Day 15 – Paks to Mohács

We stocked up on fruits and nuts at the SPAR store, then had a heck of a time trying to find the ferry landing without going on the motorway. Turns out it is the only way, so we did, again without incident. We took the ferry (run by a company charmingly named Charon) to the eastern bank and headed south towards Kalocsa, the heart of paprika country (which must mean all the fields of yellow flowers are paprika plants). The trail today was all over the place: paved, packed dirt, single track…we decided to eschew the grassy part. We stayed mainly along the dike , taking a break at a little underpass before the trail mercifully became paved again into Baja. We had a nice lunch at a place amidst a clutch of restaurants on an arm of the river, and only had to backtrack a little way when I realized I had left my backpack behind. We again had some fun trying to find the exact route out of town. Rest of the afternoon was pretty calm, and we took another ferry across to our stop for the night, Mohács. Our hotel was conveniently located just past the ferry landing, and the front desk lady thought I looked so sorry as we were checking in that she had the bartender bring us two beers! We took advantage of the hot tub before heading to the rooftop restaurant to watch the sunset and eat some great food.  I don’t know who thought up honeydew melon soup with vanilla ice cream, but they should get a medal. Mohács is extremely important for the history of Europe:  it is where in 1526 the Ottomans under Suleiman the Magnificent defeated the outnumbered Hungarians under Louis II, which resulted in the Turkish domination of eastern central Europe for almost 200 years, divided Hungary in three, depopulated vast areas that would later be settled by the Swabians, and led to Austria’s acquisition of the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia.