Day 68 – Sombor to Backa Palanka
We slept soundly in the bed of our Warmshowers hosts (maybe something to do with the alcohol) and were greeted by a delicious cooked omelette breakfast.
We joined them in the garden for a short lesson in self-sufficient vegetable growing (we were anxious to learn as much from them as possible), before taking a photo or two and then heading off…but not without taking a few vegetables and the real bonus of a half dozen of Jasmina’s home made chocolate muffins for the journey…yummy!
We reluctantly said goodbye to our newfound friends and we both felt very fortunate to have met them.
During our stay with them, we had discussed the options of travelling through Serbia towards Romania and had decided to cycle South for the day, where we would meet the Danube at Backa Palanka and then follow the river and Eurovelo 6, before rejoining Eurovelo 13 at the Romanian border in a few days time. This meant that today’s cycle would be on a main road but as it was Sunday, we were hopeful it would be relatively quiet.
We set off at 10.30am. As luck would have it, the road was good and the traffic light. There was the odd car but very few large vehicles (even the odd horse and cart) on the road, which swept through many towns and small villages on its way South.
The weather was nothing spectacular, as the sun tried most of the day to come out but struggled to do so but we had a very light breeze in our favour, so managed to cover a fair distance. At around 2pm we stopped for lunch at a straw parasol-covered wooden table next to a canal and headed off again.
During the afternoon we found the best apple tree yet on the side of the road. If we could have carried them, there were hundreds ready to eat. We stopped at 8 (enough to last a few days).
Later still we discovered that there were walnuts on the ground. After a short while we began to recognise the walnut trees and were able to stop and collect a few nuts to add to our breakfasts.
In one village we cycled through a wedding party as they were leaving church. We were swept up in the celebrations, as around 20 cars, adorned with flags and ribbons drove off slowly in procession, honking horns. We cycled with them for a km or two, ringing our bells in participation.
By 4pm we had covered over 70km and were starting to tire. We saw a campsite marked on Mapsme some 25km off (beyond Backa Palanka) and headed for that, hoping we would find something earlier. As luck would have it, we saw a sign for ‘Florida’ campsite some 10km earlier and set off down the dirt track with our fingers crossed. 1km later we arrived at the riverside campsite, which was open and equipped with restaurant, showers and the works. It even had an area with exotic fish and farm animals (someone’s meal we think).
It was only €6 to camp and we felt very lucky as we sat cooking dinner overlooking the Danube, listening to the soothing music on the tannoy system. We appeared to be the only overnight guests at the campsite. Ironically the manager offered us use of the onsite chalets for only €4 more, which we would happily have taken but had already set up our tent. We slept very well in our little home having cycled 85km and looked forward to our cycle next to the Danube in the morning (provided we could find the Eurovelo route).
Day 69 Florida camping nr Backa Palanka (Serbia) to My Momento guesthouse. nr Cortabovci (Serbia)
We woke up with various animal alarms; donkeys, cockerels, dogs, goats etc.at a not too early hour of – 7am and started the routine of packing up our tent ⛺️. The fly was wet, so we hung this up whilst eating breakfast.
The mist over the Danube river was rising, giving it an eerie but still mesmerising look.
We gave up waiting for the fly to dry and set off. It was unclear which side of the river the Eurovelo 6 was on, so the safest bet for us was to head back into Backa Palanka (3km in the opposite direction) and check for any signs. Luckily for us, only one kilometre in, two signs clearly marking the route for us on the side of the river we were already on. With this confirmed we were happy to ride on the not so quiet road near the river.
After 20 minutes, it was clear that we couldn’t ride on this for the whole 40km to Novi Sad (where we thought we’d have lunch and hunt around for a new lead for Vanessa’s phone, as she had left it behind in a guesthouse the previous day). The traffic was heavy.
We stopped and checked Mapsme, which indicated a route on a quieter road only a couple of kilometres ahead. We had a plan. We stopped at a garage to confirm that this road was indeed rideable and the lady luckily spoke excellent English and confirmed that this was a good enough road to take, she did say that it turned into ‘shit’ at some point (her words not ours) but we were happy to take the risk.
A few kilometres later we reached the turning, where a tractor driver confirmed that this was the correct road for us. It wasn’t as smooth as the main road but was definitely a lot safer..just a little slower. The ground varied from compact dirt to road, to rocky/grassy terrain, but with gorgeous scenery along the way of riverside houses, rows of colourful bee hives and little villages.
We were also pleased to see a Eurovelo 6 sign, (it would have been helpful to have had a sign on the road indicating this route but ‘hey…can’t have everything!’)
As we arrived in Novi Sad, it started to drizzle, so we found ourselves a nice cafe next to the bike path and river. Two hot chocolates and a fruity tea later, we were ready to head off. The waiter had advised us that a cell phone shop was only two blocks away, so we headed for this with much success. Vanessa got her lead and we stocked up with food at the shop across the road.
Stomachs were rumbling, so we cycled along the river front, stopping to snap a photo of the fort and monuments along the way and headed for a dry sheltered spot. The only place that wasn’t wet that we could find was under a large bridge.
We didn’t care as hunger had taken over. As we were eating we noticed three large posters with photos of three bridges that had been bombed in the 1991 war. Very traggic!
We only had 20km left until we reached our pinned campsite on Mapsme. Setting off again, we followed the bike path over the bridge and Danube river and continued along the signed Eurovelo 6 route. Unfortunately the signs dwindled and we were again on a busy road. We diverted into a quaint little town called Sremski Karlovci, where we could see so many extremely old buildings dating back 800 years or so. It also had a lovely large square with various outside cafes. We smooched around for a while, then rejoined the Eurovelo again. Only two minutes later to be spat out onto the main busy road again.
We took matters into our own hands and looked at Mapsme, which indicted a road following the railway tracks and ending up at our campsite. It was a no brainer, we had to take it. Unknown to us, the Eurovelo had not diverted on this route for a very good reason. At first we enjoyed the quiet paved road, which turned into compact dirt, which was all fine…but with 3km left the road abruptly ended at an overgrown dirt road. We had to give it a go, as it was quite some distance back onto the main road. At first it wasn’t too bad but then the loose rocks turned into mud and pools of water. To make things worse steep inclines started popping up but on rocky muddy sections, which made the bikes slide around. We pushed our bikes uphill on more than one occasion. With only 1km left, we reached a rough patchy road with a climb of 95 metres. 
We declothed ourselves and set off, puffing and panting our way up, only to find that for the last section, some cruel person had decided that roughly cobbled streets would add to the bonus steeper section. 
We had no choice but to get off and push, it was impossible to ride.
Reaching our campsite we pressed the buzzer hoping that someone would answer. Luckily they did. We initially were going to camp but when the lady showed us the kitchen dinning area, Vanessa cheekily asked if we could crash on the floor. The owner was happy with this. We were very pleased, we had a small kitchen, dining area, two toilets and seperate shower plus heating. All was well in the world!! We ate and settled in for a relaxing evening.
Day 70 – My Momento guesthouse, near Cortabovci to Camp Dunav, near Belgrade (Serbia)
We were greeted at 8am by our second cooked breakfast in 2 days (although we had to pay for this one) of scrambled eggs, tomatoes and bread.
With appetites satisfied we managed to pry ourselves away from our host who was more than happy to talk to us all day, and set off shortly after 9am. Fortunately we didn’t need to go back down the steep cobbled section we had ended the previous day with, and instead joined the main road after only 100 metres or so, which gave us a beautiful gentle downhill stretch to start the day.
The weather was fine, with only a light headwind but nothing to bother the intrepid duo. We cycled mostly through small villages and open countryside on our way towards Belgrave, with only the occasional gentle hill to contend with.
After a couple of hours cycling, on a road which was paved on one side and dirt on the other, we met a lone female cyclist from Germany. As she was the first touring cyclist we had seen for some time, we stopped to chat. She was cycling from Odessa in Ukrain to Budapest and had been on the road for nearly 4 weeks. She pre-warned us about a busy section of road before Belgrade (and also in Romania for later in our trip). She had already cycled 45km today, compared to our 30 (she had the wind with her)…so we took that as our prompt to get going again.
In the town of Sremski we pulled off the main road for lunch on a bench overlooking the Danube. 
Whilst this sounds idyllic, there was too much rubbish lying around to make it perfect but never mind.
We were only 20km from Belgrade but didn’t fancy arriving in the busy city late in the day, so made plans to stay at Camp Dunav approx. 10km before that. Which would mean an early finish for us for a change.
Things kind of went to plan but that last 10km to Camp Dunav was on the road that we had been warned about and, sure enough, it was crap! Basically it was a busy road, with constant traffic from both directions, including heavy trucks, no hard shoulder and no room to overtake. We spent the last 30 minutes cycling on and off of the grass verge next to the road, following faint tracks left by previous unfortunate cyclists and pedestrians.
We breathed a sigh of relief when we eventually turned off the main road and even more so when we discovered that Camp Dunav did indeed exist…yippee!
The cost of renting a bungalow was about €2 more than pitching a tent, so we kept the Hubba Hubba in the bag for the night and enjoyed a welcome break as we had finished well before 3pm, having covered around 55km and leaving only 10km (although potentially on a crap highway) to Belgrade in the morning.
Day 71 Camp Dunav. ne Belgrade to Pancevo
We slowly got ourselves organised today, as we planned on catching the train into the city. This decision was based on yesterday afternoon’s heavy traffic experience.
The train station was only 2 kilometres away and avoided any main roads. Arriving at the station, it was hard to work out out the paper timetable stuck to the outside door of the ticket office, so we asked the station attendant, who tried to help us, but with no English, there was a lot of pointing and nodding happening. Finally, we worked out that the train to Beograd (Belgrade) did not leave for another hour. The trains themselves were interesting, full of graffiti and extremely high carriage entrances. Which made us wonder how we would get the bikes on. 
With all these factors to consider, we decided instead to cycle into the city following Mapsme on minor roads.
Only a few hundreds metres into our cycle, Mapsme wanted us to cross a train line, but we could not see a crossing, actually it didn’t look like there was ever a crossing. The locals stopped and couldn’t do enough to help us, but with no English we struggled to communicate. We set off, hoping that Mapsme would re-route, which it did.
We were a little baffled as to why the Eurovelo 6, sends you on such a busy road, when we were cycling along minor roads and passing some very interesting villages, obviously very poor but extremely friendly people.
We needed to shop for the next three days, so we stopped at the mega store Roda, plus we called Harry and wished him a Happy birthday. Unfortunately, whilst chatting to him we managed to break a box display, as our weight must have been too much. Whoops!!
Fully loaded, we headed into the city centre, in the direction of the Tourist office. We needed a map of the Eurovelo 6, and of Eastern Serbia. We crossed an impressive bridge and eventually found the tourist offices (plural as there were two; one for Belgrade and one for Serbia). We were pleased with the maps. Not so detailed as we would have liked but it gave us a good idea of where we should be heading, plus the bonus App for Eurovelo 6, had all the detail we needed.
We ate lunch in the town plaza, then headed towards the core and origins of the city, Belgrade Fortress. It is situated above the two rivers Danube and Sava Caba and has impressive views.
We cycled around, stopping for the odd photo here and there, then headed towards the main bridge to Pancevo. Mapsme took us on a round-about way to get to the bridge. We passed an extremely poor shanty town, where people were living on piles of rubbish. We didn’t stop as it didn’t feel safe.
On the bridge, we cycled along the footpath, which was extremely uneven but better than the major road. Once on the other side, we saw a Eurovelo sign, giving us two options, along the main road where bikes are tolerated but still extremely busy with traffic or a quieter route on dirt tracks along the river for 10km. We decided to go for the dirt track. Which ended up being the right decision as the dirt track was compact enough to still cycle along reasonably fast, with some grassy patches. We snapped a few photos along the way, as it was very beautiful.
Arriving in Pancevo, we bumped into two French cyclists, who were heading to Iran, we swapped email addresses and chatted for a short while before wishing each other the best and heading off.
We decided to look for accommodation in Pancevo, we hadn’t ridden a huge amount today but it was almost five o’clock and too late to keep going. We found a hostel called ‘Luigi hostel’. Which happened to be right next to the bike route and only €10 euro each. Excellent news!! The place was perfect. We ate our newly found quick rice and enjoyed every mouthful. Then settled in for the night.
Day 72 – Luigi’s hostel, Pancevo to Marina Camping, nr. Dubovec (Serbia).
We hit the road at 8.45am hoping to cover a reasonable distance today after only cycling a short distance yesterday. We knew we would have a headwind of about 20km per hour all day but otherwise the conditions were fine.
The first few km were through suburbs on bike path next to the busy main road, where we stopped to snap a photo of a famous monastery which is now unfortunately surrounded entirely by industrial plants.
Soon afterwards the bike path disappeared and we were on the road but it had quietened slightly as it wound through fields and small villages. As we cycled through one village, a horse and cart went passed us. We quickened our pace enough to tuck in behind it, which kept the wind off us a little and also meant that cars had to wait to overtake us. We enjoyed this sweet ride for around 10km, until the cart finally turned off. We reluctantly waved goodbye to the driver as we carried on.
Only a km or two later the Eurovelo 6 sign sent us off the main road and back towards to river. It indicated a longer route towards
Koven but led us to believe that it was all paved, so we took it (wrong decision). After an initial easy couple of Km as we had a slight following breeze we turned back to follow the river and off the sealed road onto the path along the top of the retaining dam which runs alongside the low-lying parts of the Danube.
The dirt surface on top of the dam wall was, at best, okay but the route was monotonous as it ran for over 50km. After 20km on the top of the dam, we were both glad to arrive in Koven, if only to take a short break from the track.
We sat and ate a rather disappointing lunch of cheese and ketchup sandwiches followed by smashed crackers with PB and jam, as we had not managed to find any avocados when we shopped and had forgotten to buy and cook eggs. The crackers had disintegrated in Vanessa’s front panniers on the bumpy track. 🙁
After Koven we enjoyed 5km of paved minor road with a little protection from the breeze, where we spotted trees with fruit that looks like tennis balls (any ideas what these are??), before the signs sent us back on top of the dam again.
We then had 23km on the same track, with the only variation being when we dropped down from the top of the dam to use the vehicle tracks that had been formed in the valley adjacent to it. The surface of that track was roughly the same but at least the view was slightly different.
After a couple more hours of riding single file into the breeze, we reached Dubovec, where we hoped to find a campsite that was indicated on Mapsme. We weren’t too sure about it as it was situated on a kind of peninsular surrounded on 3 sides by the river, which we thought was likely to be exposed to the wind. As it turned out, we need not have worried, as the 1km long peninsular was lined with homes and our campsite ‘Marina’ was actually in the back garden of one of those homes and entirely sheltered from the wind by the building. Perfect.
Better still, as we were the only residents, the kind owner ‘Dragon’ kindly shared his pancakes, home made jam and loaf of bread with us.
We had cycled over 80km today, into a stiff headwind and on a poor surface. We think that this was pretty good going and more than made up for the previous day. We put ourselves to bed at the early hour of 8.30am, as we had a 20km cycle before catching a boat at 10am the following day.
Day 73 Marina camping. nr Dubovec to Golubac (Serbia)
We woke up early and swiftly got ourselves ready to head off to try and catch the 10am ferry ⛴ crossing to Ram. Luckily for us our tent was dry, so we were able to get going reasonably quickly. By 8am. We thanked our host Dragon and headed our off on our 20km ride.
It was predicted to be 20mph headwinds today with gusts of 26mph, so we were mentally prepared for the worst. However, as we got going, we were able to cycle relatively fast on the smooth sealed road, with very little traffic. Vanessa closely followed Jon, getting as much protection as possible from the wind.
15km later, we crossed a bridge and stopped to read the Eurovelo 6 signs giving us two options: 1) 12km to the ferry on smooth tarmac road and 2) 4.6km on dirt track. We decided to go with the track option as it was so much shorter, what we weren’t expecting was the wind tunnel that the channel would create. It was exhausting, both left and right gears at their lowest on flat grassy/dirt path with no protection from the gusts . We knew we had plenty of time but wished that we’d taken the longer, less energy sucking, route. Anyway, 40 minutes later we had arrived.
We sat contemplating the prospect of cycling another 50km into the wind on the other side of the river and checked out other possible routes but in the end we decided to stick with the original plan and take the ferry across and go with the flow, even if it meant an extra day’s cycle.
We sheltered in a cafe, waiting for our seamen to finish their beers before heading off on the barge. There were only two other passengers aboard (from Czech), with their vehicle and us with our bikes.
The barge had a little boat attached to the side, pushing it along which didn’t appear strong enough but seemed to work.
The ferry man came around asking for the 600 denar and we thanked our lucky stars that the Czech tourists were also onboard as we realised we were short by 60 Dinar (equivalent of €50 cents), we asked the Czech tourists and they were happy to exchange our 50 cents for the 60 Dinar. Once this was sorted, we relaxed into our 2km crossing, which took 18 minutes . The river was extremely choppy but we didn’t feel much at all. The views were spectacular, especially as we got closer we could see Ram fortress on the hillside, with the little fishing village below, very picturesque!
Landing safely, we checked out the very confusing Eurovelo 13 sign (as the book we had bought indicated the 13 to go along the Romanian side and not on this route) and also noted the Eurovelo 6 indicting that we had 18km to get to Veliko Gradisee which would hopefully be our lunch spot. We took off our extra layers and prepared ourselves for the first climb out of town.
The roads were very quiet, sealed with some smooth patches and some not so smooth. Vanessa rode behind Jon, getting as much protection as possible. The route took us through small villages, along the riverfront with spectacular views and with occasional dedicated bike paths. We made good progress and before we knew it we were in Veliko Gradisee. Which seemed to have lots going on and catered for tourists. We sourced an atm, food shopped and ate lunch whilst watching life go by around us.
We only had only another 19km left to do, which felt achievable. The roads started to undulate but not too crazily. We passed a few interesting things; bike/hot wheel front door display, flooded football pitch and a great cycle path which unfortunately we missed the entrance for and had to cycle along the road until we could get over the barriers.
As we were approaching Golubac, we could see the great fortress on the side of the cliff. We snapped a few photos and headed into town.
We checked out several guesthouses before settling for the first one for a reasonable 25 euro. The room even had a kitchenette plus a bonus history channel which we were both glued to for hours. We ate well, especially as there was a little shop downstairs and were fast asleep by 9pm.
Day 74 – Apartments Zlatna Ribica, Golubac to Chalet Ljubicine kolibe, nr. Golubinje (Serbia)
Today turned out to be a great day. The main reason for this was that we had looked at the predicted weather and the route profile using Mapsme the night before and had seen that we would have a 20kmph headwind all day long and that there were lots of hills to climb on our route along the Danube, through the section of the river referred to as the ‘Iron Gate’ (due to the imposing cliffs on either side), so we were a little pessimistic as to whether we would be able to even make the 56km to our target town of Donji Milanovic 56km away. As it turned out, we did a lot more.
We set off just before 9am, with chains oiled and tyres pumped and after a brief bike path along the Golubac riverfront, we joined the main road. Whilst the headwind was there as predicted (we rode single file all day) the sun was out and the road was relatively traffic free, as it was a weekend (hooray). Also the road surface was good, which made for a much smoother ride.
After half an hour we approached the impressive Golubac Fortress, a medieval fortification (construction date unknown) built at the entrance to the Djerdap Gorge and first documented as early as 1335. This was well worth stopping for…so we did.
Heading off again, a tunnel took us under the fortress, where we snapped a few photos of it from a different angle. This was the first of 24 tunnels drilled through the cliffs to enable the 100 km long stretch of new road along the Serbian side of the Danube between the towns of Golubinje and Tekija. We needed to switch our lights on as we went through each tunnel (the longest was over 350m) and thanked our lucky stars that the traffic was low as the noise was deafening when a truck went past.
As it happens, the tunnels were a good thing for us, as the new road was much better than we expected and the anticipated steep ascents just didn’t seem to happen…happy days! We were able to enjoy the increasingly impressive views of the Danube and the Romanian cliffs on the opposite bank.
Before we knew it, we had covered over 30km and it wasn’t yet lunchtime. Then we saw a sign for a museum, which we were also directed to by Mapsme. We were a bit hesitant to drop down to it as we feared we might have a steep climb back up, but we figured that the morning had gone far better than expected so ‘why not?’. After a short descent we stopped at a cafe and walked 400m on an elaborate (and costly we suspect) pathway to an even more elaborate and huge museum perched on the bank of the river. It was jointly funded by the Serbian & Bulgarian (don’t ask us why) governments and was full of antiquities from the area but we merely viewed a fraction of it before heading off again.
Fortunately Eurovelo had the foresight to send us up a different road, rather than the steep one we arrived there by. At first we questioned why we weren’t going back on the lovely main road, as we cycled up to and around a tunnel on an old road and dropped back down into a gully…but it all made sense as we went under the road and entered the stunning Boljetinska Reka Gorge, with its incredible rock formations.
We stopped just after the gorge for lunch and were greeted with waves from local farmers as they passed by. 
We then climbed back up to the main road and cycled the day’s only other ascent worth a mention without too much trouble.
The remaining 11km to Donji Milanovic was pretty sweet. We got there at 3pm and had plenty of energy left, so decided we would just grab a drink in a cafe and carry on a little more, rather than stay there for the night as we had originally planned. This gave Vanessa a chance to do some social networking and Jon the opportunity to catch a little live premiership action (bonus).
Setting off again we merrily cycled another 11km to the village of Golubinje, where we expected to find at least one guesthouse but without luck. Whilst Jon cycled around the village in search of somewhere to stay, Vanessa spoke to a local lady, who happened to be the daughter of a guesthouse owner some 3.5km further up the road. She rang ahead and we cycled the short distance to Chalet Ljubicine kolibe. When we got there they were just cleaning the room, so they offered us tea and a shot of Rakia (Schnapps) as we sat on the small terrace and watched the sun set behind the Romanian shore opposite. The room was pretty basic but we didn’t mind too much as it had been a far sweeter day than we had hoped for. We had cycled over 70km into a headwind and were very pleased with ourselves. We went to sleep thinking of our cycle to Romania and through the Iron Gate tomorrow.
Day 75 Chalet Ljubicine Kolibe. nr Golubinje (Serbia) to Drebta Turna Severin (Romania)
Vanessa woke up early with the smell of the old hot stove burning away. Jon had decided to put the stove on to try and warm the room up.
Stepping outside on our veranda, the crisp air combined with the mystic and enchanting views of the mountains filled our bodies with excitement. Not a bad life really!
We headed off at around 9am, the first few words from Jon, ‘this road’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom!’, so things were looking good. With no wind, the sun shining and a glistening river to ride alongside with Romania on the opposite side, we were content.
(The Danube river is seperated by two smaller canyons of the Danube Golf and the name Danube comes from the Ottomen empire, when the waters were fast and flowing)
We had some steady climbing to master. The steep downward slopes of Miroc mountain with its second highest peak Mali Strbac (626 metres) rise above the Veliki Kazan where the river Danube flows. The tunnels carved out of these pinnacles protruding out of the Danube river worried Vanessa. Mainly because the tunnels have no lighting, so once inside it was pitch black, this made being seen by cars a challenge even with front and back lights. There are 24 tunnels in total and today, we had 6 left to go through. The longest tunnel ran 360 metres, Vanessa cycled full pelt with her front light failing her. This was an intense few minutes as we cycled through them but once outside, the views were worth the stress, absolutely spectacular!
As we rounded a corner, the Danube river exposed its full glory, we were spellbound. The views of the canyon were intoxicating and just kept on getting better and better the further we climbed. With a 10% gradient, it wasn’t easy but we stopped so often to take photos, it didn’t feel too bad. On the Romanian side we could see an impressive temple and a Romanian emperors face carved into the mountain rock, depicting Decebalus, the last king of Dacia (Dacia was the land occupied by the Dacians, between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD and is located in present day Romania). The monument is about 40 meters tall (the tallest rock sculpture in Europe).
We continued on, reaching the highest peak we snapped a few more photos, then prepared ourselves for an exhilarating descent, a climb that took us 45 minutes only took around 4.5 minutes to get down to the river. It was only 12 o’clock and we had already done 40km, not bad with mountain climbs!
We carried on cycling, the wind picked up a little but nothing like that predicted, so we were happy. Reaching the dam/bridge and border control, we noticed the intensity of traffic on the Romanian side, this concerned us a great deal, especially with the amount of trucks.
We were hungry, so we picnicked on the grass before the Serbian border control, contemplating what to do. With no options except to see how it goes, we cycled over the top of the dam and through the Serbian and Romanian border controls.
Luckily for us, there was a tiny paved section off the main road, which we stuck to and Vanessa cycled behind Jon. We had 10km before the traffic would reduce, as most big vehicles then turned off towards Bucharest, so we cycled hard! Reaching the outskirts of Drebta Turna Severin, we relaxed a little and were pleased with our effects.
We set about finding a place to stay and an atm. Our main priority was finding a place to stay with someone who spoke English, so that we could ask them to look after our bikes for a few days, as we wanted to catch a train to Bran, to go see Bram Stoker’s (Dracula’s) castle.
Vanessa was feeling quite tired at this point, so opted to hang around a cafe whilst Jon looked for a guesthouse. Jon returned feeling quite accomplished, we cycled a couple of blocks to our accommodation, organised our things for the next day, ate and watched a movie.
Overall, a fantastic day full of wonders, challenges and beauty.