Rained heavily for most of the so decided to abort bike ride and stay another day in Budapest.

Although tyres still seem fine I wondered if now, with being in a big city and plenty of bike shops, should I replace the rear tyre – because of the weight of the panniers the rear tyre always wears out quicker than the front one.

First though – took Bertie to a car wash so that I could give him a wash. There was one just round the corner from the hostel – turned out to be underground in the basement of a building – high pressure hoses in an enclosed space is very noisy and reckon all the guys working there will need their hearing tested – one of them gave Bertie a quick hose down for free.

Decathlon was near by and the place that opened earliest so took Bertie round there to get their opinion. I explained how far we had come and that we were carrying on to Romania – the bike maintenance guy didn’t speak English so one of the other staff translated for me – it was decided that Berties tyres should last and don’t need changed yet – both guys were lovely and gave me big “respect” for my trip so far and wished me a safe onward journey.

Today wasn’t a day for cycling or sightseeing but there was finally a break in the weather and I went for a wander.

Jolene – my room mate at the hostel – set off this morning. She has flown from Namibia in African to Germamy and is walking from Gemany to Jerusalem – she is hoping to complete the section in Serbia before flying home and then will return in 2024 to complete her pilgrimage. We chatted a lot but of course it’s not until after someone leaves that you think I should have asked this or that and I wonder which way her route will take her next year as I’m assuming she won’t be going through Syria??