One day is really not enough time to see Budapest. This is a truly magnificent capital city and we have just skipped over the highlights today. We spent the morning in the old town of Buda – having crossed the Chain Bridge on foot.

From the end of the bridge a short funicular railway leads to the top. Buda was populated only by crocodiles of tourists with earpieces. I must have watched too many ‘alien control’ sci-fi movies because I find these quite sinister. It must be the blank faces. Anyway – the best thing about Buda is the view back over the river to Pest – particularly from the Fisherman’s Bastion (a 19th cent mock medieval folly that Walt Disney would have been proud of).

But today was mainly about cafes and relaxation. So we sampled a couple of Buda’s best and then headed back down and across the bridge to Pest. This is the modern heart of the capital – buzzing with shopping streets. We started to walk up the main avenue (think Regent’s Street – very imposing architecture and posh shops) but soon gave up – it was too long. Helen was about to buy a smart bag at Louis Vuitton but then we realised that it didn’t have pannier clips for attaching to the bike.

Getting the tube as an alternative to walking was quite an experience. This line was the first after those in London, and nothing much has changed since 1896. The original stations are intact, with cast iron supports holding up the street, and tickets are dispensed by hand, from a roll, by uniformed operatives. Fantastic. We travelled to ‘Heroes Square’ and had a beer on the edge of the City Park.

But the best thing about the underground train was that the return trip spilled us out right outside our favourite cafe from yesterday afternoon – so we had to go in and have posh tea and cakes all over again. It’s a hard life!

Helen’s track of the day: Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now, which was playing on the radio at breakfast and seemed very appropriate!

Today we went round the bend – the Great Bend that is. It is ranked as one of Hungary’s great scenic attractions but, to be honest, it isn’t really a patch on the gorgeous gorges of Austria. But after 3 days of very little scenic interest it was enough to raise the spirits. The river has cut a wider path through the hills than in the Austrian sections, and there is more development alongside the river.

Our breakfast stop was at Visegrad, with a beautiful view of the river and the local ferry.

This was the best bit of the bend and from there we made our way downriver towards a section where there is a large island in the middle of the river. We had run out of cash and couldn’t afford the ferry so we pressed on to find an ATM and crossed over on a bridge lower down. But this comittment to seeing the island meant we were off the bike route. We cycled down towards the toe of the island having seen that there was a final ferry for the return. This really was the back of beyond. There were tiny villages and little traffic. Finally we reached the end of the road where there were a scattering of old cars, a house, some bikes and a small ferry. The signboard suggested that it ran hourly so we settled down to wait. Actually, knowing that busy Budapest was coming, this was a lovely wait and a chance to think. It really didn’t seem to matter whether the ferry ran or not!

It did. Lunch was duly taken at Szentendre on the other side. Then it was the final section to Budapest. There is always something exciting about entering a new city on a bicycle – I love it – and had been looking forward to seeing Budapest. I was not disappointed. The approach was quite tricky, with heavy traffic. There were bike lanes – but they were not well signposted. When we missed one and ended up on a main road drivers drew alongside to tell us off! Calm down please – we only delayed you by about 5 seconds! The final section along the embankment on the Buda (west) side was a joy, with spectacular views of the castle above us and the Parliament building on the Pest side.

We have booked in at a hotel in a HUGE old apartment building. The hotel is just one small section and is clean and modern and air-conditioned, but the central staircase is huge and decrepit, with a lift that makes the one in our Vienna flat feel modern and safe! You need a head for heights as the lift, the staircase and the internal balconies are all open. We have just been out for a meal and have seen the lights on the river at night. Here is my attempt to photograph the castle. I think it needed a steadier hand – it must have been the wine. We are looking forward to a day off and some more exploration tomorrow.

Helen’s track of the day: Nina Simone, Ain’t Got No -I Got Life, as celebration of getting to Budapest in one piece!

This was a good day’s cycling. A very pleasant temperature, a bit of a tailwind and some hills to look at. In fact we covered the 30 miles or so on the road beside the Danube to Esztergom before lunchtime. So instead of finishing there, we spent a couple of hours looking round and then pushed on to the start of the Great Bend. Here we have found a great campsite beside the river in spectacular scenery for the first time since Krems.

Esztergom has a complex history, having been settled by just about everybody in Europe at one time or another! It was once the capital of Hungary but is better known now as the seat of the catholic church in Hungary, and for Cardinal Mindszenty, who was a thorn in the side of the communists and spent 30 years holed up in the American embassy out of their reach! The basilica dominates the town.

The bridge across the Danube was destroyed in WW2 to slow the Russian advance. It was not rebuilt until 2001 because of Slovakian resistance to the idea that their southern Hungarian minority would have a link to Hungary. The relationship is currently at a low ebb, with the Slovakians having banned the speaking of Hungarian in public in Slovakia.

We are getting the hang of Hungarian cuisine. It is brilliant for cycling since it has an enormous calorie count. Goulash and dumplings, masses of chips with everything, and pancakes everywhere. Tonight I accidentally ordered pancakes with cottage cheese in – a Hungarian speciality – and found, to my surprise, that it was delicious! The only downside to this is that, unless you are cycling 40 miles a day, you get enormously fat – as most of the population has done. This would be bad enough by itself, but combined with the Hungarian love of swimming pools it leads to some unsavoury sights (as last night, when we stayed next to the thermal baths in Komarom). Speaking of which, this excellent campsite has a swimming pool and we took our svelte-like forms for a very pleasant swim before dinner.

Helen’s track of the day: Stevie Wonder, As, a song I sang throughout a very jolly day and in celebration of my own happiness but for all those Hungarians who seem very keen on hugs and kisses too. And there was I thinking they would be a dour lot.

Well here’s a first. I didn’t take a single photo during the ride today. Sorry! It’s just that this really was something of a ‘filler’ day – with bad light and then rain. But I have been out this evening with the camera.

It had clouded over in the night and rain was threatening for the first time for a week. It was also cooler – hurrah – about 18C as we left Gyor. The suburbs were strangely familiar – it was just like riding out of the south of Leeds, but flatter. Similar road surfaces, traffic levels, traffic signs, freight lorries, industrial units, blocks of flats, inner city motorways .. you don’t need a photo – you get the picture. The cycle route was poorly signposted and we would never have found it without the GPS.

Then we were into villages, mostly single story houses always strung out along the main street. There were more people out and about than in the deserted villages of Western Europe, and more everyday use of bicycles.

Just after lunch it started to rain and we abandoned any idea of going on to visit the spa town of Tata. Instead we called it day once we had returned to the Danube in Komárom. (’Returned’ is slightly misleading. Downstream from Bratislava the river used to branch out into a huge inland delta, before coming back together 100 miles on when threading between hills at the Great Bend. Most of the branches have been drained and the main river straightened and channeled, but one old branch (the Moson Dona) remains as an irrigation channel and we had been following it to Gyor and beyond. So we hadn’t really left the Danube).

We found a room in a small hotel that forms part of Komárom’s thermal spa. Komárom has an interesting history. It used to include the cities on both sides of the Danube – connected by a bridge. But with the end of WW1 the border of Czechoslovakia was moved to follow the Danube and the city was divided. The Czech (and now Slovakian) city is called Komárno.

Tomorrow it’s back to following the Danube downstream, heading for the Great Bend.

Helen’s track of the day: Anton Dvorak, From the New World, Largo, which we listened to this evening on TV, played by an American orchestra in a concert recorded in Japan for French television and watched by us in Hungary.

This was the flattest day of cycling yet. Pancake flat, with lush green farmland and woodland and 32 C under a bright blue Hungarian sky. And a 20 mph hot headwind. This is just how I imagined the plains of Hungary to be. To be accurate, this is the little Hungarian plain – to distinguish it from the Great Plain that is to come. But either way, whilst it is perfectly pleasant, in all honesty it soon gets monotonous, and it reinforces our plan to leave the Danube after Budapest and find some hills!

The interesting bit is the language. Hungarian is quite unlike anything else – so even if we had acquired a proper classical education, it wouldn’t have helped very much. To our relief, most people speak German as a second language, so the German we learnt over the past month has got us by. We managed to get a bowl of goulash last night, and omlette this morning. Brilliant.

Some people are doing very well in this part of Hungary. As well as the brand new 4* hotel right next to our (basic) campsite last night, we keep seeing brand new Dallas style mansions.

You can tell how it was monotonous, because my next news is about the local water towers. Not just your concrete monstrosities, but space-age creations in shiny metal.

In fairness, Mosonmagyarovar was a pleasant town boasting 17 bridges across its many waterways. But I forgot to take a picture. After that it was 20 hot and headwindy miles south to the large town (or small city) of Gyor.

Here we have booked into our first Hungarian hotel – a 7 story concrete block with hundreds of rooms. It is comfortable enough though. Gyor still has a little of its medieval centre, but the rest was bombed in the war. We spent a quiet evening wandering around the newly pedestrianised centre and enjoying the kids enjoying the dancing fountains.

Helen’s track of the day: Mumford and Son, Sigh No More because that was in my head from the start of the day.

This was another red hot day, packed full of interest and ending, in Hungary, at our most basic and cheapest campsite yet – three pounds the night. The strange thing is that it is right next door to a brand new 4 star hotel, even though this is the middle of nowhere.

This morning we completed our none-too-thorough tour of the many Roman sites of Petronell Carnatum by whizzing past the amphitheatre on our bikes. It was being prepared for a day’s gladitorial combat (widely advertised) and there were marquees and stands of seats going in. But breakfast was calling, and was duly found in an elegant spa town just down the road. It was like Sunday morning in Betty’s – and the best ham and eggs of the trip. There was also a grand spa hotel – with all the trimmings. I made the usual, ritual offer to Helen to book us a place (safe in the knowledge that she doesn’t do posh pampering) – and, to my astonshment, she said yes. Next time we come to Vienna, without bikes…..

From there it was a short hop to Hainburg. Here we saw the fast hydrofoil ferry from Vienna to Bratislava roaring by. (It had been fully booked when we were in Vienna, else we might have had a day out. But by the looks of it, it would have been a very noisy, and probably bumpy, journey).

Approaching the Slovakian border we had our first glimpse of Eastern block housing complexes across the Danube.

And then we reached the border itself. It was quite a let down really for people of our generation. This was the fabled iron curtain – except there were just same falling down huts and no one around.

Bratislava was fun though, despite the second puncture of the trip. We arrived on the opposite bank to the city and headed straight for the beach bar and a drink! Here there were great views of Bratislava across the river, and of various bikini-clad girls showering/posing in between sunbathing. But here is a photo of Helen at the beach bar, and a view across the river.

Once across the bridge, Bratislava was a lovely place to spend a lunch time. We wandered round the central squares but it was too hot for serious sightseeing. A cool bar for lunch was needed.

Leaving Bratislava behind we headed on down the Danube flood banks. It was Sunday afternoon and the cyclists and rollerbladers were out in force. But this was a different generation from the mostly elderly naturists that we encountered yesterday in Vienna. We travelled about 10 miles or more in the middle of a throng of beautiful young people. Bare torsos were the order of the day for the young men, and bikini tops for the girls. I love Slovakia!

But all good things must come to an end, and soon we were spilled out onto a main road heading again for the border. Cue another, even more decrepit, ex border control point, and we were in Hungary – our third country of the day and our sixth of the trip.

Strangely, once back on minor country roads this seemed more like England than anything so far. The roads were black, decaying tarmac with potholes, just like at home and quite a contrast with the superb surfaces so far encountered on this trip. After a few miles we turned off to find a small campsite and to take a break. Who knows what, if anything, we’ll find to eat in this small village on a Sunday night.

Helen’s track of the day: Beyonce, Crazy In Love, because this was playing when we reached the beach cafe in Bratislava.