Two Weeks with my Brother Part II

Melk
We left at 7:45 this morning and succeed at 9 pm. In between, bicycle museum, swimming, giant thunderstorm at the Melk Abbey, etc.  50 miles.

Finally found a dirt road to Danube swimming! 

Anything to get to a water hole.

Our sweet swimming heaven.  
it’s a heat wave so we mostly worry about finding a swimming hole.

Today we spent the morning at various museums and sites of Carnuntum, an old Roman settlement on the shore of the Danube.

Then we went swimming in a Danube side channel with all the local kids.

Then we arrived in Bratislava and ate the food we have been toting from the grocery store. 

I drenched myself twice in drinking fountains, a cemetery watering can from a well, and the Danube ....wish my clothes wouldn't dry so quickly.
Looking for swimming was the goal of the day!   

Today we went from Slovakia to Hungary. More swimming. All the trees are dying here, due to lack of rain. Still 95 or hotter daily. Rode a train the last 25 miles. Very flat, many corn and sunflower fields. Reminds me of Nebraska. Had Hungarian fish for dinner. 

I've been most impressed in Europe by how good the public spaces in city and town centers are; and how well marked the bike routes are. It would be so hard to find your way around with just maps. The signs make it easy and accessible. 

I regret to inform you that most of my witty posts haven't successfully posted. I haven't been able to get to or see my own page this whole trip.  

After about 650 kilometers, 390 miles, I really feel one with the Danube Bike Path. . .we're thinking the Netherlands next year (cooler).

For our niece, Brigitte

Hungary's bike path is mainly dirt track along the railroad, but it is shady! 

Don't worry about your luggage setting in the garage all day. We are carefully locking up their bikes. 

Fancy hotel. We thought for a moment we were on the wrong bridge; wrong street; wrong city--different country; different names. Back to Slovakia.

All the swimming in the world today!!!

Heat wave. 100 degrees. 

Trees are dying from lack of moisture.

Roman ruins. all our other bike buddies just varoomed by.
We're in Slovakia toured Roman stuff. Brent Is taking 100000000 photos. I'm trying to drive without crashing.  We ride 25 miles tomorrow then catch a train to Hungary 

Bikes on ferry.

\

Waiting for the ferry to Budapest.  
City has best Internet we've seen!

Will it fit?

recycled jeans

Last night we stayed in a health resort and of course everyone immediately went rushing over to use the exercise machines for a few hours after our all-day bike ride. It was called Hotel Bellevue, and it really did have a nice view. Also, it was painted bright orange.

The river has hills and mountains around it again.

Hotel in a Carmelite Monastery

Two ferry rides during the day and then a boat ride the last twelve miles into Budapest left time for only one swimming expedition. About 55 kilometers of riding. 

We generally hear from Amy and Brent around 11 PM when they are just getting up; and sometime in the morning when they are just going to bed.

Then we went to a Hungarian restaurant with a gypsy band playing music. I told Amy I thought it was the same band and the same violinist playing the same music as when I was here 32 years ago. 

They were kind enough to set off a whole bunch of fireworks right outside our hotel room window, in honor of our arrival. B

It's downpouring in Budapest. We got back to our hotel just in time.

It was very hot the whole time we were here, but we didn't get caught out in a rainshower even once. Now it's going to rain here for the next 24 hours straight, it looks like. 

Today we warmed up for our 24 hour airline flight tomorrow by getting a 24 hour City Tour pass and sitting around on buses and boats all day long. We have more seen every single site in Budapest from about 7 different directions.

They told us we needed reservations.

We had Mongolian BBQ/buffet for lunch. Oddly, none of the other tourists seemed very interested in trying it.

We have added another Hungarian word to our vocabulary. "Etterem" means a place you can eat. You can see we are starting with the absolutely most vital words and working our way down the list one by one.

Just as we got off the bus from our last tour route, just half a block from our hotel, a huge downpour started. We enjoyed watching it from the safety of our room. Then we took the elevator downstairs to visit the reception area, and five seconds after we stepped out of the elevator, the power on our entire block went out, and hasn't come back on since.

So we showered and got all packed up in the dark. Leaving for the airport at 7:50am. 

Massive rainstorm. We stepped off the lift not 20 sec before the power went out indefinitely. We'd still be stuck since last night. Amy

Made the flight from Budapest to Munich ok. Waiting at the gate for the Munich - Chicago flight, which should start boarding soon. B

Then they sat on the tarmac for an hour or two because of mechanical difficulties. Finally on descend to Chicago when thundershowers hit. Landed in Detroit which is not an International Airport so they had to wait on the tarmac for a customs official to be flown in.  four hours sleep and finally home Wednesday morning when Amy was already to work. Her flight was on time and she got home around midnight Tuesday night.

Changed all my money into chocolate! Took about 6 trips to get it right. 

Me too. 

Almost home! been up for 24 hrs with one more flight.

You sure get a lot done when you wake up at 2 a.m. thank you jet lag....

Jan Hugh:Brent was up at the same time.

Brent Hugh Nah, I slept all the way to 3:30.

"Did Brent use his German much?"
"Oh yes."
"Or did you get by with English?"
"He used it all the time."

auf wiedersehen


Did I mention this?