DAY TWENTY-THREE: 2,000KMS = A CIVIC RECEPTION

Day Twenty-One (Györ to Budapest) Daily Distance: 138.94 kms

Days Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three (Budapest Rest Days)

Total Distance: 2015.32 kms

Having arrived in Hungary, the plan was to head from Györ to Esztergom, north-west of Budapest, and then into the capital the next day, but we decided to take on the whole stint in one day instead. So on day Twenty-One, we left our comfy, central hotel in Györ early to ensure arrival at a reasonable hour (it’s taken a while, but we’ve now developed a habit of booking ahead).

The morning surprised us all. First of all, given the experience we had riding from the border into Györ, during which we struggled to find roads that welcomed cyclists, we were expecting the roads out of Györ to be equalled unfriendly to cyclists. Secondly, our guide book mentioned with no ambiguity the difficulty of navigating out of the city due to heavy traffic and a lack of signs. Finally, we had expected fairly barren land as the map didn’t show many towns of significance. On the contrary, however, we found our way out of the city quite easily and onto relatively nice roads on which it appeared we were actually welcome, and we then spent most of the morning riding quickly through town to town, with little traffic on this Sunday to slow us down.

The signs clearly didn't stop us...

I had a confusing moment just before lunch when I thought my Dad had made a surprise visit to see us, but after running in circles for 200m (or more), I realised I’d been had.

After lunch with the flies in an empty industrial park, we embarked on an afternoon ride that was much less pleasant than the morning. The primary reason for this was our decision to upgrade from ‘B’ roads to ‘A’ roads given the distinct lack of traffic and the fact that the ‘A’ roads to Budapest were more direct. Unfortunately, however, the road surface was very poor and traffic proved much busier than expected. We finally made it to Budapest intact, however, and had a stunning descent into ‘Buda’ (the current city being derived from two previous, smaller cities, ‘Buda’ and ‘Pest’, divided by the Danube) as the afternoon was drawing to a close, and having covered over 130kms which finally pushed us over the 2,000km mark.

Again we fell on our feet, ending up in a very comfortable, large apartment that was able to house us for THREE nights – what a reward! I was given these two days off tour guiding duties so Alan and Dan opted for the open-top tour bus to do lots of sightseeing. In the meantime, I have done a load of washing and tended to my dirty and tired bike that has been abused for over 2,000kms in only its first month of life!!

As for Jim, his schedule has been very hectic, since his hometown of Poynton (I can hear the cheer all the way from the Poynton Sports Club as it gets its first mention in The Blog!) is twinned with Érd, a town of 65,000 located just outside of Budapest. As he is heavily involved in sport in Poynton (mainly cricket, lacrosse, and the Saturday afternoon drinking club) he has met with some of Érd’s sporting representatives to strengthen the sporting relationship between their two towns.(Now I know what you're thinking: "Never 'Erd of it...")

It is quite a good story really: who ever knew that anyone was crazy enough to ride from Poynton to Érd?! This is probably the reason that there was a request for Jim and his bike to be present for official photos which, in turn, is the reason we weren’t joking when we offered Jim one of our bikes to take to Érd. You see, Jim’s bike looks a little like one you might find at a metal recycling depo, and when it is moving it sounds very much like someone shuffling through the goods at that same depo!

We were also joking when during the lengthy build-up to this famous event we enquired as to whether Jim would get a Civic Reception or receive the keys to Érd, but in fact this was not a joke after all, as his itinerary for the day included a meeting with the Mayor (honestly!), two TV interviews (still being honest!), a personalised visit to the National Geography Museum, four special Érd t-shirts for the Ninja Turtles, some drinks at a local winery and a ride to the sign in Érd that Poynts to Poynton.

Jim shaking hands with the Mayor of Erd!

"Poynton 1976km", which given our 2015km travelled means we must have made a 39km detour at some stage!

Jim was genuinely overwhelmed by the reception he received and he can't wait to reciprocate when some crazy Hungarians decide to ride from Érd to Poynton. And rest assured, if they can handle the 2,000kms and the crazy English drivers, there will be a civic reception awaiting them, too!