After leaving beautiful Bratislava, we rejoined the official cycling route out of the city and towards the Hungarian border. The wind was behind us and we were joined by many locals who were out roller blading or cycling and enjoying the great weather.

We were a little unsure of what to expect when crossing the border into Hungary as we had been told by other travellers that Eastern Europe was unsafe and that all the cycle routes would suddenly disappear, but we had a good map with us and were not too worried.  However, all those scare stories proved to be nonsense and the Euro Velo 6 cycling route just continued as it had in Austria and Germany, all the way to Budapest.

There were two options, along the Danube or through the hills and as we had been along the river for the last couple of weeks we opted for the tougher but more scenic route.  Hungary still has some elements of old Europe with the odd horse and cart and small rural villages where time has stood still but it is actually a modern country and for the most part we felt like we were cycling through the UK or Belgium. Around 40KM from Budapest we decided to get the boat again, for 10 Euro each we couldn’t complain and it provided us we stunning views as we entered the capital city along the Danube.

We found our camp site not too far from the metro, which turned out to be one of the best so far, with free wifi, washing and showers. Budapest, was another milestone of the trip and we took a couple of days to see the sights. The highlight for us was meeting Simons colleague from Amsterdam Szilivia who was luckily home visiting. It was great to have someone to show us the city and teach us about the old days in Hungary. We were even invited over to her home to have homemade Hungarian food and meet her lovely parents.

After lots of advice and a calculation of how many days we have left before needing to be in Turkey we decided it was time to get off the official cycling route. So we will today catch the train to Satu Mare in the North of Romania where we will begin a new adventure in an area less explored by tourists.