Monday 31st May, 2010
Distance: 108.27km (Total: 2,440.02km)
Time: 05:06
Average Speed: 21.2kph
Maximum Speed: 30.7kph
The church bells opposite our bedroom window started ringing at 6am this morning so no lie in! Breakfast at the hotel was ok but the coffee machine was on the blink. Mike pressed the cappuccino button but got something between a warm water and hot chocolate!
It was raining outside again this morning so we found it hard to get going. We finally left and stopped to buy food for lunch when we were approached by an older man who introduced himself as George and spoke perfect German with us. We had a nice chat about our trip and Hungary and he invited us back to his house for coffee. Unfortunately we had to decline as we wanted to press on despite the rain having only covered a short distance yesterday.
It rained all morning so we stuck to the main road as the traffic wasn’t too bad. We decided to finally wear our helmets as there isn’t much of a shoulder on the road. All through Europe so far we haven’t felt the need for helmets even on roads as priority is always given to cyclists. The driving here is a bit more erratic though and everyone is either smoking, talking on their mobile or both!
We stopped for coffee and a cake in Baja. We actually watched the coffee machine grind the beans this time before producing a drink, but it still tasted nothing like we know.
We managed to find a bench under shelter at a shrine for lunch. An old chap with a bottle of cider joined us and suggested we pray for better weather. We explained that we’d reached that level of desperation weeks ago and it hadn’t helped us yet! We’re not sure he understood.
We stopped at a shop to spend our remaining Hungarian change on chocolate bars before crossing the border into Serbia. There wasn’t anybody on the Serbian side of the border control and the barrier was up so we just cycled through until a guard came running out of his hut shouting after us. We stopped and he took a look at our passports taking great interest in all the visas in them. This was our first proper border crossing and along with it the first stamp in our passports. 🙂
Since entering Serbia all the people are waving at us, raising their fists and shouting “bravo!” and beeping their horns. It’s all very funny after the Hungarians typically just ignoring us altogether.
We made our way to Sombor and enquired about somewhere to stay. The only hotel in town was the equivalent of 40Euro a night and could generously be described as shabby. The staff are really nice and after helping us with our bags the owner pointed to a very dodgy looking lift and said “stand directly in middle of lift and no move while going up”, and then after thinking for a second smiled and said “welcome to Serbia!!”.
We returned from a trip to the supermarket to buy dinner to find the school prom was taking place in the hotel and we had to fight our way past hundreds of excited teenagers to get into the building.
Our budget can’t take all these hotels and with no cheaper alternative available we really need some good weather soon so we can camp!!
great that you are wearing your hel,ets. Is it Harribo of Germany? Love CMR
Are you crazy to cross the border without waiting for your stamps???? Oh gosh, I had a great laugh! Thanks to both of you! Serbia looks really nice!
Enjoy!
Ihr Lieben,
wolte mich auch mal melden,
verfolge Euch so aus der Ferne und bin echt neidisch….;-))
Regenstürme sind bestimmt sehr unangenehm so auf dem Fahrrad, das kenne ich, allerdings war ich da nie soweit von zu Hause entfernt. Wir in Berlin haben auch die Nase voll vom kalten Wetter, das Wochenende verspricht endlich Sommer.
So ein Lada 2105 russischer Bauart ( Foto) hatten wir früher auch mal, allerdings in Rot, war damals in der DDR das Traumauto. Meinen Trabbi hab ich immer noch, in der Scheune, aber ob der noch fährt ???
Wünsche Euch alles Gute, melde mich mal wieder…
Liebe Grüße Jutta & Karsten
“Closely followed by…” Russian Lada Riva 😉