Pirot to Sofia, Bulgaria

On Saturday, we had a very pleasant ride from Pirot to Sofia, Bulgaria.  This is the ninth country on this trip.  All we have left is Greece (very small portion) and Turkey. Also, we had another milestone, another time zone.  This is the first time in 2000 miles that we have had to change the clock.  We are now GMT+3 (or 8 hours different than home).

We had another perfect weather day.  It is turing a little more "Fallish", which is excellent cycling weather.   Our ride was 59 miles.  As promised, Bulgaria had some of the worst roads, and to our surprise, some of the best.  We cheated by going on the newly paved 4 lane (with excellent shoulders) rather than to ride on the cobblestones that we were pretty sure had been installed by the Ottomans' in the 15th century.

The last town before crossing into Bulgaria

I was not kidding about the bad roads - we are very lucky it was dry

Sofia from the foothills

Our idea of the perfect after cycling snack, the original Bud (from Czech Republic) and Paprika flavored potato chips

Niš to Pirot

Today was supposed to be an easy day of 42 miles.   The climbing made it challenging.  Each of those two peaks were about 1200' of climbing (about 6 miles and an hour).  On the flip side, the dowhills were very nice.  So we were in the saddle for about 4 hours.  As usual, the winds were light, the sunshine was glorious and the views spectacular.  The roads were excellent and the traffic light (and the dogs friendly).

The skull tower

We saw a very interesting display on the way out of Nis.  It was a tower of skulls.  The story goes that in the early 19th century, the Ottomans were moving on Nis.  The Serbs were badly outnumbered.  Instead of surrendering (and suffering the wrath of the invading army) the commander blew up the armory killing his men and many Turks.  The Turkish commander was so incensed that he build a tower with the skulls of over 1000 of the dead Serbs.  I have never seen anything like it.

Church in the town where Nicholas Tesla was born

The type of view we were luck to experience all day

Kruševac to Niš

Today was another very interesting day of cycling.  The weather was a perfect 45 to 70 during the day with light winds.  We continue through south-central Serbia and are in a very rural area when we are not going through the villages.  We rode 53 miles and ascended 2400 feet.

The first stop on the way out of town was to take a picture of a MIG fighter

We had a significant but very gradual climb and were treated to beautiful vistas

We started to see a litlle more Fall colors in the tree's.  We are now in about the same latitude as home, but the climate is different (warmer)

This just does not get old from the seat of a bicycle

After a big climb, you expect a big downhill.  We did not get that today.  The trail turned to mud.  There was 2-3 miles of these conditions.  It was brutal and the mud between the tires and the fenders (call mudguards in many countries) made progress very slow.

Once we got out, we cleaned out the mud with fingers and sticks and headed to the car was

In our last town, I saw these Serbian lawn mowers in the middle of a small town.  We stopped about noon and the children were getting out of school.  We have not see any other long distance cyclists in 3 days, so I think we were an oddity.  As we sat in the local baker and had our daily burek, several of the young boy's got up the courage to ask where we were from, where we were going, how far we had ridden and even how old are you.  It was fun.

Velika Plana to Kruševac

Today was an excellent day to cycle.  We rode 65 miles and climbed 2000'.  We had nice temperatures, starting about 50 and ending at 70 degrees.  Winds were light and I may have detected a slight tailwind at the end.

While the sites were not spectacular, the views and riding were just nice.  We had light traffic on the generally good roads.  When the roads were not good, they were potholled and pretty jaring, but the views made it all seem better.  It reminded me of riding around Sonoma Valley, without the cars and people.

This was an old train at a former rail hub town.

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This is the kind of views we had for most of the day.  You can see the vineyards in the background

And every once and a while you pass a beautiful church

and then you see another

More beautiful fields.  That is the Danube in the valley

Then you have lunch.  For the equivalent of 80 cents, you get an eighth of one of these burek's

Rob and I called this a Serbian Uber.  That is the farmer driving and his wife in the wagon

How would you like to have had this in your playground as a child?

We found a few remnants of the communist rule along the way

We tried to find out the meaning of this statue, but with no luck.  It certainly was interesting.

Belgrade to Velika Plana

We had an interesting day today.  We covered 68 miles and climbed 4091 feet.  The roads were pretty good and the weather spectacular (dry, tailwind, not too warm).  

We entered a little bit of a different world today.  We did experience the wild dog pack phenomena that I think we will have for a long time.  We had a few come up and bark, most ignored us but nothing scary. 

The land has gotten more rural and probably less prosperous.  Most of the people in the small towns are elderly.  We have stopped drinking tap water and are avoiding uncooked vegetables.  The alphabet has changed from latin and Cyrillic to just Cyrillic in many places.  There is less English spoken in the small towns.  All of this was expected. 

Our elevation profile today.  Nothing was too difficult, but it kept us working

With elevation, you do get some views.  This was looking back at Belgrade from the top of that first peak at about 10 miles or 1 hour out of town

Views of the green hills that we were treated with for much of the day

We had second breakfast in this quaint town.  They had a nice Burek (filo dough meat pie) and of course a pastry

Not a very good picture, but orchard in the foreground and vineyards on the horizon

We passed this fortress on the Danube at a town called Smederevo (or as we know it Смедерево)

Novi Sad to Belgrade (and Belgrade day off)

We had a very relaxing bike ride on Sunday.  The pace of Sunday cycling is much more relaxed with far fewer cars and trucks.  Most of the 56 mile day was across rural Serbian countryside, with lots of orchards and vineyards.  We had a few climbs, but we're rewarded with a nice tailwind for most of the day.

This was from the top of a 600' climb.  We were treated to a beautiful valley

One of many, many orchards along the way.  The nets help to avoid the use of pesticides.

One of many beautiful churches.  This was about 1000 on a Sunday.  Not a lot of participation at this location

Taken as we rolled into Belgrade on a beautiful Summer Afternoon.

On our day off, we took care of various administrative (planning the next week) and other miscellaneous items.  One thing we finally completed is obtaining Pepper Spray for Bulgaria.  Other travelers have told us about packs of stray dogs.  We thought it was prudent to have some defense in case it becomes an issue.

Our big activity was a 3 hour tours with a Belgrade local guide.  Marija was a bright and enthusiastic 26 year old with a love of Belgrade.  Her family were Serbs who fled Bosnia before she was born.  Although only 3 through the bombing, she was able to fill in the details from her education and study (she is Phd candidate for tourism).  She did a great job explaining the history and culture of Serbia.  We saw religious and historical sites in the central city.  Hopefully, what we learned was an introduction to the conflict that was only 23 years ago.  I know both Rob and I would like to learn more. 

War memorial commemorating the children killed during the NATO bombing in 1999.  That is the Serbian Orthodox church of St Mark in the background

The building on the left was preserved in this state to commemorate the 78 days of NATO bombing in 1999.  This was the national TV broadcast center and 16 people were killed in the strike.  The new building was built right next door

View of New Belgrade from Belgrade.  The boats on the river are floating bars.  

One of the many friendly pedestrian areas in Belgrade (picture by Rob)

Tonight we plan on an early dinner and some more planning time.  According to my count, we have ridden 1851 miles.  I estimate that we have 759 miles to go.  We have about three weeks left and plan to break that down to 14 days of cycling.  We don't really know what lies ahead as we turn of the Eurovelo 6 route and head southeast through Serbia, Bulgaria, a small portion of Greece and finally Turkey.

Our route will take us along the Sultans Route.  It is a pilgrimage route for people walking and cycling along the route taken by the Ottomans over the years to access the west.  Wish us luck.

Vukovar, Croatia to Novi Sad, Serbia

This morning we woke up in the far eastern corner of Croatia.  Our first stop was the watertower war memorial from the conflict in 1991.  We had visited Croatia last September, but were in the far western part of the country.  Throughout this region, the conflict is still very present among the people and surroundings.

This was a memorial that we passed on our way to dinner last night.  It was dedicated to 66 people killed on one day in Vukovar.

Our final memorial, along the highway was dedicated to 22 shepherds killed in the conflict.  All war is crazy, but this was very much neighbors killing neighbors.  Why would you kill shepherds?

This was a shortcut that I found.  It was well along the way on the 7 mile "shortcut" so we pressed on.  Our bikes were a mess by the end of this section.  I was almost wishing for a cleansing rain.

Our route today shows the opposite of a shortcut.  It was a 13 mile detour.  Note the peak in the middle of the ride, that was supposed to be right across the base of the triangle.  We crossed over t0 Serbia right before the detour.  We found a car wash and since we did not have any Serbian Dinars, Rob gave a gentleman 5 euros' to used his pressure washer.  After cleaning our bikes (and they were a terrible mess), the man informed us that the trail was closed and we needed to take a 13 mile detour.  As a result, a relatively easy day of 52 miles turned into 65.  Normally, we would have given the closed road a try, but not wanting to get our bikes dirty again, we took the detour.

The road was a little busy and we passed miles and miles of Apple orchards.  We were on a mission, so I did not have an opportunity for pictures.

Overall, it was a nice day.  It was warm.  The wind was fickle, always seeming to be in our faces.  We dashed into Novi Sad and found our lodging a minute or two before a deluge of rain.  Tonight we had a good meal of burgers and fries.  We are headed to Belgrade tomorrow and have a day off on Monday.