The Old and the Restless

Alicia with her "baby". A lot of activity is on the trampoline. They let me sit as an audience while they bounce. During the summer children from 8-15 years can buy a "passport" that entitles them to choose from among 300 activities. Brandon took one class on the trampoline where he practiced doing a back flip. Yesterday he went with a group on the train up to La Chaud-de-Fonds to a "vivarium"to see snakes and crocodiles. Today he went on a boat across the lake to see a reconstructed prehistoric village. I see in the book that Bridge is among the activities he could choose. (He didn't). Rather than just looking at trees when going for a walk, it's more interesting to climb them.

The 6:00 am train from Budapest left 16 minutes late. I told the conductor that we had a close connection and asked if he could phone ahead. Originally there were 18 minutes between and the train seemed to be losing more time as it waited at a station near Vienna. The conductor told us to go to the front of train before Vienna so as to be closer to platform 7 where the train from Vienna to Zurich would be. Since we were the last car on a long train there were a lot of cars to go through. We picked up two girls from Romania on the way to the front. Seven of us had to RUN with people cheering us on the way. I tried to hold up the Zurich train by having my bag block the door but someone else came to pull it through. Carole and Roy arrived. The door was shut on an elderly lady and the train left with her still on the platform. Now, I have to hope that a 25 minute connection on a train from France will be on time on August 6. Otherwise I could miss my flight home. Hervé says that the o...

Our hotel, was on the Buda side of Budapest. This is a view from our window. There are so many sculpturally decorated buildings, that Budapest must have rivaled Vienna when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Gradually the buildings are being restored.

Most of our time was spent walking on the Pest side of Budapest Sculptures abound. We wondered if this showed the oppressed workers. Beautiful displays of flowers were around the city On our last night of the two week tour we went to a concert. The wonderful acoustics of St. Michael's church gave a full sound to the seven piece string orchestra. It was easy listening to Bach, Mozart, Dvorak, Lizt... Returning to Buda on one of the many bridges.

In the cycling package that we were given, there was what I thought was a plastic cover for our helmets in the rain. So, I wore it, wondering why it was so tight and why it had a funny point. Later, I noticed that other bikes that were parked outside, had this on the seat. It was to keep the bike seat dry when not riding! Lining up for one of the three to four ferries we had to take. Later we skipped one and had a terribly busy road instead. A basic ferry. Essentially, a platform moved by a tug. One of the new, improved cycleways. Too bad they are not all like this. This must be the way to the next ferry. Notice that we are wearing shower caps over our helmets. Budapest! The ferry docked right opposite the parliament buildings. At 6:00 pm, the light was perfect. It took another hour to find our hotel. Good thing Carole remembered to keep out her map and directions. Mine, packed in my suitcase was not much help. Carole wanted to ride the final 23 km into Budapest but after that l...

Today we had to take the train from Tata back to Komárom and then cycle through Slovakia which is less hilly than Hungary and is supposed to have more of the route on cycle paths. We made it to the train station as the train was pulling in. It was quite a scramble carrying the bikes up the stairs, over the ramp and then down to the platform for our train. Even though we had arrived at this station the day before, we and the others had problems. Finally we followed Ernst from Switzerland who was going the wrong way also, but he was able to communicate with a passer-by. My "choo-choo" imitations did not translate at all. The day's ride was not good. In the pouring rain, my bike got caught on a railway track hidden in a deep puddle. I skinned my elbow and was completely soaked but was able to pull the bike up quickly so as not to drown the iPad and camera in my handlebar bag. The seven people following chose to wade through the puddle. Only two pictures today. The ride...

I was worried I wouldn't be able to do this post because the words at the top were in Hungarian but by experimenting I seem to have found the right place. I suppose this is a function of having the location feature on the iPad. 10 km of our ride today was spent looking for the hotel. The street names are only occasionally there. At one point, we were going completely opposite from the direction of our hotel. The other 20 km was spent riding around the lake and the English Park. One of the small waterfalls in the park. There are the mock ruins of a church reconstructed using old Roman grave stones and Romanesque blocks.