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Esztergom, where the heck is it?
Such, or similar, was my big question, as I heart the first time from the WIMA Rally in one of our winter meetings.
Wima Rally? Yes, once a year all WIMA clubs worldwide, gather together at one location somewhere at this globe and celebrate, talk and ride their (rented) motorbikes.
And, this year our hungarian WIMA Collegues honoured us with their invitation to Esztergom for the Rally 2016.
As the distance between Vienna and Esztergom, especially via highway, is only an 2 1/2 hour drive, something different has to be found. Driving through the hungarian puszta isn’t chilling, too, so?
Finally the hungarian prime minister helped us with his temporary closure of the border to hungary, thus meaning, that a direct border crossing wasn’t recommended at all, so we decided to enter Hungary via Slovakia. And, fortunately so we found the perfect alternative route:
We started in Aspern (the site of the one and only victory of the austrian army
over Napoleons army, crossing the danube), at 10 am
Then we went up NorthEast to the Slovakian Border at Angern/March, where we used the ferry to cross the river to Slovakia.
from there we rode to Malacky and further on into the little Charpathian Mountains (Maly Karpaty) –
quite similar to our Kalte Kuchl 
– a famous motorbike meeting and show-off point in Austria.
from there via Senec to Galanta.
Unfortunately my Smartphone overheated during the long drive in the hot and sunny weather, so the screen blackened, and the backup map wasn’t quite clear at one point, so we endend in the middle of nowhere close to the little danube (Maly Dunaj)
A really nice and pleasant place, but unfortunately only with a rowboat the right way. But, with our bikes, we had to head back for a short period and then circle to the right side in direction to Galanta.
After Galanta we headed south, along the Waag river to Komarno at the Danube. Now we had to decide, which side we would choose for our further approach to Esztergom. Should we stay on the slovakian side and cross the danube at Sturovo? Or should we cross the danube and head to Esztergom along the danube, or over the hills via Tata, Bajna and Tat?
We decided for the hungarian side, and so we crossed the bridge to hungary to Komarom, no border controls, as expected 😉
As all of us where more or less dehydrated (despite constant drinking water) we decided for the assumed easier way along the danube.
But unfortunately, village after village, a lot of sunday tourist car drivers, made the last 35km to Esztergom an unpleasant and boring ride.
Approx. 6 hours riding time was calculated, finally -with some interruptions – 8 hours driving was the result.
My camel back had helped, and so we started to assemble our austrian camp, after the first welcome rounds.
As Lily and Birgit will arrive tomorrow with their transporter van and the big tipi , we decided to make kind of a circle with our tents, below some shady trees.
I did errect my tent too, despite the fact that I will have to drive back in an hour, or so, to vienna, as I had changed my job only a week ago and therfore lost all my vacation for the time beeing . :-/
But I’ll be back – on friday afternoon – for sure.
At 8:30 pm I started the engine again, and headed to Tatabanya, the closest highway driveway, I found a pleasant, challenging road with no traffic, so I arrived at the highway only half an our later, and from there headed back to vienna into the black night.
unsurprisingly, there was a queue at the border of 2,5km, but, as I had left my paniers at the tent, it was easy to sneak frough the cloumns and cross the border without to much time lost.
Finally, at 10:45pm I arrived at Vienna. Tired after a 13,5 hours tour, and 11 hours ride, but looking forward to friday.! 😉
