Day 6

Day 6
Leaving Budapest at 8am to start our long day it is 340klm ride and the time estimated 9 hours, including stops.
Vic is now on the BMW gs 1200 and he rides out from the underground garage with no effort .There is no road to park the whole 12 bikes are parked on the footpath, the steam of traffic that is going by is quite daunting, the sun is out and it is a warm 23 dec c.
It takes us a good half hour to get out of Budapest,as bikes are aloud in the bus lane.We ride along side the Danube River.
Then the road is nice and fast to our ferry, but before we cross we see a an old fortress in Visegrad and we climb up the many steps to see the S bend of the Danube. The fortress has been partly reconstructed and many of the original walls are still standing.
We then ride down to the ferry crossing, the road need a lot of repair many holes and lots of bumps.
Arriving at the ferry we buy our tickets 1500 ft. Mary have a lot of difficulty getting onto the ferry ramp, and nearly falls. She went so slow then put her hand break on. lucky Rozle was near by and caught the bike before it fell.The crossing took 15 minutes .
We ride along the Danube through little picture postcard villages, the places are in need of TLC .
Crossing the boarder into Slovakia, Rozle takes us up over a country road which is being repaired, many many bumps and holes. Jacks top box decided to fall off,it was picked up by Miki and Stephen and they had it on their bike between them. As the lock was now broke Alan came to the rescue with his super strong okey straps.
At our lunch stop at Brezno (3pm) the heavens opened up most of us put on our wet weather gear.On the road again Rozle stops to check if everybody has there gear on Vic takes the lead as we meander along the small country road in the pouring rain.
The going is very slow and we wait on each turn off for them.
At last we reach our destination and we need to refuel, all but Mary and Stephen they rode past us at the petrol station, and went to the hotel they did not see us... duh They were not impressed when we saw them at the hotel
We are staying in Stary Smokovec the oldest settlement in the Tatra and arriving at 6-30pm it was a long and a very adventures day dinner is in a nearby hotel at 7-30pm
It has many ski and toboggan track and very very pretty.
.We have a rest day to day and we are going in a mini bus to Auschwitz