As the long week-end was coming and the weather forecast showed summer was on the way we decided to go for a ride in Hungary. The idea was just to ride around and enjoy things. Yesterday morning I took the kids to the kindergarten and my in-laws were due to pick them up and babysit them for two days so we had some time off. We left home around 10.00 am and headed to the fishing lake at Tata on road no 1. It wasn’t a long ride since it’s only 60 km so we just rode casually. The weather was great for the first time in weeks. Once there we parked the bike and sat in for a coffee and some drinks before going for a walk. There were people fishing in some of the huts and everything was quiet and beautiful in the summer morning.
After the short break we headed South-West towards lake Balaton. We refuelled the bike at Várpalota before heading to VeszprĂ©m where we stopped for lunch at the Chianti restaurant. By that time it was getting hot. When we came out of the restaurant I noticed that the side stand left a significant mark in the tarmac – a sign of the heat as well as the quality of the Hungarian roads…
During lunch I checked the ferry timetable and we decided to aim for the ferry leaving at 4.30 pm from Tihany. We left Chianti a bit after 3.00 pm and rode to the lake (Csopak, BalatonfĂĽred, Tihany). Once at the ferry terminal I bought the ticket and we stood in line to wait for the boat.
The 10 minutes ferry ride is short but the weather made it nice as we admired the calm and undisturbed lake in pre-season. We headed for SiĂłfok where we wanted to spend the night. It took some time to find the hotel I was looking for but we managed nonetheless. I parked the bike and we headed to the reception where we received our keys. We just arrived in the room when the phone rang as reception called that my bike is at the wrong place. We quickly showered and went down to understand the issue. They told me to park the bike at the designated bike parking as I can’t leave it where it is now – even though it did not bother anyone and was fully out of the way. The designated bike parking lot was occupied by a big Audi who understandingly thought he deserves to park there while a Harley belonging to one of the hotel managers was parked just in front of mine – at the entrance of the hotel wellness. When I asked as to why the rules would not apply to all the guests and hotel staff they told me to leave the bike as it is indeed the perfect spot… Well, TiH (This is Hungary)… That is everyday practise and people are judged based on a prejudice hence a biker is surely not as good a guest as any other. Maybe I just should have picked a smaller hotel…
As we later realised there was a company event at the hotel so we couldn’t use any of the facilities we wanted so we went for a walk and found a small tavern where we had a couple of beers and a relatively good dinner.
Next morning we were faced with the next disappointment: we had to leave the room by 10.00 am! So much for the wellness activities we have planned so we needed to adapt. We decided to head to the centre of town for a walk and a coffee.
From there we went to the KistĂĽcsök restaurant. As it is a quite popular place with excellent food we went early to ensure we have a table. Lunch was sublime and we sat on the bike feeling a bit sleepy in the heat until wind started to blow and woke us up. Since I didn’t want to take the motorway our pace was rather slow and I had to fight the constant wind guts. We only stopped once for a coke and some rest (bear in mind we had to wait a bit since the owner / bartender went for some supplies…) before arriving home around 4.00 pm.
The last stretch was much better as we rode through roads protected by tree lines and the wind was less strong.
As we still had to pick up the kids the bike wash remains for tomorrow but I have plenty of time during the long week-end 🙂