Apatin-Novi Sad, 31 July

In Apatin we made use of the Bamberg bicycle for the first time. Carl hired a bike from the marina and Leslie peddled the bambi. 60 km outside Apatin was the Jankovich wellness centre.  Several swimming pools, tennis courts and spa activities. We spent a few hours in the Olympic size swimming pool before peddling back to Apatin.

The fishing boats in Apatin Marina. As we went down the river we spotted these small fishing boats everywhere. And they are really small. Have never seen so many fishermen out so early in the morning. 

As we go downstream we have Croatia on the right side and Serbia on our left for the first 50 km on our way to Novi Sad. We pass villages where the scars from the 1990 war are still visible. 

During the war the Serbs shot heavy artillery on Aljmas and the well known pilgrim church was completely destroyed.  A new modern church in the shape of a swan was built in 2003. 

The small town draws 100 000 pilgrims and tourists each year. 

I went a bit too fast past the Swan church so Carl could not get a proper photo. That is the neck of the swan we see sticking up. It is actually quite a weird building.

In Vukovar the memories of the war are still more visible. We have heard that even though townspeople are making an effort to heal old wounds, there are still hard feelings amongst the people. One thing we have become so aware on this trip is the absolute futility of war throughout history.

The memorial for the victims of the Croatian wars in Vukovar. 

A Csarda on the river bank. This building is on stilts, like many of the buildings along the river.

We arrived in Novi Sad after 5 hours along a calm, enormous and even very beautiful river. We walked along a new promenad, 3,5 km to the town centre. The promenad had a jogging track on the side. Lots of activities like football, volleyball, outdoor gym all along the promonad. 

The Novi Sad castle on the other side of Duna. Every summer 50 000 people come to the Exit rock festival at the Castle. 

In the 1999 Kosovo war NATO bombed and destroyed all the 4 bridges in Novi Sad. On the river bank was the graffiti "NATO volim te"  was not sure if that meant, love you or hate you, but googled it and found out that it means love you.

We stayed at the Liman marina in Novi Sad. There was this restaurant sort of attached to the marina. Seemed like quite a popular place. This is the kitchen area where the meat was grilled on an open fire. Too much food and too tasty! It was very hot in Novi Sad and exactly the same as the last couple of nights, the heat builds up to a downpour at night. But it is quite pleasant to sleep on a boat when it rains. Tomorrow we have 90 km to Belgrade. Cannot believe that we have made it this far! Carl has a friend/previous bussiness contact who has arranged a safe harbour for LelleBelle while we are in Sweden for a week.

Baja-Apatin, 29-30 July

Jamshid left by bus to Budapest early in the morning. We set off towards Serbia. It is misty in the beginning but clears up and it's a beautiful day. 

We thought we were well prepared for the Hungarian border control at Mohacs. But nevertheless the border police were out in full force to meet us. On land was a police car with blue light and the sirene blasting and on the water came a police speed boat showing us the ponton where we must moor. At the ponton were  two police officers telling us to take passports and boat papers with us and follow them to the building for Passport, customs, police and health control. A  70 EUR fine for not having a stamped and signed boat certificate. We were told we shouldn't pay. After that we were cleared to leave Hungary and not to come back in six months. 

Then cross the border to Serbia and Croatia. We stay in Serbia so we check in at Beslan. An agent takes care of the formalities and we pay 90 EUR. The official fills in loads of forms in 4 originals and that's it. Now we are cleared for the Serbian waters. Off we speed to Apatin. 

Leslie's favorite water condition. 

Apatin had a brewery since 1756. Here they brew the local beer Jelen and on license Staropramen, Becks, Efes and a few more. The pleasant smell from the brewery was all over Apatin. 

The Apatin Marina with all the small flat bottomed fishing boats. Fishing is the No.1 leisure time activity

Some of the boats have cabin. 

Here's a boat coming back from a fishing trip. All equipment needed for a few days out on a good fishing spot. It took the owner a full afternoon to unload the boat 

Dinner at the Tscharda "Zlatna kruna".

Best view and superb grilled food. 

A heron at the Apatin Danube promenade. 

A storm is coming in. Luckily we only got a few drops of rain but the thunder was impressive. 

Here we are leaving Apatin. The Tscharda "Zlatna kruna" seen from the river. 

The history of Apatin is so complex and interesting. Turks, Habsburgers, Hungarian,  Germans, Serbian kings etc. 

Kisapostag-Baja

 Now armed with 4 Hungarian words, igän (yes), näm (no), kössönöm (thank you) and keräm (please) we leave the idyllic Yachtclub Kisaopstag and head for Baja, 90 km downstream.

Last view of Kisapostag.

The next town from Kisapostag. We could have stayed here for the night, hooked on to the blue boat.

Carl has read about a village nearby which is the paprika capital of Hungary. The helpful tourist office ladies, who spoke excellent English, gave us directions, but we decided that it would take too much time. So instead we enjoyed the sight of colourful paprikas in the vegetable store.

On the main square in Baja. Baja is about 50 km from the boarder to Serbia and Croatia.

At the famous Riverside cafe. Met a local woman who has been living in Ireland for 10 years and was home for a wedding. She gave us some tips about good places to eat.

The Yachtclub in the centre of the town in the background.

The recommended restaurant. Jamshid's last night and even his celebration for the end of Ramadan.

The highly recommended Baja Fish soup, mixed fish. The soup came in one bowl and the fish in another. It was too much. We thought it would be a first course and could hardly eat our main course. In my opinion, the fish soup was nice, but overrated.

Budapest-Kisapostag, 27 July

Set off at 8 am for Kisapostag, 100 km downstream. Weather forecast predicted rain, but it was cloudy and then beautiful. Not as hot as it has been the last few days.

Jamshid and I with best views of Budapest.

Passing the parliament buildings. One the Pest side of the river.

View of the Buda side.

The famous chain bridge.

The castle on the Buda side.

The captain and the new first mate!

Some advice from the previous first mate, who by the way is so happy to sit at the back and read a book.

We are so pleasantly surprised to reach the little Kisopastag Yachtclub. What an idyllic place. We took a walk in the surroundings and found this tree loaded with plums. Unfortately the plums will only be ripe in about one weeks time.

We spent the afternoon on the beach on the bank of the Danube. 

Carl and Jamshid went for a swim. The current is so strong that I was worried that I would have to pick them up in Belgrade.

The brave Danube swimmers, Carl and Jamshid, after fighting their way against the current.

Dinner at the wonderful restaurant at the Marina. Our waitress, Vanessa, could about  speak 3 words in English, so it was quite a feat to actually get our meal ordered. We had fish and chicken, delicious! And so far two bottles of good wine, nyakas Budapest irsai oliver. The Danube, looking do calm and beautiful in the background.

Budapest, 24-26 July

Budapest, show us what you have to offer! It is hot and humid, but after a day touristing around Budapest it is good to come back to the Marina and take a swim in a converted barge!

The swimming pool in the converted barge at the Marina.

We started with a Hungarian speciality kuskä...... something and coffee. This a a sweet type of bread, we ordered one with cinnamon and one with almonds.

For the first time on this trip we took a hop on hop off bus ( getting older?). Here we hopped off at Heros place with statues of all the Hungarian heroes, especially the king Stefan, Istvan.

The is a frieze of Istvan receiving the crown from the pope. Apparently the pope has to decide who is to receive this crown and he was uncertain. But the angel, Gabriel, whispered in his ear that Istvan should receive the crown.

View at Pest from Buda. Pest is on the left (east) bank and Buda on the left. Before the bridges joined the Buda and Pest the fine and cultured people lived in Buda while the barbarians were on the Pest side. 

The castle, built by the Hapsburgers. The castle is on Buda side. 

We hopped off at the thermal baths, bit after that stayed on the bus for neatly two hours? It was very sunny so one can borrow a sun hat for he trip.

We decided to go back to the thermal baths the following day.

Carl tried every one of the at least 10 baths. Temperature ranging from 36 degrees to 18. This one held a pleasant temp of 28. 

The changing room at the thermal baths.

We passed the "Terror museum". Unfortunately we did not have time to visit the museum. The museum shows the terrors of the the two last occupying dictators. 

And look who came to visit us all the way from Uzbekistan! Welcome to LelleBelle Jamshid. We look forward to two exciting days travelling through Hungary with you!

Komarno-Esztergom -Budapest, 24 July

Plan to reach Budapest today, 120 km downstream, with a break in Esztergom for a telephone conference.

5.10 am leaving Komarno, beautiful morning, nice easy flow in the river. Just need to look out for driftwood.

The Danube has looked very different in different parts of the 700 km we have travelled. Around Komarno it is very wide and the downstream current is not as strong as in narrower parts.

Reached Esztergo at 8.30 am, in time for Carl to set up his meeting.

This is the fantastic cathedral with the enormous dome.

Found a place at this little marina with people extremely interested in our trip. Four Germans from München, travelling in a little motorboat (overnighting in hotels) were particularly interested and one of the guys heard that there was to be a mutiny before the Black Sea, he immediately offered to travel with Carl. He left his contact details and asked to be contacted nearer the time for departure.

Carl setting up his office in the marinas restaurant.

So what do I do for 3 hours in Esztergom? Discover the town of course.

And what a pleasure that was. Esztergom is the place where the first king of Hungary was crowned in the 10th century. I thought this might be an important person because I recognised the name Balint so I took a photo and later googled information. Turns out he was a poet with quite a sad story. 

View of Esztergom and Danube from the castle.

the beautiful surroundings around Esztergom.

view of the Danube, on the it's way to Budapest.

The front of the castle. I liked the first word  in the text, "caput".

Untill just after Esztergom the boundary between Slovakia and Hungary runs right in the middle of the river. Thereafter we are in Hungary. Goodbye Slovakia. 

Now we are in Hungary, not much difference yet. But after some distance we came into a very beautiful  fjord like part just before the Donau turns south. 

A castle ruin. Appartently the castle was destroyed by the Turks in 16 th century. some more history we need to update!

We left the main Danube to travel along a narrower arm for the last 30 km before Budapest. this area is a vey popular weekend place for Budapest inhabitants. It is a beautiful area with green hills on either side of the river. This is a beach along the river where people were actually swimming. We did not see so many people swimming in other places.

Arrived in Budapest after only 3 hours, although we thought it would take up to 5 hours. Have replaced to Slovakian guest flag for the Hungarian guest flag.

Asked about washing machine and one of the many helpful men (none of who could speak English or German) indicated towards an unfinished building that we could use his washing machine. We got one load ready and found the washing machine at the bottom floor. A hose pipe was connected and the washing was done. Not more dramatic than so but a lesson of how helpful people really are.