Prague to Budapest - the Last Two Days

We're back on the internet - with some time to write a few things down.  We're currently in Budapest, but first I must close out the bike tour reporting.

June 20

We rode from Osli to Gyor.  It was about 28 miles through Hungarian corn and wheat fields.   There are storks here.  We saw them on Vienna to Prague, as well, but this was the first time one was close enough to get a picture of it.  I was standing in the road when I took this, the nest is right along the side of the street in a small village.  They are great huge birds with great huge nests to match.

We stopped at St. Jacobs which is a church on a pilgrimage route.  It was built initially in the early 1200s, and managed to survive the Tartar destruction in the 1250's, but was seriously damaged in the Turkish wars in 1529 and 1683.  How's that for antiquity?  The walls are original.  It has been restored several times through the centuries.  Today it functions as a parish church and a way station for the pilgrims.

We had a bike path on the way in to Gyor, which was good because there were a lot of big trucks on the road.  We also got to see some local livestock.  These cows are huge and they have big horns.

Gyor is also a spa town.  We stayed at a historic hotel.  Historic translates to "there is no elevator."  Remember the hotel in the movie The Shining?  This reminded me of that hotel.  We didn't see the twins, but it would not have surprised me if we had.

One interesting feature of the room was that there were two doors.  Jim is looking at the inner door, and the outer one is still closed.  It was weird.

We had the farewell dinner in Gyor.  It's a pretty city.  And they had this on the menu!

June 21

This was the last riding day of the tour.  Jiri took pity on us and started the route on the top of the hill, instead of putting us on a climb with no warm up.  I was very appreciative of that.  We rode along the road, and then along a bike path to Panonhalma, which is an active monastery dating from 996.  One their responsibilities was maintaining a library and education.  They've had some ups and downs through the centuries.  Being from the US, we're accustomed to the idea of separation of church and state.  In Europe, this was not the case for a very long time, and it's interesting to see the intertwining of church and royalty throughout the centuries. Several kings were involved in the founding and running of the monastery.

The library.  Look at the ceiling and the dome, below.

After the monastery there was lunch.  I love the presentation on this trout.

After lunch there was a van transfer to Buda and our hotel.  This is the view out the window of the hotel room.  That is the Hungarian Parliament building across the river, which is the most extraordinary structure we have seen yet.  There will be pictures!

Thus ends my reportage of riding the bikes in the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.