Slogfester

JJ’s Final Blog

Sep 29th, 2009 by Slogfester

Well, here it is – my very overdue final blog. I’ve been back in the UK for a month now but as Mr G hasn’t managed to put ‘fingers to key board’ in a while I thought I’d put in the last update of my trip for posterity.

After a lovely Bazza Birthday Break at Lake Orava we headed off west along lovely forest roads via newly developed ski resorts and one of only two remaining cross-back logging railways in Europe. This route took us through some gorgeous country side and up some steep gravel pathways – I did manage one more fall but this time no Elastoplasts were needed! – I’ve obviously improved my crashing technique!

After more camping at Trechova and more fried cheese (that really is quite enough of that menu option now!) we headed to Martin. On the outskirts of Martin we visited an open-air museum with traditional Slovak buildings from the various regions.

…and some less attractive modern housing!

Whilst trying to navigate a short-cut from the museum we had one of our most entertaining ‘adventures’ (we’re not lost ) which took us through a forest and then a farmer’s field – the farmer was equally entertained. After a long, hard cycle to make up time and reach the campsite before dark, we ended up in the lovely little village of Vricko – where, in our weariness, we opted for a chalet rather than pitching the tent.

A climb through beautiful woods took us to Bojnice, with its Walt Disney style castle. Another steep zig zag climb (even the cars were stalling on the hairpins!) took us to Nitrianske Rudno where we camped by the lake side.

After our last night camping, I had my final day in the saddle. Needless to say there were more hills – a long, slow climb – by the top I had convinced Mr G that I do NOT love hills – I’ll do them but I don’t (and never will) love them! We then had a very steep off-road descent to Trencianske Teplice, where we were just in time for some traditional folk dancing.

We completed the final leg, in pouring rain, to cross the finishing line in the lovely little town of Trencin.

A great couple of days relaxing and drying out in Trencin included a trip to the local club for a hilarious night on the dance floor, giving it our best to 70’s & 80’s disco classics. We’re not sure if we’d have been admitted if it hadn’t been ‘Oldies Night’ but we kept the students amused and one young lad generously complimented Mr G by telling him that, even though he was as old as his Dad, Mr G’s dancing was much better! Mr G’s audition for Moseley Dance Centre was passed with glowing colours J

From Trencin, we caught the train back into Bratislava for me to take my flight home L and for Barry to get back on the road for his final ’solo’ chapter.

Tags: Julia, Slovakia

Posted in Camping, Slovakia | 3 Comments »

High Tatras to the Western Tatras

Aug 31st, 2009 by Slogfester

After the big climb over the low Tatras we ended up in a one-horse town called Nalepkovo. We eventually found the only available accommodation in town (and the most amusing to date) at the local football stadium which had boarding school style rooms for visiting teams. It was a Sunday afternoon, the local league match was in full swing and our room was the equivalent of an ‘executive box’!

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On the way to the pretty lake-side village of Dedinky we followed a great ‘off road’ path – apparently the long grass is good for cleaning your chain!!

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We’d ’sat out’ a rain storm on a rest day in Balaton Lake and had a rainy train ride and walk in Szilvasvarad – then on the way from Dedinky to Levoca I had my first (of only two) rainy rides and my God did it rain!! It was a great ride along a quiet forest road – an 800m ascent and then a long, cold descent. Mr G was right – the rain did take my mind off the hill (!) and yes, I have to agree that it is indeed better to be going uphill rather than downhill (I never thought I’d say that!) when it’s raining.

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Levoca is a lovely walled town dating back to the 13th century. It was a key trading centre, established by German colonists, as the capital of the Spis region. It is home to the world’s largest wooden gothic altar and a ‘cage of shame’ used to punish women of ill repute! We had a well earned rest day in Levoca, drying out, getting clean (us and the bikes) and exploring the lovely town centre.

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From Levoca we went via Kezmarok to Tatranska Lomnica, at the base of the high Tatras. Having struggled over the low Tatras I was pretty concerned by the idea of tackling the high Tatras, so I was relieved to learn that they are so high that you can only ski and hike on them – not cycle (unless you’re into hard-core downhill mountain biking!). We caught the cable car half way up the highest peak to admire the views (and eat cake!) before then cycling along the road that hugs the base of the high Tatras.

After descending to Liptovska Kokava, we found a great lttle campsite with wonderful mountain views.

A couple of days and several climbs later we ended up at Lake Orava in the western Tatras. Here we had a rest day in a smart hotel and lots of cake to celebrate Barry’s Birthday

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Birthday Blog

Aug 18th, 2009 by Slogfester

What better way to spend your birthday than eating cake (thanks Jules , bludging around some posh hotel in the mountains (thanks again Jules and catching up with blogs!

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Some of you may have noticed that my brief flirt with blogging ground to a halt shortly after meeting Jules in Bratislava. Suffice to say I’ve been having way too good a time since then to worry about blogs (and again Jules!). And now my little traveling bluetooth keyboard has packed up, so I’ve got another excuse

The company, trip, cycling, scenery and weather (mostly) have all been fantastic. Everything I’d wished for and more.
Jules has graduated from a rather wobbly hill sceptic with knees sponsored by Elastopast to a full blown cyclo-tourer mountain machine. She’s now tackling climbs which would cause problems for many riders even without luggage- Respect. The ‘I love hills’ T-shirt is in the post

Despite my initial fears and some very rough bumpy accents/descents with heavy loads (thanks Jules , Zip is still in one piece. Full geeky equipment & navigation report coming shortly! It now *almost* seems normal to drag 40+ kg up hills all day and I think I’d probably fall off my 7 kg road bike in fright! So I suspect the weight police will strike hard soon in order to start the race prep!

Despite the lack of blogs you can still see lots of groovy (and funny) pics and videos on my flickr and Youtube pages respectively (see links on this blog), plus follow our tracks and see exactly where we are by selecting the ‘Tracks’ [Will- is this correct?] and ‘where am I now’ tabs above. We really have been travelling through some beautiful and remote areas.

Tags: birthday

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From the Bend to the hills – ouch!!

Aug 13th, 2009 by Julia

Okay – I was right to have concerns about the cycling being onerous…..since my last update we have moved into the ‘onerous zone’!! Since going ’round the bend’ we have cycled up what seems to be an inordinate number of hills (my city mates would describe them as mountains!!). I’m by no means ’sporty’ but through determination rather than fitness I’ve achieved a few challenges in recent years including Kilimanjaro, Kinabalu and a half marathon.

I had forewarned Mr G that I was likely to throw my bike on the floor and stamp my feet in protest at least a couple of times during the trip, but that I would then compose myself, get back on my bike and complete the route.

The ride out of Paszto (straight after writing the last update) was the one that brought me closest to that moment so far. It was not a steep hill (a breeze for you bikies out there) but it was just unrelenting, every corner revealed another incline… on and on and on… for 20km, plus it was 6pm and still over 30 degrees. I managed not to throw the bike… I just swore out loud a few time, then resorted to my headphones and loud music.

There have been many more hills since then, and apparently many have been steeper and longer but none has matched my ‘hill from hell’. Maybe that’s because I’m getting hardened to the hills now, or because the weather has cooled down, or because the ‘hill from hell’ was the end of the day… whatever the reason I’ glad to say that no hill has pushed me to the edge in the same way since

From Holloko we cycled to Paszto and took a quick detour to Tar to visit the largest Buddhist Stupa in Europe. The ‘hill from hell’ took us up through a gorgeous forest with views over into Slovakia on the way back down the other side. Next stop was a couple of nights and a rest day in the lovely town of Eger. Our rest day was spent chilling out and exploring the town’s many historical buildings.

From Eger we headed to Szilvasvarad, a popular spot for hiking and horse riding. We opted for a less energetic afternoon taking the narrow-gauge railway up the hill followed by a gentle stroll back down. Here we had our first rain since the afternoon storm at Lake Balaton.

After the rain we enjoyed some cooler temperatures and some fantastic riding. From Szilvasvarad we headed through rolling countryside, national parks and then into (limestone)Karst country, ending up in Aggtelek National Park where we took a trip into the vast Baradla cave system

Aggtelek is right on the Hungarian/Slovakian border and from there we crossed back into Slovakia and cycled to Roznava for a night camping with views of the impressive Roznava castle.

From Roznava we crossed the low Tatras. This was my steepest climb so far – 600m of ascent at 8-12% gradient but it was in a beautifully shaded forest and we tackled it first thing in the morning so it failed to match the ‘hill from hell’ despite being marked at ‘arduous’ on the cycle map (Mr G didn’t tell me this fact until we had completed it!). So I have conquered my first col (pass) at 999 metres – it was fun but I’m in no hurry to tackle another one just yet!
[Editors note: she loves hills really]

Tags: hills, Hungary, Slovakia

Posted in Hungary, Slovakia, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Hungarian Cake Summary

Aug 12th, 2009 by Julia

Your trusty (or should that be crusty?) correspondent (ably assisted by his new assistant Jules) has been tirelessly travelling the country desperately in search of something other than luke warm weak coffee and tasteless cakes with mountains of artificial cream. Alas, with few exceptions the country has failed Come on Hungary… lift your game! The whole credibility of your tourism industry is at stake. Bath houses and magnificent architecture just aren’t enough- modern cycling man(Homo lycratootightis) demands more.

Most cafes do have a espresso machine, but if you watch carefully they often don’t bother changing the coffee (yuk) and/or run it at so low pressure it just becomes an expensive drip filter (double yuk).

I was going to award the whole country a half cake rating, but just at the end, in the most unlikely of places (Eger), a small hotel produced the first proper macchiatio (always a good test) I’d seen for weeks and a lovely strudel, so Hungary scrapes through with a ONE cake award and a ‘must try harder’ report.

Remember…. (real cream) cakes make the pedals go round

Eger saves Hungary from a catastrophic drop in tourism:

Apprentice cake taster:

Tags: cakes, Hungary

Posted in Coffee and Cake, Hungary | No Comments »

Going round the bend

Aug 3rd, 2009 by Julia

After a great few days exploring Budapest it was time to move on. We had hoped to be able to take a boat from Budapest to Vienna, Mr G fancied a few days aboard a ‘Gin Palace’ holiday cruiser watching the world go by before being delivered into another gorgoeous European city – and I’d worried if the cycling would be to onerous! Alas, this option was not available for ad hoc jump-aboard independent travellers and so we had to settle for the alternative of taking tourist ferries along the Danube Bend visiting the lovely towns of Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom.

Going ’round the bend’ involved 3 very leisurely days taking short boat trips along the Danube River to the next destinations, followed by a long lunch and an afternoon exploring. Szentendre is a picture postcard town with narrow cobbled streets, 18th century buildings and numerous churches. Visegrad has fantastic views from the ruins of its 13th century citadel high on a hill above the little town – a very hot climb in the afternoon sun! Our last stop, Esztergom is the Hungarian HQ of Roman Catholicism and has a fantastic, huge basilica perched on the hillside, looming over the town and the Danube.

The weather has continued to be glorious, with day after day of non-stop sunshine and high temperatures. I’m feeling rather like the cat that got the cream, knowing that there is heavy rain in the UK and other areas in Europe are suffering from fires and here we are with perfect summer holiday weather.

After out trip around the bend it really was time to hit the road again and actually do some cycling. So we left Esztergom with a rough plan to head north east, get off the tourist route and into some more rural areas of Hungary before eventually heading north into Slovakia and then to the High Tatra Mountains. We crossed the Duna Ipoly National Park and camped near the town of Diosjeno and then continued on to the town of Bank.

We only planned to stop for lunch in Bank but then lure of an afternoon swimming in the cool waters of the lake resulted in us ditching any ideas for an afternoon on the bikes! From Bank we cycled to Hollóko, with its impressive 13th century castle and pretty village of preserved traditional houses – both of which have Unesco World Heritage recognition.

So far, wherever we have traveled in Hungary – and the destinations have been pretty diverse – we have found wonderful scenery, cycle routes, history, culture and people. Sometimes it has taken a little seeking out and a good sense of adventure and/or humour as well as great route planning and map reading (thanks Mr G) but Hungary just continues to entertain and impress.

Tags: cruising

Posted in Hungary, Slovakia | 2 Comments »

From the lakeside to the big city

Jul 27th, 2009 by Julia

From the lakeside to the hustle and bustle of the big city…..

After 3 nights on the northern shores of Lake Balaton, we continued on around the lake, heading south west and ending up at Fonyód on the southern shores. The south side of the lake has very shallow water – you can walk out for 10 minutes and still only be waist-deep. To get a final lake-side ‘fix’ we spent the afternoon and night at a lovely quiet lake-side campsite with fabulous views of the Balacsony hills on the opposite shore. A perfect setting for a lazy afternoon in the sun and a Primus-stove dinner watching a beautiful sunset.

The following day (24th) we took the 3-hour train trip from Fonyód to Budapest. It’s quite a contrast to be in a big bustling city after spending the last two and a half weeks in rural areas and relatively sleepy towns. The variety of resturants and food is very welcome – vegetarian eating choices in Hungary are somewhat limited and I was getting weary of fried cheese! We celebrated the variety of cuisine with a tasty curry, a meal in a great vege restaurant and a Subway sandwich I visited Budapest about 8 years ago but had forgotten just how lovely it is – beautiful buildings, lovely town squares and street cafes, a wonderful old underground system and an array of bridges crossing the Danube, linking Buda and Pest.

The first day here was spent exploring Buda and Castle Hill – fabulous weather and equally good views across the city. The following day we set out to explore Pest on our bicycles but Sunday morning was not as quiet on the roads as we hoped – partly due to the vast number of visitors here to see the Hungarian Grand Prix. After a ride through Margaret island and along the Buda riverside cycle route we headed out of town to Statue Park, to see the collection of huge Socialist era statues which have been ‘re-homed’ in a small park – macabre but entertaining.

I’m pleased to confirm that I haven’t had any more falls – which is a good job as the first aid kit is now quite depleted and Mr G had suggested I approach Elastoplast for sponsorship!!

Tags: Balaton, budapest, fonyod, Lake

Posted in Hungary | 3 Comments »

And so to Hungary…….via some hills!

Jul 23rd, 2009 by Julia

After our ‘pootle’ along the Danube we crossed the border into Hungary and
spent the next couple of nights in the lovely old town of Gyor. There we had
a rest day exploring the old town and relaxing in cafes in the warm
sunshine, musing over maps and onward travel options. We also visited the
town’s thermal baths, which boast a swim-up pool bar as well as various
water slides. Descending the water slides after a glass of local Chardonnay
proved very entertaining!!

Hungary!

From Gyor we headed south to Pannonhalmi to visit the Unesco World Heritage
Site abbey dating from the 13th century. Here I had my first fall following
a curb collision and ended up with a bloody, bruised knee – it was bound to
happen! In Pannonhalmi we spent our first night camping in a lovely small
hillside campsite.

Having decided to visit Lake Balaton, we headed further south with a plan to
spend the night in Bakonybel. In temperatures of 30 degrees plus we headed
off into the Bakony Forest to enjoy the shady forest paths. It was hard work
in places but great fun. Mr Geneva (Mr G) came out with a couple of classic
quotes I have to share – “At least the mosquitos buzzing around your head
take your mind off the steep hills” and “We’re not lost, we’re having an
adventure”! We did in fact exit the forest in a different place than planned
- but this resulted in us finding a brilliant guest house in the village of
Porva, where we spent a very entertaining evening with our hosts – Jacco and
Trudy – in their delightfully restored old vicarage.

After the previous ‘ascent training day’, we headed back into the forest for
more hot, steep hills, totalling well over 1000m of ascents. I was
completely knackered by the end of the day and it was still 34 degrees at
6pm! We spent the night in the town of Herend, famous for its porcelain
factory, but which had nothing else to boast about and no eateries open
after 7pm, so we retreated to a ‘local lads’ pub where the barmaid kindly
ordered us a dial-a-pizza!

From Herend it was an easy ride down to the shores of Lake Balaton. We had
opted for the resort of Balatonakali, as the map showed several campsites.
Despite being a little like Stourport-on-Severn in places (tacky amusement
parks and too much untoned exposed flesh!) we found a lovely quiet spot to
set up camp for the next three nights. After a warm sunny start, swimming
in the lake and drinking wine in the warm evening sunshine, the weather took
a dramatic turn and the following day there was a nasty storm, with strong
winds threatening to unpitch the tent! We sat it out and took solace in the
fact that at least it clashed with a rest day and it was due to clear by the
following morning.

As predicted, after a night spent in a tent which was bending precariously
in the strong winds, we woke to clear skies and sunshine.We spent the day
cycling round the nearby penninsula of Tihany. The penninsula is a national
park and in places the ride followed off-road walking paths, which involved
some time out of the saddle walking our bikes up and down steep inclines.

From Tihany we cycled on to the town of Balatonfured, which is the main
tourist centre on the north west shores of the lake. After comparing
Balatonakali to Stourport-on-Severn, it follows that Balatonfured is
like Blackpool on an August Bank Holiday! It’s a delightful old town with
Georgian architecture and a lovely waterfront but also plenty of slot
machines, exposed flesh and tattoo palours. Here, ironically outside the
hospital and next to the healing water fountain, I had my second fall. This
time it was a gravel collision and luckily on to the other knee. So I now
have matching bashed knees and a very bruised right buttock!! Ruth has
already offered to send me a pair of stabilizers – but hey, I didn’t get the
nickname ‘Mrs Clumsy’ without good cause! Note to self – “Stop falling off
your bike or you’ll have to go home early!”

Posted in Hungary | 5 Comments »

Julia: So far, so very entertaining!

Jul 15th, 2009 by Julia

I had a really easy trip from the UK, complete with boxed bicycle – thank you Lisa for the airport lift. Bratislava was delightful – added to by lovely warm sunshine and a drop-dead gorgeous hotel….the last time I’ll be put in charge of accommodation I think!

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After 2 days meandering around the sights of the old city and partaking in the street cafes (to keep up Barry’s coffee and cake intake quota) we put my bike together and had a short day trip on the bikes west along the river to Devin (27km) to see the picturesque castle ruins.

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The following day we left Bratislava to head east along the Danube river. More sunshine and the wind behind us – an easy 30km but still a shock to my bum!! The Komoran Botel was a great first night stop, complete with a stunning sunset and very drinkable local vina bielé – I’m easily pleased!

Tags: bratislavia, Julia

Posted in Slovakia | 3 Comments »

July 11th

Jul 12th, 2009 by Slogfester

Bratislava and the Danube

Its a small world. In Bratislava I bumped in to an old friend. By amazing coincidence Julia had just bought a new bike and was free for the next 6 weeks So after a very relaxing couple of days in Bratislava at some swanky hotel, we set off East down the Danube with (hooray) the wind on our backs for a lazy 30 km.

Departing Bratislava:
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The plan was to try and find a campsite, but along the way we passed a ‘Botel’ (converted barge hotel) which looked too good to pass. Sure enough, except for a rather un-nautical lack of tonic for the gin, it was a wonderful place to watch the sun go down over Europe’s longest river.

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