Homeward bound

Slowly, one climb after the other, the mountains left us go. First, we would catch a glimpse of the farmland below from a ridge, then we saw long valleys leading out onto the plains, then there was a clear direction were the river led out to lowlands. We passed the main European drainage divide between the North Sea and the Black Sea. We passed the old border of the Czechia and Moravia. But still, the road went up and down. Ok, this time more down than up, finally. This meant descents at hair-raising speeds (in one village we were clocked at 38 km/h), on wet roads with patches of leaves and gravel. We patched the beautiful Pernstejn castle and Szoki didn’t even notice it, while he weaved his way between the potholes. We stopped in a little town and had a big and delicious kebab. Still, the road kept occasionally turning into a climb. Some 10 km before Brno, the slopes became flatter and we could pick up some speed. We reached the outskirts of the town around 17:00 with aching legs, and checked the timetable of the trains to Budapest. The last direct train was bound in an hour. The station was 15 km away, and normally our long-term average speed is 10 km/h. But not this time. Szoki started like a rocket, raced the downhill part, weaved gracefully between cars and trams, cruised along the pedestrian zone, and we were at Brno station 15 minutes before the train arrived.

However, the man at the counter told us there were no more free bike reservations for this train, or the next. If we want to take a bike, we have to wait for the morning train. We tried reserving online, but that didn’t work either. So we finally decided to continue, but in a different way. Instead of the remaining 80 km to Holic in Slovakia and 200 to Esztergom tomorrow, we wod go south towards Bratislava, and end the trip by finally bringing the cargo bike to Hungary in Mosonmagyaróvár, 180 km from Brno. Not too many hills in that direction. We have done an additional 40 km of this route, and are now camped by a lake, our dinner is cooking and we have even bought some beer.