Day 43 - Május 22. szerda 2013

From - Gyor.
To - Komarom.
Distance - 67km
Time - 6 hours
Total - 3083km

I actually finished the Jack Reacher book this morning. The serial killer turned out to be a female FBI detective who was actually one of the investigators. I didn't guess at all (and I am the acknowledged Cluedo champion in my family). Jack Reacher guessed it and got there just when she was committing her fifth murder and punched her once and it killed her. It saves the expense of a court case! Quite a thriller. I would recommend it to you but I've spoilt it completely now. Never mind there are lots of Jack Reacher books.

I gave my bike a quick check over and found a little chunk missing from the back tyre, only small but it convinced me that I need to change it now. I didn't have a long journey so I thought it would be OK to find a bike shop. Simple! I could find bike shops alright. I found four in Gyor, one in Komarno and two in Komarom. Most didn't have the right size tyre and those that did only had slicks for racing bikes. I was forced to cycle whilst worrying about the tyre. It just happened to be on the day where the cycle tracks and roads have been horrendous.

Hungary's road and pavement infrastructure is poor to say the least. Overall most of the towns and villages are fairly basic in many amenities. It still has an Eastern Block feel in some places. The roads are quite a mess but they are better than the pavements. At least the roads have had some patching up whereas the pavements get ignored. If Hungary has had a grant for developing the Eurovelo 6 cycle route I can only see the signs as an outcome of the money! Two parts of the track were certainly not fit to be part of a cycle route. They were just muddy, rutted tracks. I can only be pleased that it has been dry for the last few days because otherwise I wouldn't have managed on my bike. I did fall off again on one track just because of the terrain. No injuries and no damage, thankfully. I just got dirty. Enough of a rant. At least the back tyre survived.

I was a bit concerned that the comment I made about Hungary being a good country for tanks was possibly unwarranted but it didn't take me long to find the proof. See Photo 1.

I didn't manage much sight seeing beyond the 6-10 feet in front of my bike for most of the day as i was constantly looking for holes and bumps. I'm still going on about the roads again aren't I, sorry! Things did improve towards Komarom. I visited Monostor Fort. It was named 'the Gibraltar of Central Europe'. It is a large fort complex that overlooks the Danube. Surprisingly it was only completed in 1871. That's the same year my house was built! It's a big fort with walls ver 5 metres think but made bigger by earth all around them to help them withstand shelling. The place is a bit dilapidated and probably wouldn't be allowed to be open in the UK on the grounds of health and safety. I was almost the only visitor in this massive fort, I don't think many Hungarians have much leisure time to go visiting places like we take for granted. There were loads of tunnels and barracks within the walls. There were a couple of rooms that had displays of soldiers of a certain era in them. As I walked in (unknown to me) there was a sensor that triggered a bugle and some music. I nearly jumped out of my skin when this bugle started. I was ready the second time when I went into the other room! I really liked the fact that it was just as it had been left because it was impressive enough and I could imagine it being used more easily. Apparently the last people to use it was the Russian Army who used it as a big munitions store.

I told you yesterday that I didn't know much about Hungary, so that prompted me to find out a bit more. I must admit I wasn't sure which side they were on during the World Wars. Sadly, it appears they were on the wrong side twice. Although I think they tried to back out of their alliance with Germany at some point of the Second World War. After the war the Communists took over and they tried to introduce some freedoms against the wishes of the Soviet Union and were crushed in 1956 with around 20,000 people killed. Then they achieved democracy in 1989-90 in a peaceful change. They are probably still playing catch up with the rest of Europe.

I also took time to check on the internet who were famous Hungarians? There weren't many names that I recognised but I let you think about that and I will come back to name a few tomorrow. If you know any please let me know who they are.

I got to Komarom and also went to Komarno across the bridge. They are really the same town but for various reasons have ended up in different countries. Komarno is in Slovakia. I got a few more Euros out of a bank machine and came back to Hungary. I found the hotel and despite it being called the Aqua Hotel I was pleasantly surprised that it was part of a complex that included an open air Olympic size swimming pool and a couple of other fun pools. Fantastic. The sun was still shining and it didn't take me long to get my trunks on and into the pool. I dried off naturally on one of the sun beds.

I didn't eat out tonight. I managed to get the sardine tin open and had a sardine sandwich with a croissant I took from breakfast. I live in style!

Not too far again tomorrow. It's actually less than today. I go to Esztergom.

By the way, I checked a cycle shop website in Budapest and they have tyres like the ones I am currently using so all I need to do is to survive about another 150km on these tyres. Fingers crossed!

Song for the 'Three wheels on my wagon', I'm not sure who its by. Someone will tell me?


Photo 1, Proof of the Tanks look closely at the tarmac.
Photo 2, Rutted track, there was much worse. I was too busy falling off!
Photo 3, Fort Monostor.
Photo 4, Tunnels in the walls.
Photo 5, Display in the Barracks.
Photo 6, I remember this river. Is it the Danube? first time I've seen it all day.
Photo 7, Kamarno Museum with statue of someone called Jokia! He comes in handy when playing 'Its a Knockout'.
Photo 8, Komarom Town Hall. Nicest building in a dullish town.
Photo 9, The bike has to sleep with me, hope it doesn't snore!
Photo 10, Open air Olympic size swimming pool about 10 yards from my room. All part of the service.