Budapest to Bucharest

A timely reminder as to why we cycle in the winter - Vice-captain Debs

Why do we cycle through the dark dank days of our British winter. Well I thought I would remind us of the great adventures available to us on a bike during the summer days and this was one of my highlights in 2024.

All bear photos are real, no photo shop. 🤗

This was a 1500km bike ride that would take us through two countries I know very little about. We cycled through towns and cities, over mountains and across the plains, into national parks, pass castles and buildings that would have been amazing at the beginning of the 20th century. It is easy to forget that the last century completely changed the landscape of Europe and it is far more evident here.

There were 10 of us with a guide all of leopard standard and we worked really well together as a team. They are all veterans of multi day cycling holidays and although I only knew 3 others everyone quickly fell into a cycling rhythm. We spent 5 days in Hungary, initially cycling alongside the Danube, before heading across the plains to the Romanian border. Hungary is not surprisingly wealthier than Romania, larger grander towns and more modern industry. Their main crop that we saw was sunflowers and we cycled for miles and miles with nothing else to see but fading sunflowers 🌻 We did occasionally see sweetcorn and vine yards but not a lot of bio diversity going on here.

The border towns in Romania are noticeably poorer and you quickly get used to seeing horse and carts and guard dogs who roam 😳 some could be quite aggressive. However Transylvania was a revelation to me. It was once a principality and became part of Romania in 1918. It was mainly inhabited by Saxons, invited by the Hungarians as a buffer between them and the Turks about 800 years ago, and they brought wealth and prosperity to the region. The towns were gorgeous as was the countryside with mountains, rivers and brown bears. We saw 10 brown bears from 7 sightings 😱.

One of the sightings was a mother with 3 cubs, probably the most dangerous. Anyway having been told that a bear had killed a hiker the previous month, we didn’t take any risks and were ferried pass the bears in the van. It was amazing to see them wild, even though we were spending a lot of time removing wheels and getting in and out of the vehicle. There is a lot of well preserved mediaeval history in the area including Dracula’s castle. Although more myth than fact Vlad Dracul the Impailer did spend sometime there. It is, however, more of a memorial to the Royal Family that abdicated during the Second World War.

Once over the Transfagarasan Pass, a 30 k climb with a balmy 5 C at the top, we returned to the plains of Romania. Most of the time the temperatures were in their 30’s so we chose to set off early to minimise the impact of the heat. As we headed to Bucharest the communist era became more evident in both industry and architecture, including the town where the Ceaucescus were executed. Road surfaces varied from fantastic to terrible and sometimes non existent, all part of the adventure of exploring somewhere new. Food was better than expected and it is a pork lovers dream.

I loved the trip and would highly recommend exploring this part of Europe. The highlights were Budapest and Transylvania.