Day 30 the forecast rain didn’t eventuate till later so a beautiful mornings cycling. Initially had a few trials with hubby who had said the night before lets stay on right bank to avoid the once an hour ferrys. However after 3 kms on a seriously busy road and struggling to avoid potholes or be hit by a car the other bank was deemed a better option. It was then a frantic peddle to catch the once an hour ferry to Szob. As I turned down the side road I calculated I had nearly a km to do in 2 minutes I needed to be peddling at 30kms an hour. I got to 28kms an hour and ahead the barrier was raised so everyone was on board just as I got there the ferry had pulled away.Luckily the ferry came back for us, 2 cyclists on board had watched our race for the ferry and were suitably impressed. My legs weren’t , then of course the other side wasn’t flat very undulating, poor legs. Scenery was beautiful, castles perched on hilltops and a lovely gorge opening up.Great conditorie alias cake shop for coffee and tea and somehow that ended up as 2 cakes.

We got to the historic town of Vac only 20 minutes before the once an hour ferry so I just had time to dash up to see their market square and get back for the ferry. This ferry takes you across to an island formed in the Danube and then you cycle off a bridge the other side.At this point we kept meeting a senior german couple , who incidently had whizzed up the ramp off the boat as I struggled to push my bike off up the ramp. Yes they were riding super duper electric bikes.We met up with them again at a snack bar, not recommended for lunch ever again.A beefburger here has a fat filled pink burger shaped thing in the middle, yuk. They were planning on going all the way to the Black Sea I forgot to ask them how they were getting back, certainly not by plane with their spare lithium batteries.

Onto the arty town of Szentendre, we’d gone for an appartment so we could cook a reasonable meal.We bought the most expensive piece of steak we could see salivating over the thought of a big steak, sorry we are Aussies and our steaks melt in your mouth.I went to cook it, it was stewing steak full of gristle only ok for a 10 hour cook, the jaws got a good workout.The appartment on its write up said heating. There were 2 primeval gas contraptions I tried to fire them up , no sound of gas flow. I put my down jacket on( it was raining outside now very hard and a forecast overnight of 6C) and phoned the appartment owner. No heating its May gas got turned off. Szentendre seemed to be full of souvenir type shops at inflated prices, catering for the river boats that disgorge their passengers for an hour in the town.So a bit disappointing for all the hype , but it was quite pretty with cobbled streets.

The rain hadn’t gone away overnight. We had one of those guide book comments don’t go through the woods if its been raining a lot, the main road was seriously busy so it was the

mud option .Luckily we didn’t have too far to go to Budapest but it wasn’t river banks full of coffee shops that we imagined. We managed a coffee at a kiosk but they didn’t have tea so I had hot water to warm up, yes it was freezing. Signeage wasnt great again no signs at crucial turns, so you then had to check the book in the pouring rain. Not easy. Quite run down in parts Soviet style concrete blocks and half cleared sites. A japanese restaurant in the basement where we could see our bikes on the street was a welcome warm up.It was very impressive cycling into Budapest with their houses of parliament and all their beautiful bridges over the Danube. Onto our spacious appartment which is in a courtyard type formation but very large. We are very close to the Central Market Hall food galore great place. We are on the top floor in the appartment block, the third floor and there are no lifts, we wont be getting unfit in the next 4 days of seeing the sites. My sisters and Maggie all arrived last night so some family time and sightseeing ahead of us, I think we’ll have to plan a day with a book or 2 to chill on Lake Balaton..

1,379 kms along the Danube plus our 96kms getting to start so 1475 kms completed before we start meandering back through Hungary and Slovenia.Red line is Danube from Hungary the plan is to reach Ljubljana so long as the hills dont get in thevway!!