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Touring with Byercycles

Krakow to Budapest 90

During the summer of 1990 - I attempted a city to city ride, that for me was the most

challenging cycle ride to that date. Our daughter Rebecca had grown up and went her own way for

the first time that year, but Daniel who was by then fourteen still wanted to come with us. The ride

was organised by a company called Bike Tours.

(Christine Byers)

The organisers flew all the participants about fifty of us to Krakow in Poland, a famous

old city not far away from the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. Our bikes were

transported in a large van overland, and after a day sight seeing in Krakow we started our ride

Krakow city centre

Cycling through Poland

through the southern part of Poland over the Tatra mountains to Zakopane. This town is a ski

resort that was used as a venue for the Winter Olympics before the last war. The carpet of snow

that is necessary for winters sports, had long since gone, melted by the rain that was still falling

during our brief overnight stop in mid August. A day later we crossed the international border into

Slovakia, the eastern half of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia later separated from it’s neighbour the

Czech Republic and they both became independent nations. Our ride continued south along a very

scenic route, through the Carpathian Mountains, that were enclosed at times by lovely forested

areas, then over the frontier into Hungary. We finished our journey after two weeks cycling,

on the banks of the river Danube very close to Budapest, in the town of Szentendre.

That evening after the bikes had been packed away in the van ready for their return

journey to England,we celebrated our achievement with dinner and wine in a local restaurant. The

next day we were transported by boat a few kilometres along the river into the centre of Budapest,

where we had all day to find our way around and admire this fine old city. Later we boarded an

overnight train to be taken all the way back to Krakow, ready to fly home the next day. This train

journey turned out to be quite an experience, for although we had sleeper carriages on the train,

sleep was impossible. At each of two border crossings, the train was stopped both sides while the

border guards came through to check the passports and visa’s of all the passengers on board. The

presence of the guards so many times, created the feeling that we were all participating in a cold

war spy thriller. The first night of this tour in Krakow, we had stayed in a large government run

hotel. All the other nights we camped at reasonable good sights, that had restaurants nearby to feed

us. One night we were fed in the canteen of a Slovakian washing machine factory as there was no

where else nearby to eat. In all three countries that we visited the cost of living was considerably

lower than ours. A good example was the cost of a pint of beer. In Poland beer cost several million

Zloties about 10 pence in our money. It became more expensive the further south we travelled, 20

pence in Slovakia , rising to 35 pence in Hungary. In Britain at that time the average cost of a pint

was around £1.40.

Budapest on the banks of the Danube

The van that had transported our bikes from England was also used to carry our bags

and camping equipment while we were cycling. Another van was used to carry spare bike bits and

as a mobile workshop. On the first day riding out of Krakow the repair van came in very useful,

after a silly accident that could have been a disaster. Riding in quite a large group which is

something we usually try to avoid. We had just passed through the suburbs and had reached open

country, when a young man who was riding in front, stopped suddenly with out warning to retrieve

his cotton hat that had blown off in the wind. Richard collided with him and was bought down

onto the road. His bike slid across the road and a car coming from behind run over his front wheel.

Fortunately no serious damage was done to the car or anybody else. The front wheel was

straightened so that it was good enough to ride for the remainder of the journey. Richard did

develop a bruise the size of a dinner plate on this right hip, which was stiff and sore for the next

week. He was very lucky to escape with only bruising, since this happened we have never felt

comfortable riding in groups with other cyclists and we have taken great care to ensure that such

accidents never happen again. Apart from that one incident the ride was very well organised. The

route through the three countries was superb and is still remains a good memory to this day.