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**saralou** · #**1936** 4 Aug 2016

This is a memorial to those shot on the banks of the Danube by Arrow cross militiamen

"The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial to honor the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank.”

Sara Pics-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara Pics-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1937** 5 Aug 2016

Also as predicted it was a beautiful sunny day when we awoke. The plan today is to head 27 km south west to the moto24 shop where thanks to Dirk we had arranged for oil changes with just 1 days notice. We arrived at 9 and they were ready and waiting for us.

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 21.37.22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Budapest-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Budapest by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1938** 5 Aug 2016

That done we headed back north initially to Budakeszi in a fair amount of traffic.

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 21.36.30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Once we started towards Pilisszentkereszt it thinned out.

Sara Pics-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Finally you enter the park and the road was narrow and winding thru the trees. At Esztergom you hit the Danube again and we ran south along it to the village of Visegrad where you can get the ferry across for about 4 E each. It runs every hour and was just returning to our side when we pulled up. It is a barge pulled across the strong current of the river by a tub boat and so not a true ferry in that sense.

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 21.38.02 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara Pics-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1939** 5 Aug 2016

On the other side you arrive to the village of Nagymaros and then follow the river on the other bank for a while before heading north east to Felesotold our destination near to Holloko.

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 21.38.37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

On the way you pass hundreds of fields of corn and sun flowers.

Sara Pics-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara Pics-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1940** 5 Aug 2016

This small village in the hills has many of the old traditional style Hungarian houses in the ancient part of town and at the base of the hill where the castle sits.

Sara Pics-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara Pics-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1941** 5 Aug 2016

From near to Holloko we went south a short way and then east and into the parks.

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 21.40.46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Part of the route we took was an unmarked crossroad thru the trees. We saw mostly people fishing and picking mushrooms. The road was paved once and is still pretty good, but just off the centre track it is deep bog and very slippery.

Sara CC by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Feel like your going Mad sometimes?

Sara CC-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1942** 5 Aug 2016

Once we got back to the more major road we knew we were on the right track since there was a steady stream of Saturday bikers coming towards us. Also when you get to some intersections there are big signs that say bikers this way with an arrow. The best part of the road was after Sirok and until Lillafured thru the Bukki Nemzeti Park. This is a great narrow curvy road thru a dense forest.

Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 20.38.46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

From here we routed thru Miskolc and to the wine region around Tokaj. Wine has been made here since BC, but its fame is mostly because of Tokaji aszú wine, the world's oldest botrytized wine.

“Noble rot is the beneficial form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions. If the weather stays wet, the damaging form, "grey rot," can destroy crops of grapes. Grapes typically become infected with Botrytis when they are ripe. If they are then exposed to drier conditions and become partially raisined this form of infection brought about by the partial drying process is known as noble rot. Grapes when picked at a certain point during infestation can produce particularly fine and concentrated sweet wine.”

Hungary-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1943** 5 Aug 2016

Then we rode south west to the small town of Tiszadob. To get here you had to cross the river on a small cable ferry. We stayed in a traditional Hungarian house with a straw roof.

Sara CC-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Hungary is a nice country. It is very clean. The people are friendly and the drivers are very courteous. They have Goulash which is very delicious!!

"Goulash is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, goulash is also a popular meal in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Southern Europe"

**saralou** · #**1944** 8 Aug 2016

Today the mission is to get to Transylvania (Timisoara) and so we booked it south in eastern Hungary to get to Gyulac and the Romanian border. These may look like highways, but they are secondary roads with very little traffic until you hit the A1 after Arad.

Screen Shot 2016-08-04 at 18.32.37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1945** 8 Aug 2016

You pass the old and defunct Hungarian border control booths and then pass the welcome to Romania sign before you get to the new border controls. Despite both Hungary and Romania being in the EU there is passport control for the Schengen zone, which Romania is outside of. So not sure why the Hungarian official wanted the bike title, but she did and they exit stamped the passports of course. For Romania they stamped us in, but did not care about the bike papers, and neither wanted to see our green card insurance. They were quite keen to look at our route map on the pannier and all the country flags.

Sara CC-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Entering Romania at Arad there are a lot of grand avenues and buildings. We continued from here onto Timisoara.

Sara CC-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1946** 8 Aug 2016

We did a bit of a walking tour of the city. The most interesting was the Orthodox Cathedral. Inside the men stood at the right wall and the women the left. The singing of the priest was particularly good and broadcast outside on the load speakers. The church itself is very ornate.

Romania-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

This town could be anywhere in Europe and feels more European than many other places we have been. After a good night sleep with some well deserved air con we were on the road early as we wanted to make some miles to get into the Carpathian foothills.

Romania-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1947** 8 Aug 2016

Our destination is Oravita only 110 km away, but of course we made a 360 km loop out of it to get to and ride along the Danube.

Sara CC-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 21.15.39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We booked it south on the main road to get to Orsova. From here we looped west along the Danube.

Sara CC-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1948** 8 Aug 2016

On the way there is a huge rock sculpture.

“The rock sculpture of Decebalus is a 42.9 m in height and 31.6 m in width carving in rock of the face of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia, who fought against the Roman emperors Domitian and Trajan to preserve the independence of his country, which corresponded to modern Romania. The sculpture was made between 1994 and 2004, on a rocky outcrop on the river Danube, at the Iron Gates, which form the border between Romania and Serbia. It is located near the city of Orșova in Romania.”

Romania-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Romania-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1949** 8 Aug 2016

We turned not again at Moldova Veche and here the road is a good windy mountain crossing in dense forest. This is the first country we have been in that the GPS routing is a real problem. Despite putting waypoints on your road of choice the Montanas just will not route. It is weird especially since the road signs clearly indicate that This way is the correct path to your destination. Because of this we were thankful for the paper map and road signs.

The “one horse” town or Oravita is old school Soviet era buildings.

Romania by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The forecast has gone from nice all week to rain and thunder for the next 2 days. This will require some alteration to the plan as we do not want bad weather for the Transalpina and Transfagarisan roads.

**saralou** · #**1950** 8 Aug 2016

Today it was almost a straight shot east from Oravita to Novaci at the base of the Transalpina road.

Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 21.17.35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The first part is on a narrow windy mountain road. It was a bit drizzly and fairly foggy, but at least there was little traffic. This goes thru the Cheile Nerei-Beusnita National park.

Sara CC-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

You then hit the main road for 20 km and take the road to Targu Jiu. The GPS will not route this way for some reason. This is also a small windy road thru the Domogied-Volea National Park, which has a lot of thermal springs.The road then crosses more farm like lands and you get to the Carpathian foothills.

Sara CC-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Sara CC-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr