Leonidasz naplója: 2015. október 26. (218. nap)

Once again a weekend which had a lot to do with the bicycle. Actually it was a three day weekend thanks to our revolutionists who failed to overthrow the communist (or perhaps more just to say the socialist) regime in 1956 but supplied a reason for us to add one more public holiday in the calendar for commemoration (nations without victories in their history are obliged to celebrate their failures) and for some leasure time activity too. This year I put more emphasize on the second than on the first.

I was also close to a failure last week since I had a lot of jobs to finish and it was very difficult to absorb all workload during the four working days left, but finally I managed, so on Thursday evening it became clear that my original plan could be turned to a real action, and the next day I could go (or better to say ride) to see my friend who lived at Mátraszentimre (in the mountains called Mátra). Mátraszentimre is the village whose altitude is the highest in Hungary (about 750 m above sea level) so a ride there is never boaring, but especially not in my case because I started from Miskolc, that mans - as a warm up for the climb up in the Mátra - I had to cross first another mountain called Bükk. You might think that I am a bit masochistic, but you would not be right. The motif for the choice is not the effort that you need to put but the beauty you can enjoy. Difficult to pick a cyclists' itinairary as specially beautiful in Hungary since there is a plentitude of nice tracks, but this would surely be in the first peloton.

In contrast with the earlier blog entries I start with the map.

Miskolc railway station is at 100 m above the sea level and the road from there is continuously goning uphill during the first 23 kms. The first 10 kms run within Miskolc (for a long time Miskolc was the second most populated town of Hungary after Budapest) but after that you enter the territory of Bükk National Reserve and from that point no human beeing can stay untouched or neutral face to the wonders that nature pours upon him. Lilafüred with its lake and with the Palace Hotel is a due coffee stop but it doesn't mean that the road also stops to go up. It does continue upward until it reaches the level of the so called Bükk plato and follows its edge with small up and downs but the tendency stays rather uphill still. When it reaches the highest point (700 m) above Répáshuta there are already close to 40 km in the cyclist's legs. From there a big downhill starts first cautiously but after 5-6 kilometers it turns to a real fun. Here I managed to ride 11,5 km in 18 mins, the road surface is still perfect (it was renovated 6 years ago on EU money) and the elevation loss is more than 400 m on that part. By pulling the brake at the boudary of Felsőtárkány you stop at a small lake and you can buy very good home made sour cherry strudel in one of the kiosks. If Felsőtárkány were not a village it would the suburb of Eger which is the chief town of Heves county. It is situated at the foot of the hills at a not much higher altitude than Miskolc. The session which follows leads to Sirok, another pictoresque village in a valley where you can only arrive after conquering some not too high but really annoying up and downs. Annoying at least in a physical sense since the landscape which stays motivatingly nice gives you some compensation and helps a lot to keep your good mood. From Sirok to Parád it is an easy almost plain part in a beautiul valley but at Parád it is better to stop, eat something and get prepared menthally for the worst secretly hoping - in the meantime - that reality will be somewhat better still. The ascent which starts there is about 20 km long and it goes from 220 m to 900 m in altitude (very close to Galyatető summit which is the second highest point of Hungary). Not the total 20 km is steep, the elevation gain is concentrated on two sessions, the first is about 6 km long while the second is a little bit less. Well, this time I managed to survive them without major shocks, and I arrived at Mátraszentimre just a little bit after the dusk. See a close-up of the final 20-25 kms.

Heaven is often associated with high altitudes and if I spend a little time in Zsolt's house I always start understanding why. It was Zsolt's idea to buy a house up there, I can never sufficiently appriciate this excellent choice of wich I have been lucky enough to take my own benefits several times. Exactly this happenned again from Friday evening to Sunday morning while I enjoyed the hospitality of Zsolt's family and the company of Zoltán too. On Saturday we only did some very light walks around the village and on Galyatető hilltop and took a very good and very social rest all the other time.

On Sunday I did the same trip as on Friday but in the opposite direction and - frankly speaking - I cannot say which direction was the bigger experience. The second was definitely faster, I only needed 6:03 minutes net time (about 7:30 overall time) for the 118 km total distance while on Friday I spent 7:25 minutes on riding (and about 9:45 in overall), but this is not telling anything about the essential part which was the forest, the fresh air, the little chilly but very clear and mostly sunny weather, the big feeling of the activity and that of the speed in a forest which was visited by many other cyclists and also by a lot of tourists during these leasure days, a joyful mix of different impression pieces which are impossibée to tell. Some photos might help to make you, dear reader, understand a little better what I mean.

The foggy Friday morning, the start of the municipal bicycle road and the start of the whole story too

The fog discipated fast, few kilometers later at a round
point of Miskolc the sun was shining brightly
on our natioal banner and you can already see the
mountains in the background.
Very soon they will come into the foreground :-)!

Actually here: Miskolc ends, the forest starts.

The Palace Hotel at Lilafüred, nice but quite expensive and I have heard some bad roumors about the staff. Earlier the park of the hotel was open for the public, today it is reserved for the hotel guests. This is not a nice evolution to me either.

A forest bus stop

Small bicycle in a big forest of wonderful colours

The small village in the valley is Répáshuta (If you are curious about the origin of village names and don't know what huta means you can find the answer in my August English language blog entry.)

A tree in yellow

Small lake at Felsőtárkány

A (still) green meadow at the foot of Mátra

Another one a bit higher

The road junction of the three main Mátra roads in the heart of the mountains at about 620 m above sea level. I continued on the right

I am climbing up while the sun is going down

But the it has a replacement for the night shift

Zsolt's nice and very friendly house. It is even friendly to our environment since solar panels generate the houshold electricity and sun collectors make the hot water (which he also uses for heating)