Saturday, 7-15 to Estergom

As we left Komarom, people were lined up at the ornate town well filling jugs with water. Don't know whether the city water was doubtful; there is an ongoing environmental disaster nearby where there had been an aluminum plant in the bad old days. But we topped up our water bottles at the well to be on the safe side.

Today's route was away from the river and mostly on roads instead of bike paths. We made good time, making one stop at the little town of Sutto to look at a small baroque church. Had a good conversation with the woman who volunteers to keep up the interior of the church. She said it was a lot of work, but... touched her heart. Other than that we stayed in the saddle for the four hour route, and reached Estergom by lunchtime, tired. There are only two hotels in Estergom. The good one was full. The other, the Rugby Club Hotel, has a catchy name, but the catch is that it really is a rugby club facility and the rooms are there to give beds to visiting teams. Clean, but sadly lacking. Most important, there was no hot water. We went off to see the town and left them to work on the hot water.

Estergom was Hungary's first capital, and when the king moved to Buda about the year 1000 the church took over his castle. The cathedral there has been the church center of Hungary since then, and has been rebuilt many times. The most recent version is an immense basilica built in the mid-1800's. Since it is built where a fortress once stood, it is on the high ground and it was quite a hike up many steps to reach the basilica. Turned out they were to have a 6 p.m. Mass so we killed time and stayed for that. There were only a handful of worshipers and we all sat in the dignitary seats in the choir area.

At the foot of the hill below the basilica we were the only diners in a mom-and-pop restaurant, but we got an excellent dinner of tender pork with a mild hungarian gravy. We have been in several restaurants with few customers. I don't know how they survive.

Back at the Rugby Club, still no hot water. We went to bed grubby and disgruntled.