Cycling from Switzerland to the Pamirs: Bratislava

Day 8: Bratislava - Cicov: 79 km
Day 9: Cicov - Esztergom: 96 km

We woke up under a blue sky in Bratislava and left with much more energy than the day before. As usual getting out of town was tricky but it gave us the opportunity to admire freeway constructions from below... And then suddenly, just after this mess, we got on a brand new bicycle path along a canal. We decided to stay on the Slovak side of the Danube, which was not supposed to be marked (we currently follow the EuroVelo 6) but looked more interesting. And in the end there were bicycle paths almost everywhere and in the rare cases where we had to take the road, drivers were very kind and careful while passing.

We found a great place to camp just after Cicov. We stopped early because Leila 's knee was painful again so it gave us time to enjoy the sun, the birds and to read. The night was cold, in the morning the water had frozen and the tent was covered with frost.

It was still sunny when we woke up the next day and this makes Camping much nicer. You get cold and wet while packing the tent so having sun to warm you up while having breakfast is great. This was a really beautiful day, we could even cycle in t-shirt and shorts in the afternoon. We stopped in Kormarno for lunch (we thought we could be there for a 10-11 am break but the path was a gravel road which made our progress much slower). There we met a guy very active in promoting tourism and especially cyclotourism in the region who had done basically the same bike trip 3 years ago. So he gave us precious advice. We reached Esztergom quite tired and late and had some trouble finding a place to stay because in this season, most pensions and hotels are closed. We ended up in a place where Kim had already been 2 years ago, which was already the only one open in april (but which is very nice).

So we are in hungary now, we just crossed the border in Esztergom and we ll be in budapest tomorrow night.

Overall we really loved Slovakia. It is a very welcoming country for cyclists and people are very friendly. We ll come back for sure!