July 2 – Day seven

Like a king

Starting with Hungary, the B&B got reduced rather to “B” only. Simply offered only bed but no breakfast. Not a good start for a day full of a physical strain. In Hungary one B@B even advertised breakfast on Booking.com but when I asked or it the owner suggested:”You better go to Tesco and buy there something”

The happier I was today when the hotel in Novi Sad provided a really good breakfast. I was eating like a king!

Soon thereafter, I really needed the gained power. The official EuroVelo 6 track changed to mediaeval one. Narrow, muddy, bumpy where thorny raspberries and burning nettles teased me from the bottom and low hanging wet tree branches from above. Countless mosquitoes completed a picture of a future king trying to liberate the sleeping beauty. These five kilometres felt like 50.

The next Royal challenge was the traffic. Lacking alternatives, the EuroVelo 6 takes the main inroads into Belgrade. Though Sunday, the traffic was heavy. The nearer to city the worse. Especially bus drivers showed no mercy. The crown of all was passing a long four-lane bridge across the Danube. I couldn’t believe this could be the truth. I even asked two policemen standing at the beginning of the bridge.
“Yes, just go”, they replied.
What a victory to have arrived safe and sound on the other embankment!

All in all 147 royal kilometres today.
Though going downstream, I did 521m ascent 🙂

 

Back on the endless Danube dykes

 

Zastava – was an unreachable dream car of mine when I was 15. Today we are probably both in the same shape

Approaching Belgrade

 

The dark side of the civilization – riversides full of plastic waste

Posted on 03.02 2024 at 17:03