Hungary (all)

This is the exciting journal of my cycling adventures in the wild lands of Europe. Will my knees hold up? Will I simply be too lazy and return after a week? Will I make it to Istanbul in time to host a WILD party? Read on......

I'm at one of those grave intellectual impasses that have been known to bring even greater minds than my own to a standstill. I have an orphan sock. Trivia, you say. Ha! I think not.

The cause of this problem is surely the work of that Slovakian KGB Agent, foolishly disguised as a laundress in Svolen. She stole it, I'm sure. Probably for a DNA sample to impress her superiors in Bratislava. They've been following my every move since the kustoms agent in Warsaw asked me the purpose of my visit to Poland. When I answered ``vacation'' the disbelief on his face gave him away. What, doesn't anyone go to Poland on vacation?

But back to the real problem, the orphan sock. The purists among cycle tourists would say, ``Throw it away, it's excess baggage. And while you're at it, cut three inches off that over-long toothbrush handle.'' But the Calvinist in me says, ``Save it. It's a good sock, nearly new.'' I've already reduced the weight of my baggage by losing its mate. Maybe I'll lose another and be back to even and lighter still.

We are addicted. Our bike seats are still warm from our previous and first tour, three months of cycling from Stockholm to Rome, and already we are thinking of another tour. You would have thought we had enough, but no we don't want those seats to get cold. The only question was where?

Our first tour had been North to South so how about East to West. We had loved the two days that we had cycled along the Danube and wished we would have had more time following the river. Now we would make up for that.

We would start in Munich and follow the Isar River to the Danube. There we would join the super highway of bike touring, the Donauradweg, and follow it to Budapest. The return trip would be by train arriving back in Munich in time to enjoy Oktoberfest.

Il ciclismo è sofferenza. Il premio è la cima di una montagna o una città a 2000km da casa. Se questo premio vi sembra adeguato allora la domanda ``ma chi te lo fa fare'' ha già una risposta. Se non vi sembra abbastanza, semplicemente non potete capire chi pedala.

Cycling is suffering. The prize is the top of a mountain or a city 2000km far from home. If this prize seems you enough, then the question ``why do you do that'' already has an answer. If you don't find it enough, you just simply cannot understand cyclists.

A world tour on a rather odd bicycle.

This blog (still ongoing) describes our experiences, both good and bad, of cycle touring around Europe. It was a long planned trip - about 15 years before coming to fruition - and we decided that as we were between jobs and countries (from Dubai on the way back to NZ) we would explore some of the places we had always wanted to visit and get a culture fix too!

Read about my adventures by bicycle around the world,taking in Europe, the Near East, India, South East Asia, Australasia, and the USA on Route 66.

For something a little less ambitious, I have prepared details of a three-week tour of the beautiful landscapes of central Portugal.

Or if you prefer a central base and some day rides, read about my routes on the Spanish island of Mallorca - a cyclist's paradise, with warm weather, flat hinterland, stunning mountain climbs, and huge ice-creams!

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

Welcome to the Wish Tour!

Below you will find the photos and journal from a two-year, 20,000-mile bicycle journey around the world.

Starting in July 2005, this journal will take readers across the United States, Europe, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The journey began more than 20 years ago, as the seeds of a dream to circumnavigate the globe were cultivated from a deeply personal and painful experience.

[Absolutely stunning pictures.]

journal + a lot pictures

La mia bicicletta ha circa due mesi di vita: una city bike rossa, 21 rapporti, con la quale ho fatto circa 130 km, un po' sui colli bolognesi, un po' nei dintorni di Cereglio, e una quindicina su stupende, alte montagne marchigiane.

Through Eastern Europe, summer 2006

Summer 2006 we cycled Eastern Europe. We started in Bucharest Romania and went all the way to the Ukraine border into Hungary, Slovakia, Chzechoslovakia into Germany. On my windows webspace the route and the pictures tell the story. Enjoy!

A self-organised, seven-day tour for four through the countryside of Eastern Slovenia and Western Hungary. A total of 647km travelled.

Highlights included: romantic Ljubljana, the socialist-realist new town of Velenje, traversing the Pohorje Massif via the Rogla ski resort, crossing the border at Kobilje, sampling erratic Hungarian driving techniques, having to off-road frequently, 85km of flat along Lake Balaton, the old town of Szekesfehervar (when we found it), and entering Budapest the hard way via the Buda hills.

All that and sampling every beer we could find...

In March of 2006 we set out to cycle from the UK to Tibet. We didn't quite make it but had a great adventure cycling across Europe in one of the wettest winters on record and then through the wilds of Central Asia. The site includes lots of images from Tajikistan one of the really countries for cycling.

I can't really remember how we came up with the idea. It wasn't like, 'Hey, let's cycle from Europe to Asia.' It was an accumulation of small and different snippets of information via the Internet, certain other events and I suppose fate, that all slowly came together to give us our planned destination 'ISTANBUL'.

One thing was definite, the good old faithful Blue Danube River played it's usual important role in the idea, which was to safely guide us, not all of the way, but at least a part of it.

Ich kann mich nicht genau erinnern wie wir auf diese Idee gekommen sind. Wir haben nicht einfach gesagt ``warum radeln wir nicht von Europa nach Asien?''. Es war eher eine Ansammlung kleiner und unterschiedlicher Informationen aus dem Internet, verbunden mit anderen Ereignissen und wahrscheinlich auch Schicksal, was uns letztendlich unser Ziel Istanbul gegeben hat.

Eines war sicher, unsere altvertraute Blaue Donau spielte wie immer eine wichtige Rolle. Sie zeigte uns den Weg, und begleitete uns treu fast bis ans Ziel.

Cycling the Elbe and Danube cycle ways.

Two tours, one of the Danube cycle way from Germany to Budapest, then through Slovenia to Venice, and the Elbe cycle tour from Hook of Holland to Prague via Hamburg; passing through Germany and Dresden.

This website accompanies the book ``Why Don't You Fly?'' (ISBN 1-905203-25-X published by Pen Press).

How does it feel to trade comfort and security for life as a nomad and to pare one's life down to the bare necessities? What is it like to push at the frontiers of one's physical and mental endurance?

``Why Don't You Fly?'' is the account of an epic adventure in search of an elusive sense of identity in which triumph, disappointment, discomfort, exhaustion and exhilaration all trade positions against a backdrop of prodigious physical endeavour. During a gruelling 16,500-mile examination of physical and mental stamina the author ate and drank in roadside cafés in the company of inquisitive lorry drivers and shared dormitories in remote Chinese villages with fascinated farm hands and gleeful mosquitoes. Sceptical western existentialism met religious fatalism in the restaurants and teahouses of the Middle East and India in the course of a physical and spiritual journey that constantly raised questions about the attitudes and values that prevail in the West.

The Website includes a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the book, a sample chapter and 93 photographs.

This webpage is intended to provide information for cycle tourists who may be considering tours in the countries I've visited. For more information, journals and pictures leave a message in my guestbook or send me an email.

`` Yes, it's hot. But we've seen worse haven't we my friend. There was that day east of Warnambol when the chip seal melted and the chips stuck to the tires. A few revolutions later we had flats front and rear. So we pushed for a mile seeking shade to repair the punctures. And the flies Ah! And there was that time in Zamorah. Ah! But not now.''

``The Great Heart Travelers'' promote the blood donation riding around the world. They made a Europe tour of 5400 km in 2004, and a tour in New Zealand in 2005. (Follow the archive link at the bottom of the page to go to the European tour.)

In 2001 vanuit Nederland vertrokken en nu okt 2005 meer dan 65.000 km en al meer dan 40 landen doorgefietst.

[On June 20 2003] I did a tour along the Moldavian painted monasteries [in Romania], starting with a not too difficult pass. Sucevita monastery was even more beautiful. From there I continued east to a bigger town, Radauti, to find a bank machine for a few millions of cash. Via Solca I reached Gura Humorului. Met a group of German cycle tourists. Near the Sucevita monastery I found a nice place to camp at a B&B farm. I insisted to pay for this and for the use of the sanitary facilities and the host accepted my offer of 5 euros, which is a crazy amount for a simple camping spot. For this amount he invited me to sleep in a bedroom inside, but I refused politely and opted for my tent with nice views on the village road. My host spoke good English, teaching American sailors in Brasov and staying at his parents farm during the holiday season. [The next day I took] a small detour to visit the Voronet monastery.

I did a tour along the Moldavian painted monasteries [in Romania], starting with a not too difficult pass. Sucevita monastery was even more beautiful. From there I continued east to a bigger town, Radauti, to find a bank machine for a few millions of cash. Via Solca I reached Gura Humorului. Met a group of German cycle tourists. Near the Sucevita monastery I found a nice place to camp at a B&B farm. I insisted to pay for this and for the use of the sanitary facilities and the host accepted my offer of 5 euros, which is a crazy amount for a simple camping spot. For this amount he invited me to sleep in a bedroom inside, but I refused politely and opted for my tent with nice views on the village road. My host spoke good English, teaching American sailors in Brasov and staying at his parents farm during the holiday season. [The next day I took] a small detour to visit the Voronet monastery.

Ja, hebben jullie het al gezien, we zijn meer dan 4 jaar onderweg. Wat een tijd en toch.... we genieten er nog elke dag van. Nu zijn we in Jujuy, noord Argentinië. Via Chili gaan we binnenkort naar Bolivia, waar we een tijdlang niet zullen kunnen internetten. We zullen op grote hoogte gaan fietsen, hoogtes waar we nog niet eerder waren. Of dat prettig is.. jullie zullen het later lezen.

Le strade sono in buone condizioni in Polonia, Slovacchia e Ungheria. Per quanto riguarda la Romania la situazione varia dall'importanza della strada che si sta percorrendo. Quelle indicate nella mappa del Touring col colore bianco sotto la dicitura di ``altra strade'' sono spesso con un fondo stradale dissestato con buche o rattoppi che rendono la strada molto irregolare. Tutto questo in un ottica automobilistica, ma in un contesto cicloturistico ciò non comporta grossi problemi. Unica avvertenza non andare sparati in discesa se volete evitare spiacevoli imprevisti.

Notevole è però l'impegno rumeno per migliorare lo stato delle cose; strada facendo abbiamo incontrato spesso lavori stradali di risistemazione o rifacimento del manto stradale, quindi la situazione è possibile che migliori di anno in anno. Il traffico è abbondante a Bucarest e in direzione nord fino a Brasov; la statale 1 o E60 che parte da Bucarest fino a Ploiesti è vietata al traffico ciclistico. Conviene evitare, come del resto abbiamo fatto salvo poche eccezioni, le strade rosse di grande comunicazione. Ricordatevi che in Romania non esistono praticamente autostrade, quindi tutto il traffico si scarica sulle statali. Posso aggiungere che nelle strade alternative scelte, percorse e qui descritte abbiamo trovato quasi sempre un traffico scarso o tollerabile. La viabilità alle biciclette è consentita su quasi tutte le strade percorse. Abbiamo trovato qualche limitazione in Ungheria, apparentemente immotivata, che abbiamo risolto o con percorsi alternativi o, in un solo caso, infischiandocene del divieto.

La pedalata è adatta ad un cicloturista allenato. La lunga distanza e i dislivelli da percorrere non devono fare però paura. Il paesaggio carpatico è simile all'appennino tosco-emiliano, montagne quasi mai aspre, passi intorno ai 1.000 - 1.500 s.l.m.; ma anche dolci colline e pianure.

A short tabular tour description.

My name is Louis Tousignant, a Canadian in his mid fifties, living in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic shore. Having cycled Copenhagen to Rome in 1998, and the U.K. in the mid 80's, it seemed a good idea to try Eastern Europe. As an eager amateur photographer, I particularly wanted to see Krakow, Prague and Budapest. Having had a grand time in Italy the year before, I also wanted to see Venice, a must... before one dies... Ergo this trip which I enjoyed tremendously.

This 52 day trip included 33 days of touring (3003 km for a 91 km/day average) and 19 days of travel and tourism. The load, minus water, was 20 kg, distributed in 4 saddle bags and one camera bag on the rear rack.

After four Tatra-tour I knew that I wouldn?t be satisfied with visiting only Zakopane; our goal was to cycle to Krakkow and than back to Hungary. I didn?t know that a guy from the team punctured, so when I cycled back, I found nobody. I had to continue my tour alone, but I hoped we would meet until the evening. In Zdiar during eating I was just thinking that I would have to get used to cycling alone, when my teammates apperared on the road. At the wooden house in the forest at the top of the first climb of Poland we turned not left as in 1997 or 1995, but turned right to north, to the Glodowka meadow. In my fifth Tatra-tour, with about 7-8 years of experiences in cycling I could discuss with the guys that if they don?t join me I could visit the famous wooden church of Debno 15 kms from there.

From Glenn and Sheila Ord's Home Page: On the Road to Nowhere - Nowhere is the Place. With an emphasis on budget travelling - Our experiences and advice for cycling in Europe. This guide is entirely based on our 7 ½ months (12,000 km) in 1998 across (and back) Europe: staying almost entirely in campgrounds (185 tent nights). This was supplemented by our time in Italy (April-May 1999).

In the fall of 1998 I set off on a long journey by bike. It covered more than 15000 kilometers and 14 countries. During this trip I was hit by rocks and cars, I was baked, soaked, and deep frozen by the weather gods. Mostly, however, I had a superb opportunity to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, meet wonderful people and enjoy the culture of widely differing lands. This site is about my bike trip from Sweden to South-East Asia via Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Pakistan, China, and Tibet. It also contains general information and links on bicycle touring and travelling in general.

Travel Notes:

• Thumbs up to: French friendliness, secondary road system, campsites, the bread, wine cheese, pate, supermarkets.
• Thumbs down to: the April weather, birds that chirp all night long.
• Most bizarre sight: we spotted 3 English train spotters on holiday watching the trains go by.
• The gift for the person who has everything: a waterproof baguette holder

Theft Incidents:

• Muesli and milk (fox suspected); Germany
• Dog chewing Glenn's dinner plate; France
• Cat burgler..feline attempt at food in tent vestibule; Spain

A five weeks, 2700km tour in August/September 1997, from Germany to Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. I enjoyed this unforgettable trip thoroughly. Scenery, people, food etc. changed continuously.

The border to Slovenia is just a few km behind Gorizia. They still actually have border guards there even though Slovenia has recently become an EU member, but they just wave everybody through. Route 444 follows the freeway but is very quiet and pleasant, far more than the roads in Italy that led us here. At Ajdovscina we took route 207 and 621, which turned out to be more hilly than we thought - we gained 750 meters in one long and relentless climb, with little shadow. Very scenic though, with many views of the valleys. Near Podkraj a windy but exhilarating descent began, and after Logatec the second half of the descent was perfect, with safe long curves and no traffic. The last few km to Lubljana were busy though, as usual when entering a large city.

I used to have this mental image of Slovenia as one of those Socialist paradises, with gray people living in gray cities and trees growing in the potholes. Quite the opposite! Friendly clean cities, very good roads, and on a warm Saturday evening like this one the streets and cafes are bursting with people enjoying themselves. This country has definitely arrived in the 21st century. Ljubljana has a very pleasant old town, although much of the rest isn't very pretty.

Tussen juli 1995 en december 1996 hebben wij een fietsreis gemaakt van Rotterdam naar Kaapstad. Op deze reis hebben we door twintig landen gefietst in Europa, het Midden Oosten en Afrika. In anderhalf jaar tijd hebben we een afstand van ruim 20.000 kilometer afgelegd. Op deze internet-site kun je enkele verhalen over deze reis lezen en de mooiste van onze honderden foto's bekijken.

Kosice, Roznava, Miskolc, Eger, Tiszafüred, Hajdoszoboszlo, Szarvas, Csongrad, Kiskunhalas, Villany, Haromfa, Zalakaros, Heviz, Sarvar, Kapuvar, Breitenbrunn, Bratislava.

This is the Pilsner tour, covering Germany, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The terrain is rolling hills and the routes traverse famous rivers and the towns and cities that formed along their banks.