So here we are, the final day. All roads lead to Budapest. It feels a lifetime ago that I rolled off the in ferry in Dunkirk, laden with bags, without a formal plan and struck out for Ypres. I couldn’t have imagined the adventure would take me through: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, over the Alps, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Slovakia to finish here, in Hungary.
It has been an adventure
Despite this, I’m aware that the job isn’t yet finished and so refocus to the immediate tasks at hand: namely: packing the bags for the final time and heading out to the open road.
The penultimate night
The final hostel was a good one. Located just meters from Esztergom Basilica, it provided a solid base to head out and explore this historic city. I joked upon entering Switzerland of its place at the top of The Economist’s Big Mac Index and the eye-watering cost of touring there. Hungary provides a perfect counterbalance to this with my monstrous cheese covered schnitzel and accompanying beers totalling a competitive £6. Exhausted from another 100 miles in the saddle I arrived back at the room, brushed my teeth and celebrated the final night of cycle touring by crashing out in my clothes. No one said this was glamourous!
Today is much shorter distance, along a section famed to be highly picturesque and enjoyable. Despite this, I find myself desperate to finish. It’s intriguing how the presence of the finish line can completely alter the mindset. I guess having travelled so far I’m nervous that a missed connection, mechanical failure or lapse in judgement could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. However, the riding is good, path picturesque and I eventually settle into a rhythm. Over the course of the morning progress is halted twice by extended waits for ferries, as I accept that I’ll arrive eventually and start to savour the final moments of the trip.
The Citadella is a fortification towering 450ft above Budapest, providing stunning aerial panoramas back over the city. Following a month of spectacular experiences, I can’t think of a more fitting finale than to climb one last hill, figuratively plant my flag in the ground, and bring an end to this wonderful adventure. Appropriately, it’s a steep gradient in the hot midday sun, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Nothing worth having in life is easy to attain and I enjoy this final effort.
Success!!
As I stand atop the hill, soaking in the magnificent views, I feel an overwhelming sense of appreciation. What an absolute privilege it has been to have this experience. And now, as I write this, I want to thank you for reading this blog and joining me on this adventure. Finally, if you’re in any way inspired to go out and seek adventure of your own – I can’t recommend it highly enough. It starts by leaving the front door…
Each year the Mercer Quality of Living Survey evaluates 450 cities according to 39 factors (ranging from socio-cultural environment, to schools and education to recreation) to establish the ‘World’s Most Liveable City’ and for the past 10 years Vienna has emerged on top, beating the likes of Zurich, Vancouver, Munich and Auckland (2nd – joint 5th in 2019 respectively). With just 48 hours in town, I’m intrigued to understand the factors that make this such a special place.
The bike looking particularly out of place in this wonderful room!
So, first thing I find myself rushing across town to join a walking tour. With the luxury of not having to cycle anywhere and access to an absurdly comfortable bed I’ve overburdened the snooze button and find myself running late. Feeling distinctly hurried and un-Viennese, I grab a sandwich and espresso on the fly and fall into line.
Walking tours are a fabulous way to orientate yourself within a city and provide essential context and background to assist in understanding and appreciating the sights around you. Starting opposite the Albertina gallery we work our way through Habsburgian Winter Palaces, down highstreets, past numerous monuments to finish on Stephansplatz, overlooked by the stunning St Stephen’s cathedral and in the heart of the city. Before we depart our tour guide is keen to point out two vital lessons for maximising one’s time in Vienna.
If you choose to indulge in Sachertorte (which any self-respecting Great British Bake Off fan will know is a glossy chocolate sponge with apricot jam filling), you mustn’t look to save euros by foregoing whipped cream (sold separately). While there’s no risk of me seeking Sachertorte, I’m led to believe it’s incredibly dry without dairy accompaniment.
To visit Vienna and not visit The Habsburgian Summer Palace of Schönbrunn is tantamount to visiting Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. Well, that’s this afternoon’s plan sorted then!
The view from St Stephen’s Cathedral roof
Before darting towards Schönbrunn, and upon the guide’s final recommendation I lunch at Trzesniewski (pronounced: treas (like treasure) – knee – evvs-keeee) – Vienna’s fast food. Tiny rye bread half-sandwiches with punchy, colourful and flavourful toppings.
Including classics such as “egg on egg”
Littered with a history of housing Austria’s most relevant and prominent historical figures, Schönbrunn is a magnificent baroque palace located to the south west of the city. With impressive symmetry and extensive manicured gardens, it’s an exceptionally photogenic and worthwhile stop on any itinerary. I spend an enjoyable couple of hours walking the grounds, nursing a coffee and filling the memory card with duplicate photos before heading back to the hotel, freshening up and heading out for relaxed drinks in the bustling and buzzing centre.
Symmetrical SchonbrunnI’d advocate walking up the hill for a particularly memorable coffee stop
I have just tomorrow morning left in Vienna before continuing down The Danube towards the 9th country of the trip – Slovakia. While I’m excited to explore somewhere new, I’m reluctant to leave this fabulous, soulful city. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve merely scratched the surface of what Vienna has to offer yet am starting to understand its decade of dominance atop the World Liveability Index. To my mind, Vienna makes a wonderful city break and sits alongside iconic historic cities such as Rome, London and Paris. Once the world opens and we can all start travelling again, I’d urge anyone to promote Vienna to the very top of their travel-lists.
What a delight it is to wake up at a leisurely hour and not worry about riding a bike. The goal today is fabulously simple: relax, recharge and enjoy yourself. This initially consists of FaceTiming friends, enjoying an unhurried coffee and heading down for breakfast.
An absolute joy of the cycle touring experience is the sheer quantity of food you’re able (and frankly required) to eat. Better still, due to your exertions, even the most humble meals and snacks are elevated to ambrosiac heights. This is particularly true in relation to high sugar, carbohydrate rich options, so I have a splendid time sampling unreasonable quantities of: granola, jam, bircher muesli and whatever else I can lay my hands on. Of course it is now, amid this orgy of excess, that I bump into a work colleague who is holidaying in Lucerne with his mother. Having been so focussed on my goal of summiting The Alps, I’ve not thought about work for the last week. It’s great to catch up and hear his perspective. He’s also incredibly knowledgeable about Lucerne and provides excellent recommendations for how to spend the day.
Round 1
Lucerne and the eponymous lake upon which it sits is magnificently picturesque. With an attractive Old Town, easy access to mountains and full Alpine encirclement it is a marvellous base for the adventurous and lovers of the great outdoors.
Views of Lake Lucerne
Starbucks, top option if you want to sit by the lake, enjoy a coffee and relax without committing to a full meal
I take the opportunity to procure a dry bag and additional bungee cord, (colour coordinated of course) so I can finally cover my unsightly running trainers which, until now, had been unceremoniously tied to the panniers. Marginal (aesthetic) gains. Let’s hope that by the end of the trip I’ll have a fully optimised set-up for future escapades.
Much better no?
Come the evening I can’t think of a better way to spend the last few hours here than to grab Pad Thai from a street vendor and soak in the lakeside views. Without the distraction of the bike, I find these rest days lonely, but it’s been a refreshing and welcome pause.
You know you’re exhausted when you ride 99.1 miles and can’t face the idea of adding the extra mile required to make it to triple figures!
After back to back 200km epics, I wake up, figuratively, on the wrong side of bed. Today offers a host of potential highlights: border crossings, mountains, and (all going well – for nothing is ever guaranteed when cycle touring) a destination famed for its lacustrine beauty.
However, heading out, I’m not aware of this as beyond Basle as I’ve not decided on destination. The combination of fatigue and uncertainty is weighing heavily as I depart the hotel and set upon locating the cycle path. This is punctuated briefly by a man yelling “ALLEZ, ALLEZ, ALLEZ” as I leave the saddle to crest a tiny bridge, which has me smiling until I happen upon Eurovelo 6, “The Route of The Rivers” for the first time.
Hello EV6!
Eurovelo 6 is the most popular of the Eurovelo routes, and in its entirety would take you from the Atlantic coast of France along flatlands and rivers all the way to the Black Sea in Romania. This initial foray will be brief, a cool 30km to Basle, but we’ll be picking it up again in the not-too-distant future as we negotiate the gentle bends of the Danube.
Initial impressions are excellent. Eurovelo paths are always passable, but certain sections are undoubtably better than others. This is one of the finest thus far as regular signposts accompany an easy approach towards Basle. While not in Switzerland, yet, it’s a positive harbinger of what’s waiting on the other side of the fast approaching border. And what’s better than crossing a border between two countries I hear you ask? Crossing a border between three – for to finally arrive in Switzerland one must cross the Three Countries Bridge, a civilised, unmarshalled triumph of open-bordered cooperation between France, Switzerland and Germany.
The Three Countries Bridge
While signs and flags are all well and good, you can equally deduce you’ve arrived in Switzerland by spotting the brightly coloured drybags being dragged by locals taking a dip in the river. It’s an incongruous sight, as The Rhine is both wide and powerful and we’re in the middle of a major city. Can you imagine the equivalent in London?! As I’m sat watching this, I decide upon Lucerne as my next destination – it’s a town I’m keen to visit, a good spot for a rest day, and most importantly a well-located base from which to tackle an assault on the Alps.
The first few miles leaving Basle aren’t quite what you’d expect when imagining Switzerland, a place which evokes images of great Alpine summits (home to the historic Matterhorn, Jungfrau and Eiger peaks), expansive lakes (Lac Léman, Zürichsee, Lucerne) and rolling plush green meadows. The surroundings of Basle, being an international powerhouse in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, are correspondingly industrial. The day is scorching, my Achilles is starting to creak and to complete the triumvirate, my road-cleats have finally given up. The most pleasurable days touring are those where the distances are comfortably achievable, which allows you to “look up and smell the roses”. Today isn’t one of those days. Lucerne is still 110km away, so every moment lost to unforeseen issues compounds the time pressure, but you have to keep you chin up, deal with each occurrence as it arises and get on with it. Thankfully, there’s now a new set of signs to follow and I’ll be taking Swiss Route 3 all the way to The Alps.
The issue with route planning on the fly is that it can lead you to overlook key details. In Northern Europe, you often get away with this as the topography is flat. Once you reach Switzerland, I would urge you to do your homework. The good news is that the Switzerland I had imagined has arrived, it’s every bit as green, plush and picturesque as one would envisage. The roads are smooth, drivers respectful and vistas stunning. The slightly more challenging news is that it’s also utterly vertiginous. Now I’m not adverse to a good climb, in fact in normal circumstances, ascending on a bike is probably my favourite part of cycling. Climbing with a full set of bags is altogether a different beast. It strips you of your ego, and leaves you hoping you have a gear small enough to crawl up the mountainside – which is how you find me now, huffing and puffing my way up the Schafmatt Pass. If I had done my due diligence, I would have known that this climb is over 2,000ft and takes you to the highest part of the canton. I haven’t, so after each switchback I glance up the serpentine ribbon of tarmac and wonder when (and frankly if) it’ll ever finally relent. Of course, eventually the tree cover thins, the views open and the road flattens. Exhausted and ravenous, I take the opportunity to pull off the road, inhale whatever snacks I have remaining and engage in a lovely chat with a German family who have driven down from Hamburg. Feeling spent after this morning (and frankly the whole week’s) exploits, it’s cheering to share details of our respective journeys and forget about the daunting distance that lays ahead.
Up, up and away
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but converted from one form to another. In my case, this is largely in the form of heat as I transfer that hard-earned gravitational potential energy into the brake blocks. This is my first meaningful descent (over 500ft) and I’m still adapting to how the bike handles under load. Regardless, the views are open, surface smooth and I’m grateful to enjoy cover the next 5km without having to turn the pedals.
2000ft later…What goes up must come down
Beyond floating dry bags, another sure-fire way to establish you’re in Switzerland is by observing the impact on your wallet. The day has marched on, and by 6pm, with 60km to cover, I realise I’m out of snacks and water and pull into Subway. A foot-long sub, plus drinks to refill the bidons runs to £25. A real-world example of Switzerland’s proud position at the top of The Economist’s Big Mac Index!
Switzerland… need I say more?
Mercifully, the final 60km is flat and with the roads largely to myself I FaceTime my parents to while away the distance. It’s now, while enjoying the warm evening sun that I catch my first glimpse of The Alps, framed against the blue sky far on the horizon. No longer conceptual, the goal I’ve been striving towards is now very real, and within striking distance. This provides all the motivation required and before too long I arrive at the hotel, ready for a hot shower, cold beer and a long, comfortable sleep.
Say hello to The Alps
Fabulous modern hotel room – Holiday Inn Express Lucerne – Kriens
Strava tells me I’ve cycled 961 kilometres (597 miles) this week and I’m utterly exhausted. My plan for the next couple of days? Eat donuts, explore Lucerne and recharge. Good night
Cycling Across Europe 