Velehrad (South Moravia, Czech Republic)
Sector 72 miles
Total 51367 miles
Relatively short drive along reasonable roads past the site of the Battle of Austerlitz (1805), where Napoleon comprehensively defeated the combined Austrian and Russian armies. To a very basic campsite (reminiscent of a Communist Workers Camp - seemed little changed since around 1970!) in wooded valleys with numerous signed cycle paths. Tried those one afternoon and the next day did a 20km hike to the Hrad Buchlov (Buchlov Castle). The town has an important baroque basicala that was visited by the pope during the fall of communism in eastern europe in 1990.
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| Battle of Austerlitz Memorial |
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| Zamek Buchovice |
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| Velehrad - Basilica of St. Cyrillus and Methodius |
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| Velehrad - Basilica of St. Cyrillus and Methodius |
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Velehrad - Hrad Buchlov |
10th August 2016
Cerovo (Slovakia)
Sector 165 miles
Total 51632 miles
Twenty four hours of wet weather started at 4pm on the 9th - so decided to head on into Slovakia - much less developed than the Czech Republic. By-passed Bratislava, which I had visited about ten years ago and ended up at a Dutch owned campsite in the hills just outside Cerovo. There was a help yourself vegetable plot! The weather remained cold and decided to head south to try and find warmer weather in Hungary the next day.
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| Cerovo - Farm and Campsite |
Budapest (Hungary)
Sector 106 miles
Total 6099 miles
Crossed into Hungary and followed a motorway (started off as a two lane single carriageway!) into Budapest and stopped at a campsite about 9km from the centre on the Pest side of the Danube. Amazing dense and integrated public transport system of trams, metro, trolley buses and trains! One stop on the train then the metro into the centre in about twenty minutes. There were two british couples at the campsite (which was totally packed) for the first time at the campsite since Belgium! A couple of days doing touristy stuff around Budapest. The hills are on the Buda side and the Hungarian Plain that stretches for hundreds of kilometres is on the Pest side of the Danube. It's hard to believe that most of the city was flattened in 1945 when the German's, defending castle hill, were besieged by the Russian army for seven weeks. Part of the hill is still in ruins and some pre-war government buildings are still being rebuilt.
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| Budapest - Buda - Castle Hill St Matthias Church (left) and Fisherman's Bastion fronting it, St Anne's Church (right) Bus hills in the distance. |
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| Budapest - Remains of the Roman town of Aquincum in the northern outskirts of Buda |
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| Budapest - Parliament Building in Pest (holds the St Stephen's Crown) |
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| Budapest - Buda from the Palace - The Chain Bridge and Basilica of St Stephen (they have his right hand!) |
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| Budapest - Paprika! |
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| Budapest- Buda, Matthias Church |
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| Budapest - Buda, Fisherman's Bastion |
Erdotasca (Hungary)
Sector 46 miles
Total 6145 miles
Escape from the city heat to yet another Dutch run campsite adjacent to the small village of Erdotasca. There were a number of wooden statues in the village - reflecting a total different history to western Europe of Magyar, Mongol and Turkish invasions and settlement from the east.
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| Erdotasca - One of many wooden statues |
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| Erdotasca - Endless fields of sunflowers |
Eger (Hungary)
Sector 143 miles
Total 6288 miles
After a drive through the Bukka NP stopped off for a few days at the town of Eger (campers included Hungarians - popular for the local Bull's Blood wine - Poles, Dutch, French, Estonians, Czechs and German - as usual I was the sole UK representative!). Eger has a well preserved baroque centre together with a castle and archbishop's palace. The surrounding countryside is mainly vineyards.
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| Eger - Minaret Remnant of the seventeenth century Ottoman occupation |
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| Eger - Basilica and Minorite Church from the Castle |
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| Eger - Castle |
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| Eger - Basilica
18th August 2016
Tiszafured (Hungary)
Sector 61 miles
Total 6349 miles
Away from the hills and onto the Great Hungarian Plain (with too many mosquitoes this evening!). Stopped at a German run campsite in the holiday resort of Tiszafured with thermal spas and some large lakes. Cycled through hundreds of swallows feeding close to the ground when I cycled round part of the lake in the late afternoon.
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