July 25 - In Search of Goulash

Today was the best ride of the week so far. We aren't as sore as when we first started, and the ride was flatter too. Today we road through a protected UNESCO bird sanctuary in Austria. The areas which weren't sanctuary were vineyards, creating some beautiful riding. This picture is of our guide Tomas, Sean and Margaret at the Austria-Hungarian border. It was quite humorous, the bike path in Austria was about 3 meters wide and well maintained, and in Hungary was so over grown in areas that only an 8 inch wide trail remained.

After the first flat of our trip we reached the lunch stop about 20 minutes behind everyone else. Margaret decided to explore a nearby palace with half the group, and Sean continued on for another 20 kilometers of riding. After returning to town we went shopping (WHOO-HOO), and got a lovely hand sewn table cloth for a future holiday dinner.

Tonight we stay in the small baroque village of Sopron, and are meeting the rest of our bike group in about 50 minutes in search of Goulash which is a traditional beef stew. We are so close to Austria that most people speak Hungarian and German, which is a relief to us because both Sean and Margaret know enough German to be able to figure out what is what on menus, what signs mean, etc.