I woke early, said my goodbyes and skedaddled. The riverside track was in poor shape, not helped by the many speed bumps. Eurovelo6 threw up a big surpise as it funnelled me into dry muddy farm track and then…nothing. I spent an hour fighting through thick undergrowth until I intersected a paved road, blood oozing from my legs. GPS confirmed that indeed it was the official route. I can’t recommend it. Better to stick to the main highway around these parts, even though it’s busy with speeding trucks bringing ore to the massive steel mill in Dunaújváros.
I soon passed an English lady running with a trailer from London to Katmandu. Holy shit, that takes balls! She looked to be struggling and I stopped to offer her water, but she declined. I can’t help but think she is taking a massive risk running on this road, but I admire her dedication.
Not helpful!
Soon, a good cycle path appeared which took me to Harta, from there was was head-down on back-roads, where I made serious pace, all the while avoiding the massive potholes. When I reached Fokto, the route turned to gravel for about 15km, which teally tired the legs.
More gravel, noooo!
But then, thankfully, came a nicely paved track on top of a dyke, where again I could pick-up up speed. That took me all the way to Baja. Must say, I was really pleased with myself for getting this far, especially in the heat. I had to take-on salt at one stage to balance the huge quantities of water I needed to consume, but I felt pretty good after.
I was a little shocked to see on GPS that I had cycled 148 km!
Parking-up at the local campsite, I hit Baja to find somewhere that would serve me halászlé, a regional catfish/pike/carp soup laced with paprika. Several people had told that Baja does it best. I only found one place that had it on the menu, but they weren’t serving it tonight. Nor anything else, except fried cheese and flat beer. I picked-up my supper in a supermarket and retired to my tent.
The original plan was to leave on Friday so that I could make it to Belgrade in time to go 200 km further south to Vrnjačka Banja. I was to meet friends at the Love Festival. Work put paid to that 😑
Never mind, I left Prague, 4 days later, on the 6am train to Budapest. The engine broke down in the arse-end of the Slovakian countryside. It was 3 hours before a replacement arrived, enough time for the stranded passengers to hold an impromptu party in a tiny nearby pub. It would have been rude not to join-in 😁
Czech trains are otherwise excellent, cheap, and well equipped for transporting bicycles. On-board breakfast was pretty good too!
More delays ensued as we were dumped off the train at the Hungarian border, told to board another, before being herded back onto the original which had somehow fixed itself. High comedy in the blazing sun. I’m travelling much lighter for this trip, so throwing the loaded bike between platforms was no problem.
Reaching Budapest Nyugati station after 3.30pm, I made a beeline for my starting point, – the Hungarian Parliament (Országház) and started south without delay. The aim for today is still to reach Dunaújváros, just over 80km on the flat.
aaand we’re off!
I’ll be hugging the Danube all the way to Belgrade, so getting lost shouldn’t be an issue, nor should hills, except for a couple of steep climbs after Novi Sad, in Serbia. Also, the prevailing wind is north-westerly, so I fully expect to have the breeze behind me. 500km in 5 days should be no problem, even with plenty of stops for vittles and beer. My only concerns are the muggy heat (35 Celsius forecast), and the unavoidable clouds of mosquitos. West Nile virus has established around these parts, so I’ll be sure to slather myself in DEET come dusk.
It was close to 5pm before I hit EuroVelo 6. I made good progress along decent track, crossing the river several times until I reached the bridge at Dunaharaszti, but the damn thing was being repaired and was closed to cyclists. This required a 10km detour along a ridiculously busy and narrow trunk road.
When I eventually crossed the river the surface varied from bad to appalling. I needed my wits to avoid the precipitous camber and dodge the huge potholes. I was swerving like a demented chicken. A road bike would be totally destroyed.
After about 50km pleasant views of the Danube opened-up, lots of holiday villas and people out fishing or drinking wine on their private jetties. Vast fields of sunflowers were the norm. Along the way were many drinking water pumps which provided great relief from the heat, and I took every chance to douse myself with cold, fresh water.
My shitty phone camera cannot do this scene justice.
I stopped short of my target, at a small town called Dömsöd where I found a nice campsite for 5 euro. After a dip in the river, and while pitching my tent, I was approached by some people who were pre-apologising for the noise . It turned out to be a Christian community group who were on a canoeing trip down the Danube. They invited me to dine with them – a delicious stew laced with paprika, which required copious amount of beer to restore homeostasis. Lovely people, they wouldn’t let me pay. Two brothers – both scientists – latched-on and we had a fantastic conversation about animal testing. Cool guys.
Pretty knackered after the long day, though happy with progress after the very late start. Looking forward to tomorrow. The mosquitoes are huge and aggressive, but I have their number. Well, let’s see how I look in the morning.
I really enjoyed my time on the road, and I’m already itching to get back out there.
For sure there were some tough moments, particularly the storm in Austria, but each hill bested, each town reached, just spurred me on to the next one.
I had supposed that the climbs would be the hardest challenge, but it was the wind that slowed me more than anything. Most of the route through the countryside is wide open and exposed. Momentum was interrupted by sudden gusts that stopped me dead.
Shelter came in built-up areas, and there were some lovely jaunts through woodland and along tree-lined avenues and canals. The weather was fantastic overall.
Once the wind had subsided enough I was able to get a satisfyingly speedy rhythm on the flat sections. The conditions might not be predictable, but the efforts and rewards generally seem to even-out.
Most fun moments were definitely around the Podyjí National Park. Gliding downhill through the winding forest was pure bliss.
I wasn’t half as knackered as I thought I would be. No injuries apart from a few missing chunks of flesh. My legs burned – both inside and out – after the first day, but otherwise were happy to keep going and not complain. Overall I felt pretty good throughout.
Not to say that I was totally killing myself. I made sure to stop where I wanted, and I took-on plenty of food and refreshment. Cycling in the hot sun is thirsty work don’t ya know 😛
If you are thinking of doing the Prague-Vienna Greenways (you should!), then you will need a bicycle suitable for the task. This means at least a mountain bike with disc brakes. A standard road bike would be unable to carry much, but is also likely to let you down on some challenging sections, where there are real dangers presented by the road surface.
Tyres: The stock Trek 920 comes with mountain-bike tyres, which I think are unsuitable for a trip like this. But I had done my research and had installed a pair of Schwalbe Big Apples. These are road tyres for 29 inch mountain bike wheels. They have a flatter thread and are much wider. They can be deflated to provide extra traction and suspension. I tested them on many surface types in-and-around Prague, and I was really pleased with them.
Road tyre on front, mountain bike tyre on rear.
The night before leaving I noticed that the back tyre was warped. On inspection, it looked like one of the threads had snapped, causing a deformation. So I changed it for the thinner stock Bontrager tyre, reasoning that it would still provide enough traction on all surfaces. Wrong! There was a noticeable loss of grip on gravelly surfaces – of which there was a lot. Overall I felt that I should expect more forward power without slippage. Good for mud I’m sure, but I encountered little. For touring over mixed terrain, for me the road tyres win hands-down.
At times I did consider swapping the front and back tyres, but it would have taken too much time. For the next trip I will be sporting a well-tested pair of Big Apples or something similar.
Baggage: I had put a lot of thought into this. The choice of panniers was a no-brainer. I needed fully waterproof and only Ortliebs fit the bill. That’s why they are such a popular choice for touring.
But as sturdy as they are, I missed simple things like side-pockets. Opening and closing the bags can be a bit fidgety, and there just doesn’t seem to be that much room inside. I’m going to reconsider my options here.
On the front, one side was reserved for stove and food, the other for laptop, wires, raincoat and warm hoodie. On the back one is for the sleeping bag. It’s light but bulky and necessary.
The last bag was for clothes, bike things (extra tube, repair kit, chain oil, multi-tool), and toothbrush. I packed as light as possible and each bag could be lifted with little finger. Strapped to the back is a one-man tent that weights only a kilo, and a foam mat that weighs next-to-nothing. On the front, a ‘bumbag’ in which to keep light incidentals.
But when I had them all loaded on the bike together the weight became appreciable. I’ll be honest, at first I was having doubts that I could manage it, and would have to ditch some cargo. I wasn’t worried about the the extra effort needed to push it, but more how to maintain control.
Even though the front panniers are kept as low as possible, it still required some heavy-handed steering. Sometimes a lateral oscillation would develop on the front wheel, and I had worried that this could damage the axle or the forks. Even after careful re-balancing of weight across the bike, the problem would still appear, and this wouldn’t be good for downhills. So I was careful for the first few days, but eventually I had subconsciously learned the quirks, including how to dampen the oscillation, and I was feeling in full control.
Austria, view back to Moravia
I soon learned that, when going uphill, I could slightly leverage the weight of the front baggage by standing and leaning forward as far as possible. It’s all about centre of gravity, for which a re-adjusted sense soon develops.
A couple of times, as I drifted through a seemingly deserted small village, blazing midday sun, dusty bike and cargo bouncing over every bump and pothole, it felt almost wild-west, with shuffling curtains wanting to know who’s this new stranger in town. 🙂
When I bumped into Mike – the tourer also headed to Budapest – I saw that he was carrying a lot more gear. He almost literally did have the kitchen sink – in the form of a huge water tank – strapped to the front of his bike. It didn’t seem to bother him, water sloshing around. And he was only spending a week on the road. Maybe my setup isn’t so bad after all.
Apart from the weight, which just takes time to get used to, there is the question of aerodynamics. There is nothing you can do about a headwind beating into you, but cross-winds are a real danger, the bags acting like sails. I was suddenly knocked sideways a few times, but stayed on the bike. However, on a few occasions I pulled-in to let a large truck pass. At the speeds those guys go, they create their own vortices.
Also, the camber was steep and potholed on some of the unavoidable main roads. Most passing cars are respectful – there was even the odd honk and thumbs-up – but it’s best to be defensive when it comes to busy roads. Thankfully there were not too many main roads to deal with this time. It will be different down south.
By now the bike is comfortable, overall it performed perfectly. I’ve modified it, geometries have adapted, and my ass didn’t once feel sore – probably due to the combo of a gel seat cover and padded cycling shirts, which unfortunately make you look like you just shit yourself 😛
The road-shifter gears are great, and it was nice to have the hoods and dropped handlebars. The disc brakes were well tested. I would say that disc brakes are essential for some of the downhills, otherwise you’ll be burning serious rubber. Some downhill sections are on a very poor surface, so you need to have your wits about you.
Route mapping: Once outside of Prague, and with a few exceptions, the Greenways is very well signposted at the major junctions. The signs change to blue and then green in Austria, and there are Greenways info boards in some towns. Apart from the main Greenways route I followed, there are many smaller local bike tours that are well mapped. You could spent months exploring them.
I did get lost a few times. Whenever a feeling of doubt arose, I whipped out my phone to check GPS location, and it saved me. So, a very handy thing to have!
I used a free Android app called GPXviewer, and tested this GPX file of the Greenways route, finding it to be very accurate. The app itself is battery efficient and can run simultaneously with the similarly lean and free GPSlogger.
The EuroVelo 6 route between Vienna and Budapest is almost flawlessly signposted, however there are some minor turns that are easily missed as you whoosh past the sign. So, keep your eyes open.
Also, even though much of the route from Vienna-Bratislava is newly paved, with some sections still being built, the situation in Hungary is more variable. Whereas many Hungarian main roads have a parallel cycle path – which is quite something – a good portion of these paths are poorly maintained, cracked and bumpy which demands care and will hinder speed in some sections. Other sections are heavy gravel and dirt roads through fields.
EuroVelo 6 through a field in Hungary.
There is an official EuroVelo 6 app with GPS, and it works but with some annoyances. It could do with an update.
Next planned stage is late July from Budapest to Belgrade, maybe further along to Skopje if I find the time. I am counting the seconds!
P.S. I took more video than photos, and captured some great footage. When I have a chance I will edit them into something coherent.
