Balkan Bike Trip - part 2 : Hungary & Serbia

Day 6: Kalocsa, Hungary to Baja, Hungary

31 miles on bike

Today's route was along a nice series of bike paths and back roads.  Almost the entire day we had the Danube River to our right and farm land to the left.  Not too exciting, but scenic.  

Some interesting carved poles in the middle of nowhere... 

Sleeping sheep, sorry for the bad photo.  My camera died, this is an iPad photo.

We found a cheap hotel in Baja, there was no camping options.  They let us store our bikes overnight in a room that was being set-up for a wedding the next day.  I hope the bride doesn't stop by.  

Day 7: Baja, Hungary to Sombor, Serbia

51 miles on bike (Again, ignore the distance in the map below.  Side trips to bank and grocery store plus a visit to a closed campground added 10 miles.  I am using mileage from my bike computer) 

Some Hungarian looking women doing Hungarian things outside of a Hungarian supermarket.  

We have been using an app called maps.me for most of our route planning.  It has found us some great back roads and bike paths.  Today the route had us go on a country road straight south and basically dead end into the border fence between Serbia and Hungary.  We then headed due west along a "road" (more of two tire tracks in a field).  This "road" ran parallel to the border fence for about 5 miles.  Here is the road below.   

I have a minor obsession with land borders.  So it was cool to ride along this border fence in the middle of nowhere.  You can see the border in the background of the picture below.  

On our dirt road we stumbled upon some police/military/border patrol.  They were blocking the road and had a lot of guns.  One guy was in camo.  We thought we might get in trouble for being on the road.  But they just waved and moved aside as we road past.  Since Hungary is in the European Union, many refugees from various places have tried to enter Hungary via Serbia.  I am guessing these guys were on the lookout for migrants.  

After passing the border police and 5 miles on the rural road, we popped out into a little town and found a huge statue of Mary.  

We then crossed into Serbia.  Neither the Hungarian nor the Serbian border guards said much.  They stamped our passports and handed them back in 30 seconds.  Since this was a relatively rural crossing, there were no other cars or people crossing.  

Scenes from Serbia day one...

When we got to town, we went to a campground for cyclists on our map.  The owner apologized and said he was closed for family emergency, but directed us to another camp site down the road.  We lucked out because this one is much nicer.  The owner runs a sod farm in a city an hour away.  From what I gather this is their vacation property and they set up a business renting camp spots.  They have a tennis court, small indoor pool, a kitchen to use, showers, beer, covered area to park bikes, etc...  And we are the only ones here.

Day 8: Sombor, Serbia to Backi Petrovac, Serbia 

62 miles on bike 

When I wrote the previous day's entry, I spoke too soon.  Later at night Felix, from Germany, showed up.  He made us feel like amateurs.  He had half of the stuff and in one day he biked what we did in the last two days!  He as a very nice guy and we decided to bike together the next morning.  Here is a picture before departure.  

I liked this little old lady...

Wedding dress shop with sidewalk display case...

My Serbian friend Neb told me about the "best ice cream in Serbia" in a town called Odzaci.  It was somewhat on the way so we stopped there.  We all agreed it was amazing.  

Felix stopping to buy some fruit from a road side stand....

...after Felix bought cherries the owner insisted on giving Julie and I some plums for free.  

Auto repair shop...

Felix is an animal.  After 62 miles, we were at our end stop.  Felix planned to go another 20...but first he stopped to buy us beers.  We went to a cheap hotel, he went back on the road!  

Balkan Bike Trip - part 1: Hungary

Day 1:  Chicago, IL to Budapest, Hungary

• 4,823.8 miles traveled
• 4,810 by plane
• 1.8 miles by bike
• 12 miles by van

We had a small hiccup at O'hare airport.  We had a one way ticket to Budapest via Berlin on Air Berlin.  They would not check us in without proof of a return ticket or a visa/German citizenship.  I guess they do not want people sneaking into Germany?  We had to buy a return ticket on our iPad as we stood at the counter and they let us get on board.

11 hours later we were in Budapest....

We got a ride from the Budapest airport via Andras, a cousin of my brother in law, Bill.  Andras borrowed a van from work and took us and our bikes to his apartment so we could assemble the bikes and get settled.

The route from the airport to Andras' apartment: 

TSA opened and went through both of our bike boxes.  They took my headlamp off the bike.  It was held on by zip ties...they cut all of them.  Inconvenient.  For shipping, I also had all four of our pedals removed and zip tied to the frame of the bike.  For some reason they cut just one pedal loose.  It was in the bottom of the box but a washer is missing.  

Here we are trying to assemble everything in Andras' garage.

The bikes all put together and in Adras' apartment for safe keeping while we explore the city.

Homemade alcohol from Andras' parents and Erica's parents.  We had a shot of grape something.  It was strong.  Andras tried to get me to do a shot before putting the bikes together...but I waited. 

Church near their apartment:

Andras and Erica took us here for lunch.  I had Goulash and some Hungarian pork. 

We left Andras and Erica for a grueling 1.8 mile ride to our VRBO.   

Bikes in the lobby of our Budapest VRBO. 

Who doesn't love pickles and salad?

Stuffed animals in the window.

Day 2-3:  Budapest, Hungary 

0 miles traveled

We spent days 2-3 walking around Budapest.  Here are some of the sites:

First stop was St. Stephen Basilica.  It is quite massive and impressive.

St. Peter looking pissed.

Looking up at the dome.  Second greatest dome I have ever seen...

"The Holy Right Hand is housed in the St. Stephen Basilica in Budapest and once a year, on August 20, it is carried in the Holy Right Hand ( Szent Jobb) procession.

The Basilica’s website tells a straightforward story that accepts without qualification that the mummified right hand once belonged to King Stephen, the first Hungarian king (1000-1038).

Here is their story in a nutshell. Stephen was buried in Székesfehérvár on August 15, 1038, in a sarcophagus that is  more or less intact although empty. The body was later reburied in the lower underground catacomb out of fear of possible disturbances of the grave. It was at that time that the hand was removed from the rest of the body because of its alleged miraculous properties. It was taken to the treasury of the basilica from where the man who was in charge of guarding the treasury stole it and hid it on his estate in the County of Bihar/Bihor, today Romania."

Yada yada yada, now Hungary has the hand back and they display it in the Basilica.  You pay a small fee for the light to go on and you can see it.  So yes, the photo below is an actual mumified right hand.

(Cited from: https://hungarianspectrum.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/the-holy-right-hand-of-st-stephen-king-of-hungary/) 

Budapest has a lot of Bronze art installations.  Jules with a little fat man. 

Insert your own joke about the restaurant below. 

Some Trump supporters have been canvassing Budapest...

Budapest is known for its 6 bridges over the Danube River.  This is one of them.  Google the other 5 if you are interested.

We decided that on last summer's trip we both missed the gym.  So we are going to try and hit as many Crossfit gyms as we can find.  We went to Crossfit B'Bros in Budapest twice.  

No trip to Budapest is complete without a trip to their famous thermal spas.  We went to Szechenyi Hot Springs.  They are set in a large complex in the middle of a huge park (like Central Park in NYC).

The pool in the foregorund is one of the thermal baths and the water is around 95 degrees.  In the background is the swimming pool.  The buildings house various lockerrooms, saunas, hot tubs, etc...

Goat man holding a baby...

These are some of the buildings, museums, statues in the park.

They love Columbo in Budapest.

Day 4: Budapest, Hungary to Domsod, Hungary

41 miles by bike (ignore mileage in map below, a few wrong turns added some miles)

Sad looking puppy.

Saw this giant antenna, must have been 20 stories tall.

A good feeling is when your pedal falls off 15 miles into a month long bike trip.  This was my error.  I think when I assembled the bikes I cross threaded one pedal on my bike.  The pedal slowly worked itself loose and fell off as we biked.  I could not get the pedal back on because the crankset was full of dirt and metal filings caused by my cross threading.  I thought our bike trip was over before it began.  

Luckily Julie has some international data on her phone and we found a bike shop within walking distance.  The guy there spoke no English but I was able to show him the problem.  He had a cool little tool to rethread the hole that receives the pedal.  He had it fixed in 5 minutes.  He would not take any money.  He just said "Thank you, goodbye" over and over.   

Lunch stop.

Resting in the shade at a train station.

We reached our campground.  I titled this picture "ol girl down."  

Julie says I am not in any of the pictures, so here you go. 

Day 5: Domsod, Hungary to Kalocsa, Hungary

61 miles by bike 

Is it the same Bill Graham?

Last year we followed a bike route called Eurovelo 1 through France.  This year it seems we are near Eurovelo 6 (although we did not plan to follow it).  We keep seeing the signs.  

Lots of roadside memorials.  Not sure if they are for someone killed in traffic or just for religious purposes. 

This sign is in the courtyard of our hotel!

Next post will be from Serbia....