Cycling along the Danube

After a good breakfast at the youth hostel (choice of muesli ) I was quickly onto the route (22% downhill). Weather has been very cool but dry all day. I've been wearing my merino wool top plus
cycling top and coat.

Regensburg was the late morning stop but disappointed : beautiful mediaeval buildings and streets but the city just contained lots of tour groups and a few expensive cafes.

So with a stiff following breeze I made fast progress on the north side of the Danube, covering 125 km in all.

Photos: main is of a former benedictine monastery, now a secondary school, in Metten. Car boot sale just outside Regensburg. Vending machine just for cycling inner tubes - they even had my size!Weiterlesen

Hot - up to 30'C this p.m with a headwind all day. Like being blow dried.

Good directions got me out of Vienna without mishaps and I enjoyed the spiral descent off the Donau bridge (pic 1), memories of the velodrome. A couple of hours spent cycling through the Donau-Auen national park; I didn't see much of the 100 types of bird but did see heron, lizards, butterflies and dragonflies, and heard frogs.

A couple of hours spent in Slovakia - lack of route signs, a bit tatty, but the waitresses at lunch were nice and spoke English. Road sign before hungarian border peppered with bullet holes (pic 2).

Hungary - first impressions: quite smart, good cycle route markings and cycle paths, smells nice.

Arrived in Mosonmagyarovar in time for the tourist office to find me a Pension - smart and friendly. Looks mostly tidy (pic 3) but some neglect, e.g. holes dug in middle of Cycle path not filled in (pic 4) - avoided by local cyclists and motorists alike.

Mosonmagyarovar Is home to 350 practising dentists and from a walk around town seems good for: dental work, beauty treatments and products, massage, spa baths and hair care.Weiterlesen