Leaving Vienna was pretty seamless, we all endeavoured to go back again to see it properly. Feeling great after a day off the bike, aiming for the Slovakian border after lunch. This stretch is nearly all in a nature reserve, and the flood plain is an old trade route to Rome. Before Bratislava was the fortified town of Hainburg, one of the most strategic points along the river, once marking the most Eastern outpost of the Roman Empire. As we ride, Flora reads that a rare breach of its gates by Turkish armies pushing up the river to Vienna led to a massacre of all inhabitants, as they fled up the same route we were on...
About 30km into the day, we are feeling especially pleased at passing the 1000km mark on the odometer!
1000km face!
After Hainsburg, Bratislava, once the Capital of a much larger Hungarian empire looms in the distance...
New town on the left -high-rise apartments, old town on the right.
Approaching the border was quite exciting, but we ended up passing through without being checked at all, no armed guards, no strip searches or having to explain Flora's bag of herbs de Provence in the food bag. Before we know it we were sat under a bridge necking cold and very cheap lemonade, looking at Bratislava's castle on the other side. We checked with the barman, he said we didn't need to worry. Nailed 'hello', 'please' and 'thankyou' in Slovakian only to leave the country 20km later...
Bratislava
The river, now the Dunaj is huge. Dodging rollerbladers out of the city.
Again, no border control, but this welcoming sign let us know we have entered Hungary. Three countries in one day.
Rooms are cheap, so we checked into a hotel as the sun went down. Rural Hungary, no signposts, massive potholes, hard looking but generally nice men... trance festival in the forest nearby.
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