In 2022, I was asked to go on tour in Hungary with Clowns Without Borders to perform for Ukrainian refugees and run workshops.
My girlfriend at the time, Isabelle, was on sabbatical and wanted to cycle south. In the end, we cycled to Budapest together in three weeks (1,700 km), from where I travelled on with the clowns whilst Isabelle carried on cycling to the Polish–Ukrainian border to do voluntary work as a nurse through Volunteers International.
It turned out to be a journey through six countries. At the start, we still had the habit of taking photos with the border signs, but we didn’t get round to doing that for Austria and Hungary.
Before we left Brussels on 5 May, we met up at the Grand Place, where a number of members of Clowns Without Borders saw us off with music and showed us the way.
It was the first time I’d been on a cycling holiday in the spring. I’d done the summer and autumn routes in the north, and the Meuse route was during a lovely, warm summer.
Fietsreis Hongarije
What a delight it is to cycle through the fresh greenery and experience the first blossoms (including elderflowers) and other wonderful scents of nature from the saddle of my bike. The fields full of flowers provided the perfect backdrop for a bit of photography and other fun and games.
It was also the first time for me to set off from home by bike, so there was no hassle with getting to stations or the airport. We’d more or less mapped out a route that took us to the Danube in Germany, which we could then follow all the way to Budapest. On the way, we’d planned a stop in Zwettl, Austria, where Isabelle knew of a farm community where we could stay for a week in a lovely tiny house.
The stretch through Hungary was the least enjoyable, partly because the cycling infrastructure wasn’t what it used to be. But never mind, we didn’t let it get us down and we eventually arrived in Budapest in fine fettle.
On the way back, we travelled long distances by train (including using the 9-euro ticket to travel through Germany). As we were travelling from Poland, it was the ideal opportunity to visit the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps
We re-entered Belgium via my homeland: the Maas region, where we were treated to a beautiful sunset on our arrival.
And then there are the rest of the photos taken along the way:
