The last day of this leg started badly. We woke up to the smell of sewerage coming through the bathroom drains😡.
After a very mediocre breakfast I went to prepare the bikes for their final day of the trip, only to find my rear tyre was flat.
On greater inspection I decided to replace the tyre as, after 3600 km, it was getting a bit bald.
Whilst I had the wheel off, I also decided to change the chain as I could feel the links were getting loose.
I fitted the new one but couldn’t get it to look right. I became annoyed that I was missing something with the derailleur gear setup, but I couldn’t sort it. Then I checked the length of the new chain against the old one and realised it was 6 links shorter🤬
Annoyingly I then had to refit the worn chain, and this whole saga had wasted much of the morning.
We finally straddled the bikes and set off to the river trail for a coffee by the river to wind down a little.
The first 15 km were pleasant, but then, as we approached Budapest, the trail followed busy roads and it was not so fun.
We left the EV 6 and headed east along through more suburbs. Many traffic lights and dropped curbs, made progress slow.
We followed a marked bike route but then came to a multitrack railway with a high bridge gantry over it. There was a small channel to push a bike up, but we’d have had to unload the luggage and carry it over. Otherwise the bikes would have been too heavy to push.
There was a path to the side of the railway tracks, and we saw a man take his lightweight bike over them, so I decided to follow him and bump our bikes to the other side.
After this drama the route improved as we left the city. After another 20 kms we made it to Pécel.
Gabor, who is a pilot and microlight manufacturer in Hungary, has kindly let us store his bikes in his garage for 3 months until we return in the autumn to continue heading east.
After a 25 minute journey we were back in Budapest for a 2 night break before heading back to France.
We decided to have supper on a riverboat, and upon walking the 10 minutes to the river, we saw a dinner cruise boarding.
Unfortunately it was fully booked, but 2 people hadn’t showed up, so just before the gang plank was raised and the 2 hadn’t arrived, they let us on to enjoy a great trip, with food, music and dancing.
Total travelled this trip has been 1008 kms.
Total travelled since Nantes has been 2854 kms.
Another fun trip, and we have again had super weather with only one day of rain and soggy feet, apart from a drizzly morning when we were in Vienna, not cycling.
Back to France on Thursday to give our bums a break!
Euro Vélo Route 6 