Ten Pin Bowling in a Synagogue

Monday October 3rd
In Which we Play Bowls in a Slovak Synagogue

With each new day that we face we are expecting the weather to break. Surely it would not be possible for us to complete our entire Odyssey with only one wet day ? Or would it ? As we get closer and closer to Budapest, we are almost daring to believe that we might just pull off the most impossible meteorological miracle in the annals of cycling.

Although the weather looked a little threatening at the start, we somehow managed to escape the rain bullet for yet another day. The weather remained cool and dry with a growing wind from the North East. Of course that actually provided a tail wind at times, so its presence was quite welcome.

As soon as we left Gyor we found ourselves riding through more dilapidated small villages. It appeared as if all the young people had long since left for greener pastures, leaving only the old people behind

It was also impossible not to feel as if there was not much hope in these places, maybe they spent all their time reminiscing about what might have been if things had been completely different.

Each new village brought its own collection of rusty barbed wire fences and barking dogs. Some locals gave us what passed for a friendly sign of acknowledgement, while others did not seem to welcome our intrusion at all.

Through some miracle we were able to find a small shop in which we bought some food for a roadside picnic. We eventually found a likely lunch spot in the garden of some sort of public building. The "garden" was rather unkempt but it was the closest thing to a public park that we ever likely to find in this part of the world.

After lunch we encountered the first substantial climb we had had for several days. This region is predominantly flat, but this unexpected climb had us all clicking back down through our gears in search of the proverbial granny. To make matters even tougher we were confronted by a raging headwind at the same time. We were all relieved when the route took a sharp turn to the east, but we were not so happy to find that we had somehow ridden straight into a cemetery - a real dead end in every sense of the word

I was amused by the fact that many of the tombstones had already been pre prepared for the eventual occupants. All that was needed was the final year of death. One such tombstone was prominently inscribed for "POOR MARIA 1942 - ". I wondered why Maria might have suffered so much that her perpetual gravestone recorded her poverty for posterity.

We had no choice but to backtrack in search of the correct path. The closest thing I could find to a bike path was an old rut filled track alongside a railway line. It took all our concentration to avoid riding into one of the huge potholes and disappearing from sight forever. This path continued for some kilometres and we found ourselves reunited with the "bolters" group of riders. This group of course has no interest whatsoever in photographs or looking at anything else along the way, they are solely interested in arriving at the next hotel in record time. We were therefore surprised to see them at al,l as the only sight we usually have of them is their rear ends disappearing from the hotel each morning.

Later in the afternoon we rode through a magnificent forest along an undulating path strewn liberally with brightly coloured autumn leaves. This section blessed us with some of the most memorable riding of the entire trip

Although some find the technical nature of the riding a little challenging, everyone found it absolutely exhilarating.

We finally arrived at Komarno early in the afternoon and crossed the huge bridge over the Donaj (Danube) back into Slovakia. What awaited at the end of the day's ride was the biggest surprise of all. The strangely named Hotel Bow Garden was housed in what used to be a synagogue but is now surely one of the most incredible hotels I have ever seen. The modest entrance was very underwhelming, but once inside, everyone's jawa begun to drop. The place was equipped with a number of palatial rooms (suites) and even came complete with a ten pin bowling alley.

Our suite had an opulent bedroom, bathroom with roll top bath, lounge room, sitting room, conservatory, sauna, theatre room (and even a blind owl) ! What a memorable place to stay.

The evening meal was amazing and followed by laughter packed games of 10 pin bowling. The alley was not quite up to world standard. The pins seemed to be attached to the ends of long threads to lift them back upright after each hit, the whole system kept jamming up with messages of "KLUKD" coming up on the large overhead screens. But it certainly was a HUGE amount of fun and a night that we will never forget. It was also the first time I had played bowls in around 20 years.

Tomorrow is the second last day of riding and our amazing adventure is drawing to a close.Read more