Day 2 Budapest to Szigethalom 32.7 km 2hrs

This is the first 'holiday day', so obviously the Gods decided that this should be marked with a decent quantity of rain. The morning was spent looking around the City. We decided that the two places to see where theSzechenyi Baths and the Viennese coffee house Gerbeaud. We headed out into the rain, having left most of our gear in the hotel.

  First stop was the Baths - in an amazing building built in the 1880s. We started off going for a massage, and although the route through a maze of narrow corridors from the baths to the massage area was interesting, the massage wasn't that great and I came out feeling more battered and fleeced than massaged. Anyway, it didn't do any harm, other than to our local currency levels, and left us ready to enjoy a spot of lazing about in the warm water. Apart from the massage, we really enjoyed this place, it's a must if you are in Budapest with a bit of time free.

Next stop was back in the City centre, and a rendezvous with a cake in the splendid Gerbeaud Coffee House. I say, a cake - there are so many to choose from it was almost as much of a struggle deciding what to eat as it was getting a table. Anyway, we managed both, and agreed the place and cakes were great.

Eventually the road called, and we went back to the hotel to pick up our panniers. I really can't say enough about how lovely, and capable the staff were here. Standing by reception there was a bit like watching some complicated games show where the staff had to talk to whoever was standing there in their native language, they seem to manage without batting an eyelid. Hungarian, Italian, German, English, Russian, were just the few that we recognised.  There were also not at all put out helping us find space to store bikes and bits and peices.

Time to get cycling! We headed south, much of it on a signposted cycle route- following the well signposted "Danube Cycle Way" as much as possible. After splendid views of the Parliament we headed into more light industrial areas, such is the way when leaving a big City by bike. We didn't make particularly fast progress and eventually called it day at a little canal side restaurant near Szigethalom. Although we didn't share a single word in a common language we managed to get a bed, food, and directions the nearest cash machine to repair the damage done in the Baths earlier in the day. They too allowed us to store our bikes inside, which was great as all our gear was a bit wet.

A rough version of the route is shown in the map below:

View Day 2 in a larger map

Don't expect perfection from my google maps - they don't show every wiggle we took, as there is no way on earth I can remember all that.  They should roughly follow the route we took and start and finish in the right place.