Category: Biking

If you are thinking of cycling The Danube then just do this section!! Basically today can be summed up in one word WOW, stunning scenery, great empty roads & morning coffee for 60p.

I’m so pleased at choosing to cycle on the Romanian left bank rather than the Serbian right bank which looked awful with it’s endless tunnels, viaducts etc. For anyone debating which side to bike on, it’s a no brainer there is plenty of accomodation, although non of it is listed on booking.com or tripadvisor the road is only broken up, due to landslides, in a few parts, which is good as it obviously keeps the traffic down. Also it’s mainly flat except for a couple of biggish hills, see My Strava data for where they are!

Worst feature of the day was the packs of marauding dogs, usually they just barked but sometimes all you could see were white teeth 🙁 I’ve certainly learnt to sprint now, which is OK  until the road surface suddenly changes to potholes 🙁 🙁  Afterwards I found a big stick which I kept lodged in my handlebars (see the pic).

After 60 miles and seeing the rather nice looking Pensiunea Septembrie I decided to call it a day. 

Alas still no internet on the iPhone as the queue in Vodafone was long and tedious, it took the girl 15 minutes to do the paperwork on a Nokia 100 for some farmer. Total value £6…

My days Strava is here and the magnificent pics here

Back on the road again after my two week break exploring 5 star luxury in Hungary with Sally who has written a great deal about it here.  The Residence Wellness Hotels we stayed in were both very comfortable with good facilities and fast WiFi . My only gripe is that both hotel  pool areas had slippery floor tiles whereas the hundred’s of years old thermal Kiraly pools had perfect non slip surfaces & water fountains to drink from!

I retrieved mv bike from it’s fourth floor refuge kindly given by the owners of  Vila Terazije whilst I was in Budapest. Sprayed my shoes & bike bags with the waterproofing and set of with my new Aldi biking trousers bought over by Sally, which rapidly proved to hot! So will now have to find somewhere in my overpacked bag to put them. The first major obstacle was trying to get the rear bottom gear with my right thumb, going up the incline to The Danube Bridge leaving Belgrade. I ended up doing a U turn then using my palm to change gear. A passing motorist even offered to help.. Hopefully before I hit the hills in a couple of days it will have calmed down.

The Danube Book 4 by Bikeline makes no mention of the left bank route which is now well marked, all be it a  rough mud track in many places. The route goes through some pleasant villages with food & drink shops plus passing an oil refinery and derelict factories. I made it a lazy day by stopping after 46 miles in Kovin at the Villa Milano hotel not 5 star but plenty good enough for a nights stay.

Here is the Strava for today:

and a few more pictures here