AN 833-MILE CIRCULAR CYCLE TOUR FROM AUSTRIA THROUGH HUNGARY TO ROMANIA

We left Rosie safely stored at Schlosscamping Burgau, in the Burgenland of eastern Austria, after a generous breakfast (in order to empty our fridge/freezer and turn the power off!)

We soon cycled through the border crossing at Heiligenkreuz and into Hungary at Rabafuzes, with no formality except a passport check – very different from our earlier cycle forays into Hungary and beyond in the 'Iron Curtain' days. We changed money without difficulty, at a rate of 11.5 Forints to the Austrian Shilling.

Riding south-east to the town of Zalaegerszeg (about 60 km from the border) was warm and hilly with a head-wind for some of the time. The landscape was much as we remembered it – storks' nests on the lamp-posts, tall water pumps and yellow pumpkins in the fields, villages with water-wells straight out of 'Jack and Jill', all intact. In stark contrast, we noticed the odd TV satellite dish and shiny new petrol stations, looking as if they had landed from outer space into a medieval setting.

At Zalaegerszeg we turned south for 50 km to the village of Hahot, where a friendly Gasthaus (German is the most useful language, if you don't happen to speak Hungarian) had a room for 3,000 Ft including breakfast.

The weather had turned wet, but still warm. We rode south for 30 km to Nagykanisza (Nagy = big), where we sheltered over coffee and cakes. Then we turned east to Kaposvar, lunching on gulash soup and bread at a roadside cafι. The food is both cheap and tasty, ideal for cyclists!

In Kaposvar we found a room in the Panzio Ford – guestrooms above a Ford car showroom where our cycles were stowed inside with the cars overnight!

More rain, all day! We rode through it for 75 km south-east to Pecs, a University town. It now boasts a MacDonald's, which was packed with students, but we found room in the Pizza Hut where we ate and dried out a little.

Turning east, on through the rain, we met the mighty Danube (or Duna) River at Mohacs where we stayed in the 2-stars Hotel Csele right by the ferry, for the sum of 72 Deutschmarks.

After a heated argument at the hotel checkout (who accused us of stealing the bath-towels we hadn't been given) we crossed the Danube on the little ferry, aiming to ride east to Szeged. It was still pouring with rain and we cut the ride short in Baja, another town on the Danube, where the Hotel Duna offered us a 3-room suite with a balcony overlooking the river for 4,000 Ft. It had once been a grand hotel, its glory now rather faded, but we did enjoy a good hot soak once we had cleared the bathroom of beetles!

We had a good meal in the hotel restaurant, where a coach party of young Romanian women were dining. Though pale and thin, they were enjoying their holiday and doing their best to look Westernised.

A dry morning at last to continue east to Szeged. On the way, we made a 2 km detour to see the border crossing into Serbia, heralded by a line-up of shiny new petrol stations and shops.

Then, about 30 km before Szeged, we rode through the most savage storm of our cycling career! Thunder and lightning raged above for 2 hours, the rain turning into hail, which turned into great chunks of ice bouncing off the cars, the road and our cycle helmets. The road flooded, traffic pulled off onto the edges and we could find no shelter at all.

We eventually squelched into the grand entrance of Szeged's Hotel Royal (where we had stayed twice before, on our way to Romania in 1990 with supplies for orphanages). The high-class receptionist was unfazed by two sodden cyclists and we soon had an excellent room with hot baths and Sky TV.

We ventured out only as far as MacDonalds, just up the street, for a 299-Ft Special, then watched TV in bed – another world!

Before leaving Szeged we found a bicycle shop and replaced the spare inner-tubes we had used (one puncture each, so far). Then we crossed the River Tisa on a little ferry and took a quiet road for about 25 km to Mako, where we joined the main road east to the Romanian border crossing at Nagylak.

We entered at Nadlac with a minimum of fuss ($US 32 each for a tourist visa), leaving a 2 km queue of lorries. Romania looked little changed – poor roads and poor people. A couple of hopeful money-changers approached but gave us no hassle. The coffee we bought at the kiosk tasted as if it was still made from dandelion roots! After about 50 km we reached the dusty, noisy city of Arad and found our way to the Hotel Astoria in the centre.

Arriving with an Aid Convoy in February 1990, this hotel had welcomed everyone with free hospitality, a splendid meal and guarded parking. Now we needed a large amount of US dollars to get the same treatment, but that's progress!

On our rest day in Arad we explored the park where the old men sat playing chess, the banks of the River Mures and the Citadel (now closed to the public by the Military). We changed some money for Lei, got a map of the town and lunched at the railway station buffet.

With difficulty we found Scarisoara Street, where we had stayed with the Fizedean family on our earlier Aid visits. They had been of enormous help to us, both personally and through their links with the Baptist Church. Sadly, they were not at home today but we promised ourselves a return visit. (This was not to be until the summer of 2003, when we did find them again for a splendid reunion.)

There was a good deal more in the shops, but only for those able to pay the high price of imports from the West, still much more expensive than basic local foodstuffs. Over 5 years after the 'Revolution', the streets are still peopled by beggars, touts, gipsies and pathetically poor old women selling packets of sunflower seeds. The gap between Romania and Hungary seems as wide as ever.

Day 8 114 km ARAD, ROMANIA – GYULA, HUNGARY

Passing Arad railway station, we were hailed by a trio of Romanian cyclists waiting for the train home to Suceava. They had ridden across Hungary but not been allowed to enter Slovenia to get to Italy, where they had hoped to find work. They told us they have to pay 10 Deutschmarks each every time they leave Romania, and seemed more indignant about that wasted money than about being refused entry.

We left Arad on the minor road north-east through Siria and Pincota, hoping to see the orphanages and church we'd visited in 1990 but we couldn't recognise them. The roads were terrible, full of potholes or being relaid with loose pebbles. The villages were grindingly poor, with barefoot old women tending livestock, the poultry and pigs wandering about along the sides of the road, which were turning into a quagmire in the rain, falling since lunchtime.

We found nowhere to eat, just a cup of black coffee-sludge, and it was with great relief that we reached Chisineu Cris, where we turned west for 30 km to cross back into Hungary and the town of Gyula. The roads were immediately better over the border and we found a good hotel, the Swiss Cristall, with a decent room for £14. No food was available, as they hadn't yet built the kitchen, but we had a very good meal in the nearby restaurant (with resident musicians!)

We rode due west on a fine, windy day. We crossed the River Tisa well north of Szeged this time, between Szentes and Csongrad, where we stayed at the Hotel Tisa. They gave us a good bed and breakfast for 4,000 Ft but had no food for an evening meal, so we ate some of the emergency supplies we carry. (Never leave home without any or all of sardines, tuna and corned beef!)

Just a half-day ride, west into a very strong head wind. We stopped at Kis (= small) Kunfelegyhaza for coffee and cakes, then stayed as the wind became impossible. The room in the Hotel Oasis was very small and not worth 4,800 Ft, but there was nothing else.

Our longest day (92 miles), mainly because we hadn't anticipated the difficulty of finding accommodation on a Saturday night! It's the marriage season and wedding guests block-book the few hotels, where receptions are held.

We rode west, past the Bugac Puszta National Park (100 Ft entry fee or 1,000 Ft with a horse-drawn coach ride) and lunched on spit-roasted chicken at a village fair.

Crossing the Danube into the town of Dunafoldvar (Var = castle), we looked for a room but the only Motel was full – a wedding. So we pushed on for another 25 km to Cece, where the Panzio was also full – another wedding. There was nothing else.

In Simontornya, another 7 km west, there was no hotel but we found a simple cafι, ate and asked about a bed. A mysterious man on a bicycle was summoned to take us in search of a private room and we followed him wordlessly round the darkening town. After 2 refusals, he finally met with success at the home of Julia Nagy and we rewarded our guide with a packet of duty-free cigs carried for the purpose.

Julia spoke nothing but Hungarian and we learnt Igen means 'yes', after wondering for some time why she kept saying 'again'! She was very kind, bringing us tomatoes and grapes from her garden to supplement our rations, and we slept on the couch in her living room. She asked only 1,400 Ft and was pleased with the 1,500 Ft, packet of cigs and packet of biscuits we left her.

We were surprised at the almost complete lack of hotels and rooms in and around Dunafoldvar.

Leaving at 8 am (which turned out to be 7 am, as they'd put the clocks back without telling us!), we breakfasted on omelettes at the cafι which had directed us to Julia. We were therefore back on the road by 8 am (amazing after a 90-mile ride yesterday).

Riding north-west, we met the south shore of Lake Balaton (Europe's largest freshwater lake) at its eastern end. We followed the shore westwards (as did a railway line and a motorway from Budapest) through Siofok, passing plenty of hotels, restaurants and campsites. This is Hungary's (and Austria's) summer playground. About 20 km along, at Szantod, we took the ferry across the narrowest point of the long lake to the north shore's Tihany peninsula.

In Tihany there was an excellent Italian restaurant for lunch in the sunshine, overlooking the lake. Then we rode west along the northern shore for about 24 km to Zanka, where we found an Apartment-Zimmer for 3,000 Ft in a small vineyard.

Leaving Lake Balaton, we cycled west through rolling hills on the edge of the Bakony range, vineyards and tiny villages. We bought coffees in Tapolca, then continued north-west through an autumn landscape of woods and flowers, very different from the Great Hungarian Plain (the flood plain of the Tisa, east of the Danube). We passed nowhere to eat or buy food until we reached Szombathely in the late afternoon, very hungry!

In Szombathely we had once stayed at the Hotel Isis, opposite the remains of a Roman temple, but it had gone, replaced by a row of modern shops. The only hotel we could find (the Savaria) wanted 8,500 Ft so we asked at the Tourist Information. They sold us a map for 100 Ft and directed us to the cheaper Hotel Liget, just out of town. Here we enjoyed our last night (and bath) of the tour.

Day 14 51 km SZOMBATHELY, HUNGARY – BURGAU, AUSTRIA

Just 15 km west to the border crossing into Austria at Schachendorf (north of the Heiligenkreuz crossing where we had entered Hungary 2 weeks earlier).