Also as predicted it was a beautiful sunny day when we awoke today in Budapest. The plan today is to head 27 km south west to the moto24 shop where thanks to Dirk we had arranged for oil changes with just 1 days notice. We arrived at 9 and they were ready and waiting for us.
That done we headed back north initially to Budakeszi in a fair amount of traffic.
Once we started towards Pilisszentkereszt it thinned out.
Finally you enter the park and the road was narrow and winding thru the trees. At Esztergom you hit the Danube again and we ran south along it to the village of Visegrad where you can get the ferry across for about 4 E each. It runs every hour and was just returning to our side when we pulled up. It is a barge pulled across the strong current of the river by a tub boat and so not a true ferry in that sense.
On the other side you arrive to the village of Nagymaros and then follow the river on the other bank for a while before heading north east to Felesotold our destination near to Holloko.
On the way you pass hundreds of fields of corn and sun flowers.
This small village in the hills has many of the old traditional style Hungarian houses in the ancient part of town and at the base of the hill where the castle sits.
From near to Holloko we went south a short way and then east and into the parks.
Part of the route we took was an unmarked crossroad thru the trees. We saw mostly people fishing and picking mushrooms. The road was paved once and is still pretty good, but just off the centre track it is deep bog and very slippery.
Do you feel you like your going Mad?
Once we got back to the more major road we knew we were on the right track since there was a steady stream of Saturday bikers coming towards us. Also when you get to some intersections there are big signs that say bikers this way with an arrow.
The best part of the road was after Sirok and until Lillafured thru the Bukki Nemzeti Park. This is a great narrow curvy road thru a dense forest.
From here we routed thru Miskolc and to the wine region around Tokaj. Wine has been made here since BC, but its fame is mostly because of Tokaji aszú wine, the world’s oldest botrytized wine.
“Noble rot is the beneficial form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions. If the weather stays wet, the damaging form, “grey rot,” can destroy crops of grapes. Grapes typically become infected with Botrytis when they are ripe. If they are then exposed to drier conditions and become partially raisined this form of infection brought about by the partial drying process is known as noble rot. Grapes when picked at a certain point during infestation can produce particularly fine and concentrated sweet wine.”
Then we rode south west to the small town of Tiszadob. To get here you had to cross the river on a small cable ferry. We stayed in a traditional Hungarian house with a straw roof.
Hungary is a nice country. It is very clean. The people are friendly and the drivers are very courteous. They have Goulash which is very delicious!!
“Goulash is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, goulash is also a popular meal in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Southern Europe”
Today the mission is to get to Transylvania (Timisoara) and so we booked it south in eastern Hungary to get to Gyulac and the Romanian border. These may look like highways, but they are secondary roads with very little traffic until you hit the A1 after Arad.
You pass the old Hungarian border control booths and then pass the welcome to Romania sign before you get to the new border controls. Despite both Hungary and Romania being in the EU there is passport control for the Schengen zone, which Romania is outside of. So not sure why the Hungarian official wanted the bike title, but she did and they exit stamped the passports of course. For Romania they stamped us in, but did not care about the bike papers, and neither wanted to see our green card insurance. They were quite keen to look at our route map on the pannier and all the country flags.
Entering Arad there are a lot of grand avenues and buildings. We continued from here onto Timisoara.
We did a bit of a walking tour of the city. The most interesting was the Orthodox Cathedral. Inside the men stood at the right wall and the women the left. The singing of the priest was particularly good and broadcast outside on the load speakers. The church itself is very ornate.
This town could be anywhere in Europe and feels more European than many other places we have been.
