In the week I spent on the European Peace Walk I traveled across 3 countries' borders: Austria to Slovakia, which was unremarkable as I was on a hydrofoil on the Danube and the only notice was a quick automated announcement on the PA system.
The next was Slovakia to Hungary. There was only a small sign high in the sky that announced the crossing, so I made the men in our group close the gate for a more dramatic picture!
From Day 3 on the Walk crisscrossed the border dozens of times, sometimes it was noted by the omnipresent Hungarian flag sign (we rarely saw Austrian signs), and more somberly by gates or watchtowers. It was these latter structures that really strikes one as true symbols of the freedom the Hungarians earned when the border opened - it was as recent as 1989!
All along the two countries the fence is gone, but the crossings remain...
Kind of a scary sight, deep in the woods. The red arrows are our waymarks
Brücke von Andau - more than 70,000 fled into Austria here during the Hungarian Revolution
A welcome sight for me that day as I was lost in Austria, trying to get into Hungary! I then made sure to download the Austrian maps to my app!
A dramatic crossing just outside Sopronkövesd, left as a reminder
And finally, it turns out the EPW closely mirrors a marked bike path called the Iron Curtain Trail. I tried to find out more detail online about its exact route but could only find very general maps; yet the signage seemed to dog me at every turn, even when I went off on a couple of sightseeing forays! It was comforting to know I was somewhere, even if I didn't always know exactly where. The maps.me app ended up being a godsend. I'd just head off in the right direction and check my position on it periodically to find which roads or tracks I needed to take me where I was going.
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