The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. Mike Wells
with reserveable space for cycles. To find out which departures these are, look on the SNCF (French Railways) website www.voyages-sncf.com. This is in French, but less complete information is available in English at www.bikes.sncf.com. You can book French trains through this same French website or via Rail Europe www.raileurope.co.uk. From Brussels, conventional EuroCity services with cycle space run three times daily to Strasbourg via Luxembourg. In Strasbourg a local service connects across the Rhine with DB (German Railways) for connections across Germany to Munich and on through Austria to Vienna.
An alternative is to use Stena Line ferries to reach Hoek van Holland from Harwich or P&O to Rotterdam from Hull, then Dutch NS trains to Rotterdam. Here you can continue to Utrecht and catch the overnight train to Vienna, which has reclining seats, couchettes and sleeping cars together with cycle provision. On Hoek van Holland ferries, through tickets allow you to travel from London (or any station in East Anglia) to any station in the Netherlands. Booking for German trains is on www.bahn.com. Up to date information on travelling by train with a bicycle can be found on a website dedicated to worldwide rail travel ‘The man in seat 61’ www.seat61.com.
By air
Budapest airport receives direct flights from all over Europe. Airlines have different requirements regarding how cycles are presented and some, but not all, make a charge that you should pay when booking as it is usually greater at the airport. All require tyres partially deflated, handlebars turned and pedals removed (loosen pedals beforehand to make them easier to remove at the airport). Most will accept your cycle in a transparent polythene bike-bag or wrap, but some insist on the use of a cardboard bike-box. These can be obtained from cycle shops, usually for free. They can also be obtained from luggage shops at some airports, including London Heathrow, but you should ascertain their availability before leaving home.
All flights to Budapest arrive at terminal 2, which is 6km from the now closed terminal 1, on the opposite side of the airport. This makes life difficult for cyclists as the railway connection to central Budapest runs from Ferihegy station, which is adjacent to terminal 1. There is a connecting bus service, which does not carry cycles, and a motorway on which cycling is prohibited. For directions see box.
BUDAPEST AIRPORT, TERMINAL 2, TO FERIHEGY STATION
To reach Ferihegy by cycle, turn R outside terminal 2 and just before the end of the terminal buildings bear R through a gate onto a concrete block path to the R of the terminal departure road. Pass an aircraft museum R. By the entrance to this museum, turn L then R through barriers. Turn R onto an old airport perimeter road. Follow this as it turns R (signed Porta ‘J’), and after 250 metres turn L on a road with a no-through road sign. Fork R and where the road bears R, turn L onto a concrete block track passing under an advertising sign and down a short flight of steps. Cycle beside the highway for a short distance to reach traffic lights that allow you to cross over, heading towards a Shell petrol station on the opposite side. Before this filling station, turn R across another highway and immediately R again on a cycle track parallel to the road. Follow this past Vecsés shopping mall L and continue beside the highway for 3km, ignoring all turns to the L, to reach Ferihegy station. From here regular trains with cycle provision run to Budapest Nyugati station.
By road
If you travel by car you can leave it in Budapest and return by train via Bucharest when you have completed your ride. Budapest is between 1550km and 1600km from the Channel ports depending upon route.
By river
If you have the time and the money you can reach Budapest by using one of the many cruise boats that travel along the Danube. Most of these start from Passau on the German/Austrian border, but there are some that sail all the way from Amsterdam via the Rhine and the Rhein–Main–Donau canal.
Intermediate access
The only international airports passed are Osijek (Stages 6/7) and Belgrade (Stages 11/12). Giurgiu (Stages 23/24) or Olteniţa (Stages 24/25) have the nearest railway stations to Bucharest airport.
While there are no railway lines that follow the river closely, many towns passed in Hungary, Croatia and western Serbia have stations, although in eastern Serbia and Romania stations are few and far between. All railway stations are listed in the text and shown on the maps.
Getting home
The best option is to take a train to Bucharest and fly home from there. Bucharest Otopeni (Henri Coandă) airport is 16km north of the city centre. There are 12 trains per day (irregular timing and not all take cycles) on the line from Bucharest Nord to Urziceni that stop at PO Aeroport Henri Coandă station from where it is a 2.5km ride to the terminal buildings. (Turn R at exit to station parallel with railway, then L at main road. Follow this road using hard shoulder R, forking R before flyover and turning L at roundabout under flyover into airport.) Flights operate from Bucharest to many international destinations. There are no bike boxes available at the airport, but there is a wrapping service that will wrap your cycle for a fee. Alternatively, Tulcea airport, 17km south of the city following Dn22, has daily flights to Bucharest while Constanţa airport has domestic services to Bucharest and international flights to Istanbul.
You can return home by rail, although it is a long way by train from the Black Sea back to the cities of western Europe and even further to the UK. During high season (mid-June to mid-September) there is a daily direct train from Tulcea to Bucharest (which takes 5hrs 30mins) and all year there are two trains between Tulcea and Medgidia with connections to both Bucharest and Constanţa. There are regular trains between Constanţa and Bucharest, but only a few of these officially carry cycles. Romanian train details can be found at www.cfrcalatori.ro. International trains link Bucharest Nord with Budapest Keleti and there is an overnight through train to Vienna. After Budapest you will need to retrace your outbound journey.
Navigation
Waymarking
The Danube Cycleway has been adopted by the ECF (European Cyclists’ Federation) as part of EuroVelo route EV6, which runs from the Atlantic coast of France to the Black Sea. Comprehensive waymarks incorporating EV6 have been erected through Hungary and Serbia, partly so in Croatia but are not yet evident in Romania.
Principal waymarks encountered: clockwise from top left, EV6 in Hungary (definitive in green, provisional in yellow), EV6 in Croatia, EV6 fingerposts in Serbia
In Hungary EV6 is well signposted, although two kinds of EV6 waymarks are used. Those with a green background indicate the final route while those on a yellow background represent a planned route that is not yet finalised. They appear in about equal numbers, but the number of green (‘definitive’) signs is increasing. In practise this system leads to some confusion, particularly where new green signs have been installed for a definitive route but not all yellow ones removed. At one junction by the new Palace of the Arts (Stage 1) in Budapest, signs point in three directions. If you follow the route described in this guide, about half the time you will be following green waymarks and the other half you will be following yellow ones.
The Croatians have taken an altogether different and not very helpful approach to waymarking. EV6 Ruta Dunav signs appear at regular intervals, but not where you most need them. Most signs are in the middle of long straight stretches of road, very few of them are at junctions.
By contrast, in Serbia waymarking is almost perfect. EV6 Dunavska ruta finger posts appear at every junction and indicate three different kinds of route. Those with a red band show the definitive route, those with a green band an alternative asphalt route avoiding difficult or unsurfaced tracks and those with a purple band indicate side excursions to places of interest. Each sign carries a number and these numbers appear on the definitive maps published by Huber Kartographie (see below). Even in the busy streets