Day 037 Kovin - Veliko Gradište

Got up late and started riding along the embankment again - once again beautiful nature including an abundance of storks (white and black) and herons (grey and purple). The mountains on both sides grew nearer and finally I had to cross Danube again. While waiting for the ferry I met a french couple celebrating his retirement with a 2 month cycling trip along Danube. Soon later Oliver from Germany joined, who today had lost his companion of the similar Donaueschingen to Black Sea trip due to puncture. The Danube is very wide here, the ferry ride had a bit of ocean feel, including waves, seagulls and fishy odours. On the other bank Oliver and me decided to ride together for the rest of the day. The mountains on the side we left belong to Romania already. I am not sure if I will ride in Romania for one or two days later, but now at least I can say that I have seen it :). The mountains here mark the entry of the Iron Gate - soon the landscape reminded me more of a mountain lake or a fjord than a river. It is already very stunning and will get even more so for the next 2 days, so I really have something to look forward to. In Veliko Gradište Oliver had the next puncture. After getting it fixed with the support of some very helpful Serbians the sun had already set, so we stay here for the night close to the inland-beach-resort of silver lake, an old arm of the Danube, now cut off from the river.

Day 036 Beograd - Kovin

All pictures are green today. Belgrade was founded on the confluence of Sava and Danube, but it is very much a Sava-city with important quarters spread over both banks - while during the last days the other bank of Danube looked like a huge jungle to me. This impression was not totally wrong. Most of the day I rode along the deserted embankment through beautiful nature. At first it was mostly swamps including the respective fauna - many frogs crossed my way. Then the only exception from todays greenness: a small city including a big refinery and other industries - but soon I was on the embankment again and this time I found myself in some kind of shire - even the few people I met were very small. Finally I ended up in the town Kovin. Across the Danube the landscape gets hilly again - tomorrow I will enter the huge imposing gorges of the Iron Gate.

Day 035 Beograd

This was more of a work day than a rest day. I spent most of the morning and afternoon on the computer planning my route until and through Bulgaria, backing up pictures, searching for couchsurfing hosts,... At around 5pm I finally saw some sunlight, had another stroll through the city and fortress and successfully hunted down some Tamburica players - I have heard the sound of the guitar/mandolin-like instrument in Hungary, Croatia and Serbia but this was the first time I saw someone playing it.
Later back in the Hostel I got some inspiration for the case that I should get tired of cycling some day - a swiss guy just arrived here from Germany paddling Danube in his foldable kayak - also a great way to travel !
Tomorrow morning I will get back on the bike. Good night !

Day 034 Beograd

I am tourist. At least for today. I live in a hostel and spend most of the day sightseeing. Needless to say I choose a sublime selection of Belgrades plenty of sights comprised of Serbian Orthodox Temples, the Gallery of Frescoes and Icons and the Tesla Museum.
At first I went to the biggest Serbian Orthodox Church - the Cathedral of Sveti Sava - which is finished from the outside but surprisingly far from being finished and thus a bit disappointing in the inside.
Next was the museum of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of most of nowadays electricity network and many of its applications. He supposedly had planned to electrify the earths ionosphere and therefore provide free energy to everyone - until his financiers asked themselves how they could make money from that and skipped the project. The museum contains some impressive working models. Moreover the urn containing Tesla ashes is on display in the museum.
On the way to the next museum I accidentally found another Orthodox Church, also not completely finished inside but far more imposing than the big one.
The fresco and icon gallery was very small but nice.
Afterwards I had a walk through Belgrades huge fortress/park area above the confluence of Sava and Danube.
The only non-touristic thing I did today: I organized new guitar strings - the old ones did not survive the trip to Belgrade.

Day 033 Novi Sad - Beograd

This morning I was woken up by a kitten gnawing on my toes - a nice change to the usual alarm clock awakening. While packing my stuff I was constantly regarded as a huge funny moving toy by the same kitten, so before leaving the beautiful house of my host Jelena I really had to make sure that the kitten did not accidentally end up in my panniers.
I had planned to meet up with some other couchsurfering members volunteering in Novi Sad, but somehow my Serbian mobile card did not work for calling and SMS, so due to communication problems I had to skip this plan and start riding. Moreover during the first 5 (or so) km the GPS on my mobile was confused, so todays track does not reflect the whole 100km.
After leaving Novi Sad (or exactly Petrovaradin, as the old part of town on the other bank of Danube is called) the road was busy but relatively flat at first. On the way I found a spring on the roadside, which provided for some much needed cleaning for my bike Arthur. Directly after the spring the hardest part of the day began: uphill for more than 150m (height not distance) in merciless burning sunshine. Somehow this was what I always had imagined beforehand the whole trip would be like - given that I started in July and mainly went south. But after a lot of days filled with clouds and rain, this was actually the first time the sun bothered me. Nevertheless the landscape was marvellous and after the long ascent a very relaxing descent followed, as the road led straight down to Danube again. Then a long time not much happened - just cycling through cornfields on a silent road. When I approached Beograd the road got busier until for the last 15km it got really annoying - once again a narrow road with a lot of truck and bus traffic. But finally I was struck by the splendid sight of Beograd. That is one good thing about doing this trip relatively unprepared (in terms of tourist sides, etc.) - you are always surprised by the beautiful places you end up in. The city has a very different feel than Novi Sad. I seem to have crossed some invisible border today. While Novi Sad reminded me a lot of czech or hungarian cities, Beograd reminds me of South European/ Middle Eastern/West Asian cities like Naples, Amman or Yerevan. Maybe you can still feel the different history of Vojvodina (of which Novi Sad is the capital) and the Serbian Mainland - but possibly this feeling is also greatly influenced by todays very southerly temperatures.
I plan to give me and Arthur some rest here and spend one or two days just enjoying Beograd and maybe a bit further trip planning - the way to the Iron Gate on the Serbian/Romanian/Bulgarian border triangle is relatively fixed but then I have to figure out on which way I will cross Bulgaria.

Day 032 Vukovar - Novi Sad

I had an early start as my host Ivica had to go to work. I notice that my cardio is getting better and better - even if my host treats me to white wine, cycling close to 100km the next day is no problem anymore. After leaving Vukovar the landscape seemed to be flat at first but soon every village was in a deep valley. So before entering a village a steep downhill, yaaaayyy! And after leaving the village a steep uphill, pooooooooh! In the last croatian town, Ilok I had a break at the castle complex, before crossing Danube into Serbia. After leaving the first serbian town Backa Palanka I had the first really really annoying road on this trip - narrow lanes, bad surface especially on the shoulders, a lot of traffic including many trucks and buses. I guess I should slowly get used to this. Fortunately after 10km I could turn into a small road along the embankment. There I soon got into landscape admiration mood again and marvelled at the mountains on the other bank of the Danube - an exciting sight after cycling on a huge plain for about a week. After arriving in Novi Sad I had time to make a joint sightseeing-and-mobilecardseeking-tour before I drove to my host Jelena where after serbian-english-german chat and chinese food the day ended for me with fighting a tiger!

Statistics Croatia

Statistics Croatia:

Days spent in country: 2
Cycling days: 2
Distance cycled: 164,82 km
Average km/day: 82,41 km
Money spent: 40,55 €
Average €/day: 20,28 €
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing: 1 night
- Pension/Hotel: 1 night
Things broke: nothing
Things lost: nothing
Best Icecream: King extra Amadeus - basically a huge frozen strangely shaped Mozartkugel ! This is just perfect ! I had two in one hour !

Day 031 Osijek - Vukovar

Yesterday I forgot one really really important thing: my bicycle got a name! From now on it is called Arthur - by courtesy of Alexandras Mom. :o)

Today was an easy ride - short, flat and tailwind. So I could enjoy the morning relaxing, drinking coffee and reading in Osijek before starting the cycling along the Drau/Drave. Most times I had to cycle on the road, but most drivers were very careful and there was not much traffic anyway. My destination was Vukovar, a town most famous for some of the cruellest actions during the croatian war in the 90s. Nowadays the town looks pretty normal if you drive by - modern buildings, happy people,... but if you look a little bit closer, you will notice that some of bad street surface is not due to corrosion but due to shotholes and inbetween the modern buildings you will see some war ruins. Moreover the city decided to leave the huge watertower in its desolate state as a warning. So it is very much a mixed-feeling place.