We awoke to a glorious sunrise from our cottage in Tihany. Certainly the position of the cottage provided a wonderful panoramic vista. 
We were awake early as the ‘bed’ was not optimal. It was a fold out couch. When I booked this place we were upstairs, but the owner put us downstairs because ‘we had bikes’. I guess I assumed there would be a bed.
There was no breakfast provided here, no local shops opened offering food until 9 am, amd we had a 180 km ride ahead of us,
I had one sachet of powdered chocolate drink in my pack, so we shared that.
We hit the road about 6.15 am. There are many benefits at that hour, the biggest is that no one else is up! Cars were infrequent.
Once off the peninsula where Tihany is located on Lake Balaton we turned left, and could just still see the lake.
An interesting note re the lake. One of my cycling friends from near Prague, Milos, wrote on my strava feed that Lake Balaton was one of the few places that Czechs were allowed to travel to during the Czech communist era.
At the 25 km point we found a little village supermarket open. Another advantage of being up early is that all their fresh breads and pastries had just arrived.
Here we have more hi tech Hungarian military items.
Still the roads were quiet and we really enjoyed the first 64 km of our ride into Kesethely, on the southern shores of the lake.
It is easy for guys to have a pee when cycling, but for girls it is harder. I needed to pee and thought I found an ideal spot. Think again Sharron! I have never, ever seen such a sign!
Moving right along……I stopped about one km up up the road, no signs around!
Flags flying on this castle. I imagine there would be a wonderful view of Lake Balaton.
We were becoming increasingly concerned about the clouds on our left.
I was never going to get a clear shot of this sign as there was a school group there, selfies galore happening. They had luggage to one side, and I did wonder if there might be a ferry service operating from the nearby pier.
Our last Lake Balaton views.
We spent over an hour checking out Keszthely including visiting some local bike shops.
Time to hit the road, as we still had 116 km to ride.
Heading out of town the headwind greeted us. Progress became quite slow. The clouds were not giving us optimism either.
We stopped at a supermarket for food, and this new bike appeared, all set for touring. Cardboard box and rope does it!
An old guy came out and filled that box with chicken sections he had purchased. He looked at our bikes and pointed to the clouds, telling us what we were hoping would disappear! “Rain”.
Yes….we started spinning those wheels and stopped here to don the rain jacket. The wind was whipping into our faces fiercely and it had become considerably colder.
At the next town after this photo, it was pouring and we pulled over into a bus shelter to throw our weather proof overboots on.
We sat….and we sat. We saw the worst of the rain off under shelter. We still had 84 km to ride so we needed to get back to spinning the wheels.
The wind had ceased! We were riding through beautiful forests. We had another deer run across the road.
Another village, with an unusual building. I think this was the local civic centre equivalent.
More canola, because you just cannot grow enough it seems.
Deer warning sign…
These are our last Hungarian photos about 8 km before we crossed the border.
No farewell from Hungary signs only this one Slovenia! That pulled me up as when I had originally mapped the ride to Verazdin CROATIA, Slovenia was not on the route.
Tony had remapped it and his version went through Slovenia. Ok….so we needed to ride through a wedge of Slovenia.
There were some guards at the border crossing checking out a very dodgy looking caravan. We got waved through to a toll booth for the autobahn. Straight through again.
Here is our first Slovenian town.
25 -30 km in Slovenia was enough for today and we arrived at a very serious border crossing needed to see our passports…..two control points. One for leaving Slovenia, the second for arriving in Croatia. Two scary looking dudes too.
Crossing the Drava river for a second time we have our first views of Croatia.
We are now in Verazdin, Croatia. A long day but satisfying 180 km with lots of undulations, and plenty of weather challenges.
Car driver speed has increased significantly since Hungary. Many are fast overtaking inappropriately.
After showering and washing our clothes, we walked around town and were immediately impressed by the car free spaciousness.
We enjoyed a lovely and very reasonably priced Italian meal next door to our hotel. Our hotel has a wonderful king size bed! A proper bed!
We will be rejiggimg our next few days plans due to bad weather forecasts in the region. 20 mm rain forecast and I think Sunday will not be rideable ( in a safe and enjoyable way).
Ooroo, time for me to grab some breakfast and hit the road!
Then at the other end of town was this junk shop where you can buy your own stork or other ‘ornaments’ for your garden. Do they leave this crap, oops….I mean do they leave this ‘stock’ out overnight? I guess they do, seriously, who would steal it?
Finally we reconnected with the Danube river. Here is one of a series of war memorials along this particular stretch.
The border between Slovakia and Hungary is in the middle of the river, so the other side is Hungary.
We were back onto the bike path when it started to rain again! We had cleaned our bikes some 50 km earlier when we stopped at a service station. However, this rain provided a further clean. We deliberately rode through larger clean puddles for a ‘rinse’.
Finally we got to cross the Danube and take some photos. We had been able to see the Basilica for some time in the hazy distance. We were pretty impressed standing on the border of two countries and gazing in wonderment.
Our accomodation is only few hundred metres from the Basilica. Our bikes are stored in the courtyard downstairs somewhat dirty but heaps better than earlier in the day.
After showering and doing our laundry we started walking.
The old castle was closed, and is located adjacent to the Basilica. This photo was taken looking in from one of the gates.
A pretty impressive entrance gate to the basilica, although I note from the Roman numerals, it is not ‘that’ old, with the 1874 date.
Through the arch is this building.
Then up to the very top of the hill is the Esztergom Basilica, otherwise known as the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Adalbert.
The photo below shows the (netted) dome, the Sanctuary and High Alterpiece. The High Alterpiece is the largest in the world painted on a single piece of canvas (13.5 x 6.6 metres). The work is of Michelangelo Grigoletti, based on Titian’s well known work, The Assumption, which can be seen in Venice.
The organ was first played here in 1856 in the presence of the famous Hungarian composer Ferenc Liszt. Renovation works commenced in the 1970s and are continuing.
Tony captured some great shots overlooking the Danube, Esztergom and Slovakia.
Walking back down the hill is this statue near the castle.
yakkablog 