Farewell to a golden fall
N 44°18'995'' E 025°54'017''
Day: 90-92
Sunrise:
06:38 – 06:41
Sunset:
17:28 – 17:20
As the crow flies:
69.74/54.82/47.93 km
Daily kilometers:
90.77/63.12/57.53 km
Total kilometers:
2942.99 Km
Soil condition:
Asphalt
Temperature – Day (maximum):
23,8 – 28 °C
Temperature – day (minimum):
19 – 20 °C
Temperature – Night:
4 – 13 °C
Latitude:
44°18’995”
Longitude:
025°54’017”
Maximum height:
40 – 101 m above sea level
Average speed:
17.76 – 18.36 Km/h
The weather is once again very kind to us and gives us wonderful days. The cook at the pleasant motel on the Danube gives us a packed lunch as a farewell gift and wishes us a safe and pleasant journey. We leave this place behind us with a wave. We make good progress in glorious sunshine. According to our calculations, we should reach the capital of Romania in three days. The landscape also means well with us and shows its best side with its friendly and largely loving population. People use the golden autumn days to bring in the rest of their harvest and plow the fields. Horse-drawn carts stand in the already harvested corn fields. The poorer part of the population cuts the empty corn stalks by hand and loads the horse-drawn carts. “What do you need the half withered corn stalks for?” I want to know. “Mainly to get our horses through the coming winter. It’s good food for them,” a young man explains to me in a friendly manner and poses with his family in front of our camera, laughing.
On our trips through the cities, we repeatedly come into contact with street children. One of them picks up an empty whisky bottle next to us, puts it to his mouth and says: “Ah, good juice.” Others come to beg. When we give nothing, stones fly. Tanja is hit on the arm but not injured. We stay in run-down, mosquito-infested hotels. There are no good ones. There is no water for showering. It only flows in the toilets for a few hours in the evening. Despite the lack of water, a large wedding is celebrated in a hall. The strange-sounding music makes the old walls tremble until the early morning and keeps us awake. Sometimes we come across processions on the village streets. We don’t know if there is a baptism to celebrate? “Take a sip of wine!”, we are invited exuberantly. Young people see us approaching, finish their soccer game, stand on the street, clap and cheer for us. It is a beautiful country. A country with different faces. A country where the gap between rich and poor is unimaginably wide.
Just 25 kilometers from Bucharest, we decide to check into trucker accommodation in the early afternoon. Tanja and I agree to explore the metropolis for ourselves before we conquer it on our bikes. We have great respect for the traffic, the street kids, the poverty and crime. Sitting in a shared cab, we let ourselves be driven into the heart of the beating heart, buy a train ticket and find a hotel right opposite the station. Tomorrow we want to tackle the last few kilometers to take on the challenge of the big city, one of the most dangerous things for a cyclist. Let’s see how we get on there. We very much hope that we won’t be taken off our bikes at the end of our Danube trip.
