The Plan

The Plan: Two months of unassisted cycling and camping through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and wherever else our legs may take us.

The Route: Starting in Brussels and flying out of Berlin are the only given at this point. We plan to cycle parts of the Flanders Cycle Route, Rhine River and the Danube River. We will also be using the EuroVelo and regional cycling routes.

Accommodation: WarmShowers website (like couchsurfing for cyclists). We are also planning on staying at campsites, backyards of friendly locals or in the wilderness.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Day 35: Maribor, Slovenia to Keszthely, Hungary - 52 km (plus 2 trains and a bus)


Faced with the prospect of more hills through cornfields and at least two long days to get from Maribor to Lake Balaton, Hungary; we opted to cut a couple days out and travel by train again. A creative route that we had planned quickly became more so when we had to switch from train to bus part way through. With the route changed, we deboarded early and took a Croatian detour, thoroughly confusing the border agents of the newest member of the EU with our heavily stamped, non-EU passports. At the next boarder back into Slovenia, the officer jokingly asked if my extra passport photo was for him! Hard to believe that 35 days and six countries into the trip these are the first checkpoints we've been through.
Our afternoon involved two more trains following a stop over in the hungarian border town of Lenti where we got our first taste of both the delicious food and the complicated language. We followed the "helpful" picture of a train to the station, not realizing until we arrived at children's train museum that we were misled. And at the end of the day we arrived at Kesthely on the southern tip of Lake Balaton. Despite the lazy day for our legs (although we did get in some kilometers between stations), our arms were well worked by the lack of ramps or elevators and the unusually high train cars! 

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