Day Five, Budapest
After walking everywhere the previous day and still reluctant to ride the bikes, we took public transport including the underground which is the oldest in the world after London. Almost cute, small, surprisingly clean and understated. We walked up the leafy and cosmopolitan Andrassy Road and throught Hero's Square and looked at the recent monument to the 1956 uprising. We had lunch at the very over the top New York Café. Very nice food, a man in a tux playing a baby grand and very smart waiters/waitresses - so much better dressed than the tourists, us. The social centre of Budapest since New York Insurance Company commissioned the place in 1894, it has survived two world wars and the Great Depression.
We finished the day in the Gellért baths, lots of pretty ceramic tiling but pricey, not a little confusing to get around in and compared to we are used to in Austria, a bit ordinary.
Day Six, Back to Vienna
Early Tuesday morning, it is brisk but the sun is up at Margaret Bridge on the way to the International Shipping Harbour.
Having seen the refugees swamping the main railway station in Budapest, we had already booked tickets before we left Vienna. These Soviet built hydrofoils which have been speeding up and down the Danube since 1986. Liberty bridge in the background.
As the Danube levels were historically slow, the hydrofoil was able to move along at about 54km/hr - view looking at the back. 6 1/2 hours upriver and 5 1/2 hours down.
View of the massive St Stephens Bascillica of Eztergorm and the bridge we rode over on the right in the background.
Some modern and expensive building in Bratislava.
8 years old Nordex wind turbine 600kW at the container terminal on the Danube.
Back in Vienna. After a two day break, we cycled with ease back through Vienna and, quickly, back up the hill home. 350km, roughly, on the clock.
