Day 7: From Vienna to Gyor
As indicated, my breakfast-addiction have developed, so just about a kilometer from the camping's entrance I had to stop for eating some eggs at Toni's...
The road from here to Bratislava is an old acquaintance, the surprises were that this time i didn't have to take a detour, but could cycle through oil-refinery in Lobau, which meant no dirt roads and was appreciated. The other thing was that this was the time I cycled this stretch alone, and have to say that the last 15-20 km straight road to Hainburg is a trying alone. There was headwind, but there always is on this section, so no problems there... Except that this time there were cyclist coming from the other direction, and they had backwind!
After reaching Bratislava, the usual can't-find-my-way-out-of-the-city begun, and the road signs have been underutilized so to speak, but people were helpful and many spoke German (lot of them even better than I do :), so I got out. Essentially, if you want to continue the Donauradweg, after reaching the first bridge just keep following the road straight ahead, with its turns, and after some time you reach the recreational area, where there are two roads, one up on the flood defense hills (whatever they are called), the other below, on the side away from the river. After two or three Imbisses chose the lower one since there I know there is a sign at the end of it (where the poles are preventing cars entering) saying Rajka - that's the first village in Hungary.
Take that road for four kilometers, and when you see a sign to the left advertising and adventure park, take the left - in this direction the sign is missing, and if you go further you reach a main Slovakian road with lots of traffic (though I saw people take that, but I rather turned back from there).
From here on, both the road and the sign quality drops significantly, and even the EuroVelo 6 makes a lot of detours, e.g.: after reaching Bezenye, it takes a right and you reach Mosonmagyarovar after going through Hegyeshalom (take a left on the main road, even though there are no signs) confusing, given the same road you took from Rajka to Bezenye continues straight to Mosonmagyarovar...
The cycling road is being built, so you have to go with the traffic, and the driving culture is really different here - with a bicycle you are treated as a second class citizen of the road, so be prepared to a lot of cars taking you over without giving you much side distance, and even not giving you the right of way when they should, e.g.: at pedestrian/cyclist crossings in towns, or when they do they might shout at you (it only happened the next day for me). It's inconvenient, but I only had to refresh my muscle memory - I have been cycling in Hungary for years...
In Hegyeshalom I waited for my friend to join me for the section to Gyor (I was staying at his place), and the we got lost together and cycled to the Bahnhof club/restaurant on the local beach for dinner (it's *not* at the railway station!).
The roads were pretty bad, with an occasional good section (the Slovakian road leading out from Bratislava - aside from the lack of signs - is awesome smooth & flat!), but the weather was great (I have a sunburnt left ear to show :(). The sad part was that you really didn't see much of the Danube on this section...
