction area here but as for the rest, riding in Austria is pure fun. The navigation system sends me to the Austrian Highway a little too early near Amstetten. We follow the highway to Linz and miss to cross the Danube via the bridge. Since I miss the second bridge as well we ride along the southern bank of the river in the shadow of the mountains. A very nice piece of road. To cross the Danube we use a ferry in Ottensheim. While we take a seat in the restaurant we watch the old boat travelling to and fro. The ferry is moved simply by the Danube's current using the rudders to incline the boat to travel left or right while a cable across the river prevents the ferry from floating downstream. Even horses are amongst the passengers.

The comfortable road 124 takes us further north and we reach Germany with stil fabulous weather conditions. We cross the border at the same place where we entered Austria 10 days ago. We continue north for a while until we find ourselves getting tired. So we decide to turn towards the nearby town of Furth im Wald and check in at the Postgarten just like on the first day of our tour. There we get a warm welcome, good beer and a german Sauerbraten for dinner. We even spent some time walking downtown. However we have to interrupt our beer in the bar called VIP because of an upcoming thunderstorm.

going home

The weather forecast announce rain and thunderstorms. However we stay dry for quite a while. But the roads are wet and the tarmac is slippery because of the many potholes which were simply filled with bitume rather than getting a proper repair. Near the town Hof we ride in a shower.Later there is sun again for us all the way through Thurigia. When we reach Heiligenstadt the sky turns dark and we barely reach Göttingen in dry conditions. The storm starts immediately. A wonderful tour reaches its happy end. Let's take a shower!