Notes on Budapest - Prague cycle tour, summer 1994 General Maps - 1:300,000 'Euro Atlas' of Czechoslovakia, published by GeoCenter International. Slightly smaller scale than I would have liked, but did show campsites and places of interest. Took a day or so to get used to how features on the ground were represented on the map. Street map of Budapest - baught in the airport. Great map, showed every street in the greater Budapest area, all the way out to the airport. Books - Rough Guide to Czech and Slovak republics, Lonely Planet guide to Hungary (or maybe the other way round) Other - Cyclist Touring Club information sheets Language - neither of us spoke any Hungarian, Slovak or Czech, although we did learn a few words as we went along. German was very useful. Sometimes English helped, but not often (being so near Austria most of the time, German was the most common second language). Occasionally gesturing or pointing to phrases in the guide book was necessary, but not often. Food - readily available in large quantities and cheap. Rice and potatoes are the staples, which are great for touring on. Also the pastries and cakes were superb, and the beer great. Equipment - Raleigh Royal touring bike, stack of spares, friend (Andrew), tent, sleeping bag etc. Flight - we flew with British Airways, who didn't charge for the bikes, just wanted to know dimensions and weights. At London Heathrow they put the bikes into large polythene bags (pedals off, handlebars tuned round) in Prague they just wheeled them off. The coach driver from Cambridge to the airport, however... Security - we experienced no problems at all, often leaving the loaded bikes leant up aganst a wall (locked) while we went shopping. They seemed to attract no interest. In Budapest and Prague we kept the bikes in the hotel/dorm rooms with us. We went with the intention of camping. Most of the time this proved possible, a couple of times we stayed in hostels or small guest houses, and only once were we forced to camp 'wild' - and even then a local showed us where the best place was! BUDAPEST - great place to visit. The old town is wonderful - very well maintained and beautiful. Monday - 41 miles Followed the Danube north out of Budapest as far as Sentendre. Took a small ferry across to Sentedrei Sziget (Island) in the middle of the river to avoid the traffic on the main road. The island was almost deserted, clear roads and fields full of wild flowers. At the far end of the island (Kisoroszi) another small ferry took us back to the Hungarian shore. Stopped at Domos in a great little campsite - the showers were especially welcome as we'd hit the hottest summer for 150 years! Tuesday - 47 miles Followed Danube to Esztergom - a massive cathedral and the remains of a bridge across the river. Ate pastries - these were readily available on most of the trip, and extremely good. Continued to Komarom, passing a number of horses and carts laden with hay. When we saw the swimming pool complex attached to the campsite, we decided that we'd gone far enough today. Wednesday - 67 miles crossed into Slovakia at Komarno. Fruit trees lined the roads. Stopped at Cicov for breakfast, Gacikovo for lunch - here no one spoke anything other than Slovakian, but by pointing to what others were eating, we ate very well. Continued to Bac, Cilislov and Rovinka. It was here that we were shown where to camp wild - next to a working gravel pit that was also used as the local swimming pool! A middle aged couple who came for a late night swim told us we were stupid for setting off on the trip! Thursday - 30 miles to Bratislava - met to Slovakians who were cycle camping - they'd done 200km on each of the last two days on the way to Venice. Bratislava has a great old town too, and an impressive castle, perched on a precipice overlooking a bend in the river. Here we had the first problems with waiters - convincing them that you want _both_ rice and potatoes! The road out of Bratislava was steep, and blowing a headwind, so we didn't make too much distance, but stopped just north of Lozarno, in an old, run down holiday camp at Kamruny Mlyn. There was no charge for camping, but a shower cost \pounds 0.20!. Friday - 80 miles Crossed into the Czech replublic just outside Kuty - we were waved past the waiting line of lorries. Continued through Ludnice, and an impressive descent into Mikulov, where there's a great Cathedral and castle. On to Znojmo, through wheat fields being harvested, along roads lined with fruit trees (and yes, we did stop to sample some of the cherries - but only the ones that were about to fall off the trees anyway!). The campsite at Suchoraly was closed (apparently hygene problems), but in town we were shown to the local hostel at the edge of the town square by a local who wanted to practice his english. Saturday - 55 miles Set off for Vranov. The best view of the castle is halfway round the hairpin bend on the descent - and it's _very_ impressive. The inside was stunning too. Then to Bitov, a holiday resort with two castles, one complete, one ruined. The road surface gave out on us here though, the tar had started to melt, and stuck a layer of fine gravel to the tyres. The loose surface on some of the descents was amusing too. Stopped at Slavonice - a village of painted houses in the walled town, each depicting a biblical scene. We'd also arrived at the start of an international visual arts workshop, and the place was full of painting and pottery. Moved on to Osika (just outside Nova Bystrice) to a huge campsite by a lake, full of Czecs who sang round campfires late into the night. Sunday - 46 miles Through the fishponds to Trebon, a really pleasant old town, with the city walls still intact in placess, and a rambing 'castle' (more like a large manor house) with a huge formal garden. We'd arrived just in time for the start of the 'Okolo Trebone' festival, but after watching a play in Czech, we moved on. Continued to Ceske Budejovice, the home of the original Budvar (Budweiser) brewerey, via an exciting, hairpinned descent into Rudolfov. Ceske Budejovice has a _huge_ town square, with painted buildings and a great old town. Unfortunately the brewery isn't open to visitors. Somehow we managed to get completely lost going back to the campsite. Monday - 65 miles Today we left all the kit in the campsite, and set off unloaded for a circular day to visit some sights. First stop, Hluboka n. Vlt. castle, with its totally over the top interior - carved wooden panneling, with picture frames carved into the panneling, marquetry furniture and an outside that really looked like a castle should. Rode on to what the guidebook described as 'the perfect renaissance castle' at Netolice, which was closed, but the outside was superb. Then on to the highlight of the day, Cesky Krumlov, a world heritage site. Took the back route through Dobcise and Kremze, villages with whitewashed buildings and red tiled rooves. Cesky Krumlov is an amazing place - the castle is what you would imaging a middle European castle to be, stuck up on a cliff over the river, plain walls punctuated by irregularly spaced windowsss. But there were _two_ of them! linked by a covered bridge like a Roman viaduct over a gap in the cliff. The castle has a painted circular tower and decorated courtyards and formal gardens and.... And the old town was completely intact, the squares and narrow streets and expensive tourist coffee shops, but a _wonderful_ place to wander around. Tuesday - 44 miles On the road to Sobeslav, on a public holiday, we sat by the side of the road and rebuilt Andrew's rear wheel when he dumped the chain into the spokes. Sobeslav was quite average, but Tabor was good. Stayed in a small guest house (\pounds 5 ea) after a man on a bike asked us if we were looking for somwhere to stay. Tabor is a maze of narrow, cobbled streets and large open squares. Klokoty monastery overlooks the town. Wednesday - 46 miles A fairly hilly day. Through Voltice to Jemniste, an out of the way castle with an English speaking guide who gave us a personal tour, including the fresco that had only been discovered the previous year when a false ceiling was removed. This was a much more down-to-earth, lived in sort of castle, with access to the servants quarters and other such areas. Contrast Konopiste castle - masses of coachloads of tourists - so we saw the outside. Konopiste campsite was overpriced, but did have an outdoor jaccusi! Thursday - 32 miles The only day of rain (we had managed to miss a quite impressive thuderstorm earlier in the week) on the last leg into Prague. Fortunately the campsite had a kitchen we could shelter in until it eased a bit, but we did get wet. And found out that panniers aren't waterproof, but polythene bags are. It did make arriving into Wenceslas square not as much of a climax to the trip as it might have been, but Prague was a great place to spend the last few days seeing the sights, and trying to avoid the hordes of German school kids. We stayed in the university dorms, just beyond the last subway stop at the northern end of the line.