Szilvasvarad to Tokaj May 8

By Eric

Our Dutch camping neighbors in Szilvasavard were early risers. After enjoying a long leisurely breakfast (instant coffee and cereal in instant milk) and casually breaking camp, we still managed to leave at nine a.m. The trouble with early starts is they tend to lead to very long days. This one especially.

We were aiming for a town called Tokaj (pronounced "Tok-eye"), the center of another famous wine growing region.

After about 15 km riding through a gorgeous green valley, we started climbing a mountain. The road wound back and forth through a forest of tall beech (we think) trees. There was almost no undergrowth so we could see far into the woods. The road was under a full canopy most of the time. Fortunately the grade was not steep, maintaining a continuous five percent.

We passed a bus load of elementary school kids on a field trip. They were traipsing around the forest learning something or other. They stared silently at us as we passed. We waved and a few waved timidly back. A little while later the bus passed us on the road and stopped ahead of us. The kids got out to learn something else. We waved as we passed them again and more of them waved back this time.

A while later the bus passed us. We didn't see them again until we were about half way down the descent, flying at about 40 kph. The kids were walking along the road and this time they all waved enthusiastically and cheered as we passed.

We had reached the summit at about 750 meters above sea level then quickly descended into the town of Lillefured. There were a lot of day cyclists on their way up as we came down but we hadn't seen any cyclists on the other side.

At Lillefured we had a huge fancy lunch with beer and all the trimmings, including chocolate crepes for dessert. It cost about US$8.

The odometers read 41 kilometers but as the crow flies we had gone less than 20 from Szilvasvarad. We still had 70 to go to Tokaj.

A short distance from Lillefured is Miscolc, Hungary's second largest town but one several Hungarian's told us not to bother seeing. But it was right in the middle of our route so we went. The outskirts weren't much -- the usual rapidly deteriorating young concrete and glass buildings -- but the town center was quite nice, with lots of very hip little cafes. We stopped only long enough to have a coke on the plaza, served by a young woman in very high platform shoes looking quite fashionable.

Leaving Miscolc we had to ride about 15 km on a road clearly marked No Bicycles. Hungary has far too many of these signs but they are always roads that you don't want to bicycle on anyway. They have the heaviest traffic and no shoulder whatsoever. So after 15 km, we started taking back roads even though it would add about 15 kilometers to an already very long day.

At least it was completely flat. We were in a big agricultural river valley. These roads had little traffic and we rode side-by-side. The sun came out so the riding was fairly pleasant, though we had a slight headwind.

It was so flat, we could see Tokaj for a long time. Tokaj sits at the base of the only hill for miles and miles around. Since we were taking back roads, we never quite seemed to head straight for the mountain. All day, it seemed, the mountain was well on our left. At one point it was behind us. On a map, our approach looks like a spiral.

We went through many little towns. Each had a couple churches and a water tower we could see for miles before we arrived. The houses were simple concrete buildings, most with an iron fence around them. The houses varied considerably in appearance. Some were very well taken care of and had well groomed flower gardens out front. Others had rusty old iron gates, nothing but tall weeds in front and a look of long term deterioration.

In these towns we got a lot of stares. Just about everywhere else in Hungary when we said, "Jo napot kivanok!" (hello) we got a quick response. But in a couple of these towns almost no one would answer us.

We had to cross the river twice. The first time was on a simple car ferry. A cable ran across the river and a couple of guys spent all day moving the boat back and forth, using an engine on a stick (like in Bangkok) and the current to propel the boat. We didn't have to pay anything for the ride.

There was one lively little town that afternoon. A long table was set up outside a bar and about 25 people sat theret eating and drinking. Someone was playing an accordion. We waved and they waved back enthusiastically. We really wanted to stop but the sun was setting.

Not far from the party we reached the second river crossing and, to our dismay, the ferry was not running. We had to go about 20 km out of our way to get to the next bridge! Worst of all, we had to ride exactly away from our destination for about eight kilometers. The mountain at Tokaj was directly behind us.

We made it into Tokaj shortly after sunset and camped at a campground along the river. That day we had gone 140 km, 10 km shorter than our longest day ever (in Malaysia). We treated ourselves to an enormous dinner at the hotel in town before crashing in our tent.

Next: Hungary Chapter 5 - Wine of Kings, King of Wines

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