An Eastern Block Two Star Hotel

Day 32 Timiosara to Resita


After a delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel we set of out of Timiosara in a very well organized group ride. Duncan had about five riders in safety vests, who rode ahead and stopped traffic at some of the major intersections and at some of the round abouts. At the out skirts of town we were cut loose and off we went down an impossibly busy highway which had no shoulders. To say that it was nerve wracking is a total under statement. About 30 k down the road we came to the “It’s A Wonderful Life” café, but it was closed. I was ready for a break so I at my buffet apple. I don’t know what was worse the passing traffic or the on coming traffic. The on coming traffic doesn’t think twice about passing even when you are there. At one point a car passing a tractor came over so far that Bernard and Monique were forced off the road.

About 35 km down the road we turned off the main road and headed across country. There was no traffic but the pavement was so busted up that all the pot holes made my shoulders ache and my butt sore. The small towns were really dirt poor. The farms looked like subsistence farming. However I think that the people here have a good heart as they all wave and cheer as we ride past. As an example three of us were riding though the town of Vermes, which is just a small cluster of houses, and the man who operated the local gas station comes out and hands us each a bottle of ice cold mineral water. The temperature was 30+ C so this was a fabulous treat. We thanked him profusely and headed off down the road refreshed.

The country side alternated between deep hard wood forests and open farm land. Lunch was in one of these forests. It was a beautiful setting for lunch. After lunch I set off with Judy-Clare, Curt, and Jim in the lead. After about 5 km we hit the main road into Resita. However it wasn’t as busy as the road out of Timiosara. I was glad to see an end to the broken up pavement and be back on a good road. The road was along side this river which was very pretty and the shade from the over hanging canopy felt good.

Resita was a big steel center during the soviet era but now most of it is shut down. The town is recovering but progress is slow. There are lots of abandon buildings, factories, and soviet housing. The town square is the center piece of the town and a lot of money has been spent building it. It has a new shopping mall, an unbelievable fountain, which has several rotating spray heads, and the hotel Semenic where we are staying. The hotel Semenic is an old soviet hotel circa 1950. On the front door its two star rating is proudly displayed. The rooms are exactly as they were in 1950. The rotary style telephone, the army blanket on the bed, no hot water, no shower curtain, floor to ceiling folding wooden door to the 4 square foot balcony which didn’t close, all made this place a total time warp. I can just imagine it as being right out of a John La Carre spy novel. The hidden microphones, the passport check at the front desk, which we still had to do. It was an unbelievable experience. Supper in the hotel was a plate of tepid over cooked spaghetti with about a table spoonful of sauce, served with a salad of sliced onions in oil and vinegar. One word – Terrible. However they did have a band playing and the guy playing the trumpet was fabulous. Judy-Clare and Curt got up and danced, and everyone cheered.

Bad roads and bad traffic but great people made it a great 96 km day in the sun. Oh – I forgot to mention that the 2 hour afternoon nap didn’t hurt either.

So thank for visiting my blog and thanks forgot letting me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Happy trails

Terry

Canada Day In Romania

Day 31 Rest Day in Timisoara Romania

Being a rest day I slept in until 7:00 Am. I guess that I should have gotten up to run but my back has been so stiff I just felt that it would be better served by laying in bed.

So instead I got up did blog and went down for a really nice breakfast in the hotel. The hotels we have been staying at generally have breakfasts included with the room. They have without exception been excellent.

After breakfast I joined Sebastian, who is the tour guide that Tour de Afrique has hired to be our Romania guide, for a city walking tour. Although there was not much walking, we just went out into the square behind the hotel, Sebastian did give us a lot of history about Timisoara and about Romania. It was here in Dec 1989 where the revolution started that brought down the communist rule in Romania. We walked past the church where the soldiers first shot their own citizens and then refused to do so any more which effectively ended communist rule. His commentary on history and other aspects of Romania life were priceless. He also showed us how to find and use a phone card. Finally! How not to be taken at one of the many money exchange offices, and even how to order a draft beer.

Later we wandered the town before winding up back at the hotel for an afternoon nap.

Thank you for visiting my blog and thanks for all your comments

Terry

Roaming Romania

Day 30 Szned to Timisoara Romania

The ride out of camp and though Szned was not the relaxed ride Jim and I had on Sunday. Monday morning was BUSY. However the four of us got though town and were on the road. Our path took us down this canal to where we took a ferry. We missed the ferry by 2 minutes, and wound up waiting a good 45 minutes for it to come back across and pick us up. It was an old style cable ferry of the type I remember crossing the Mcleod river on when I was a kid 50 years ago. Once across the ferry we were on a little used back road almost all the way to the boarder. Even though the road was rough in places it was nice having almost no cars. I think I only saw 4 or 5 cars in 40 kms. We are travelling though open wheat and corn fields. There are a few sunflower fields which put on a very pretty show with their big yellow flowers.

At the boarder into Romania we had to show our passports. This was the first time we had to show passports since we landed in Paris. Even so these were not the armed soviet type guards of old war era, but pleasent young men who smiled and stamped our passports. Once inside Romania the housing changed. There are abandon communal farms. Homes look poor and have not seen paint since construction. Stucco is falling a way. The main street is paved and side streets are dirt. Goats are tethered in front yards and barefoot children play in the dusty side streets. Ditched are lined with litter. Jim commented that this feels like rural Mexico.

By time we got to lunch at the 65km mark it was 34 C. Yesterday's tail wind was in our face and the best you could do was about 23-25 km/hr. The road was paved but had an extremely sharp shoulder of up to 8 inches. This caused a could of crashes when people rode off it. Berenice would up with heat exhaustion and had to be sagged in. We stopped at a road side pub and got cold drinks. I had a cold 0.5l beer for $1.00. I sure went down easy. By the time we got to the 100 km mark I was bonked and Jim took over the pull and pulled the four of us in to Timisoara. Thanks Jim! At the out skirts Duncan was waiting for us and guided us into town.

The hotel is in an older soviet tourist hotel. It has been redecorated but to say it is 5 star is a stretch. The big plus is that it has in room Internet service that is very good. This is something we have not yet had. It is also in right downtown off the main square.

The four of us headed off to find phone cards and beer. We found the beer but no phone cards. We were all set to sit down in the park to drink the beer when the police showed up and made us put the beer away. NO DRINKING in public. In Romania less than 12 hours and already busted by the police. Latter we went out and had Chinese food. The lemon chicken was fabulous.

Carl and Rita on the tandem had a nasty crash and I understand Carl is pretty cut up from the gravel. So sorry I hope it isn't too serious.

And so ended my first day in Romania and a day of 128 kms in 30+ c weather.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for the great comments

Tomorrow is a rest day

Terry

PS. News from Don ---- He is very stiff and sore. It turns out that his right hand is broken as well, as his left collar bone. He decided not to case it as both hands would have been out of action.

Talent show.

Day 29 Kerskenet to Szned

We rode out of camp after the majority of riders had left. I guess I should clarify the "we" thing as I see I have been using it quite a bit. The "we" is Jim from Las Vegas, Jureg from Switzerland , and Joco from South Africa. We were riding along at about 28 kms and passing other riders, soon there was a huge pelaton behind me. I was feeling pretty good and was riding strong. However the road was not as good as yesterday as there was lots of pot holes and pavement patches. At about the 30 k mark we could see Fred about 0.5 km in front of us. Suddenly the race is on! Everyone is doing 30-38 km/hr which was way too fast for the road conditions. Maureen, Glen and I weren't going to be caught up in this kind of foolishness and we continued on at 28 km/hr. Glen and Maureen stopped and I continued on by myself. It was really nice and quiet just sailing along a deserted country road.

At lunch Al wanted to race me and I told him I wasn't interested. However continued in my face until I finally had to tell him to F... O.. Jim, Joco and Al wanted to go but I wasn't going. So I turned my back and they finally left. I just don't understand what some people don't get about the word no. I left about 5 minutes later by myself. It was perfect. Nice and quiet with good roads, no cars (well very few) and good weather.

I got into camp #2 right after Fred. Later Jim and I rode into town, which was very quaint and of course being Sunday very quiet. We met a lady from Calgary UofC who was teaching English at the university of Szned on some sort of exchange program. As we passed her she called out "Paris to Istanbul Wow!" and I knew she was from Calgary. What a coincidence. We stopped and bought some after noon treats and headed back to camp. I sit down on a bench and open up my treats and Al comes right over and helps him self. Don was right!

After supper there was a talent show which was put on by the riders. Jos was MC and was wearing a green garbage bag tied with orange survey ribbon. He was hilarious. There must have been 12 or more acts. There was songs, ballads, poetry, skits, lectures, you name it. The whole affair was side splitting funny. Some people are so creative.

The camp has a building which houses handicap people in it and as I crawled into my tent I realized that I pointed the tent door directly at the light over the door to their building. Error! And so ended a 110 km day in Hungry.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments.

Terry

An easy 100 kms

Day 28 Budapest to Kerskemet

We left the hotel at 7:00 for group ride though the streets of Budapest. I was in the first group following Olivia. He is real easy to follow. These group rides are really great they take all the worry of navigating in these large cities out of the ride. For the first 10 km I was really stiff and every bump went right through me. However after I warmed up I felt much better. The group ride was a total of 24 km, and took us to the edge of the city.

For the most part Budapest looks very prosperous. There are a lot of new homes and people are busy repainting and fixing things up. Every house has fancy wrought iron fences.

After the group ride it was only 31 km down to lunch. We passed though a number of small farming towns all of which looked very prosperous. The roads were excellent and we had a favourable tail wind. I think the high point was seeing a stork nest with two baby storks in this one small town. I believe that this is suppose to bring the town good luck, and it must have as the town seemed very prosperous.

After lunch we set off at a good pace and within about 10k or so we caught the tandem. They received the water pistol as I went by. They joined the line and we sailed down what was probably the best riding conditions we have seen so far. We pulled into this small pub and had a Pepsi. I think the owner was surprised to see all these riders walking in. We really must be quite a sight in our bright jerseys, riding shorts, and clomping around in bike shoes.

The road was so good and the wind so favourable we covered the 100 kms and we in camp by 12:20 PM. I was pleased that I was the 2nd one into camp. I was worried the being injured I would have a tough time keeping up. I found a good spot for my tent under a tree. Jim's compass put the sun in the northern sky and twenty minutes later it was in the full sun and had to move it. I lay down and had a 2.5 hour nap. Then I cleaned my bike and oiled the chain. Curt and I rode over to a near by grocery store and got some treats. They sell this pata in these little containers here which is really delicious and is really cheap. A 2 oz container is about $0.30. So we sat around eating until supper, which was a grilled pork chop,with salad, and rice.

On a disturbing note a sectional rider joined us today and he brought a ghetto blaster, which he played so loud at supper that you couldn't talk.

The camp ground is beside this water park which had a really loud band playing so maybe he felt he had to compete. The water park closed and shut off the music so we will not be kept awake. Also in the camp is this interesting looking bus. It is called a hotelbus. Half the bus is converted to berths and it has a galley. The front half is seats. There are about 20 passengers plus a tour guide and a driver. I walked over and got a tour of it from the tour guide. The price for taking a tour on the hotelbus is about 65 euros/day or about $100/day.

So I am going to thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for leaving me a comment.

Cruising on down the road.

Terry

Back to 80%

Day 27 Budapest Rest Day

We figured out the phone system last night but by the time we did I had missed the appointed call time window. Well we thought we had it turns out that the phone card wroked but the hotel socked us with a huge bill. ARGH! We wandered out on the street looking for supper and found some East Indian food.

This morning I feel like maybe 80%. My shoulder is still a little stiff and I have to watch how much weight I put on my right elbow, but it looks like I am going to be fine. Glen gave me some of his magic ointment which he claims can fix any thing from cancer to rusted car parts. Perfect!
Jim and I took a two and half city bus tour and saw all sorts of sights and heard about the history of the city. The city has been occupied by just about everybody during its long history starting with the Romans and ending with the Soviets. Every group has left their mark on the city in the form on the architecture and the monuments they constructed. The castle at the top of the hill on the Buda side of the river was under siege 17 times. The Pest side is the flat flood plain side. The two sides were united in the 1700s under somebody’s rule. Sorry it is all kind of a blur with names I have never heard and which probably are un-spell-able any way. The city has a lot of Paris influence in the architecture an was designed to look like Paris (well at least the older sections). After the bus tour we took a boat tour up the Danube which recapped a lot of the bus tour but provided a much different perspective on the city. Then we hit the grand bazaar which was really a huge farmers market. Hundreds of fresh vegetable sellers and meat markets selling every cut of meat and sausage imaginable. Sorry for no pictures I ran out of time on the computer. I'll get you some on the nest posting. Promise!

I was glad to get back to the hotel to wash the city grim off. We had been going steady for 7 hours and the car and bus exhaust was giving me a head ache.

We have three ride days before our next rest day so I hope to post the next entrees then. So in the mean time, thanks for visiting with me and thanks for your great comments just keep them coming.

Terry

Budapest

Day 26, Esztergom to Budapest, 55km

I crawled out of the wet tent, stiff and sore but alive. There was a terrible lightning strom around 1:00 am. It started with a huge wind and then came the lightning and thunder and then the rain it lasted for about an hour. This same storm hit the big socccer game and dreched a 100,000 fans.

Thankfully we have only a short day today. The first part of the ride is 15 km hill climb which is billed has having a 1000 meters of climb. Somehow I think that number is inflated. However it was pretty steep. Jim had his first flat about half way up. It always amazes me how the tiniest piece of metal can find a cyclist's tires. Thousands of square feet and the tire magically finds something a millameter in diameter. The ride was though a steamy rain forest canopy. It sure helped keeping us cool. From the summit down was easy pedalling but put all my weight onto my sore shoulders. Every rut was a jolt. Thank fully the lunch was at the 35 km mark.

At lunch we were held for a 24 km group ride into Budapest. Duncan, the tour leader and Olivia, the tour mechanic had ridden into the city and back to make sure of the route. I lay down in the sun and had a nap for about an hour. This sure helped my shoulder. When they got back we headed into Budapest. Duncan described the route as a "bit dodgie" and he wasn't kidding. The route was tourtous down side streets, bike paths, alleys, and even a train station, which drew more than a few stares. We arrived on the opposite side of the river from the hotel with just the bridge to cross. Unfortunately we went down the wrong side of the bridge. The path just ended. There we were facing 8 lanes of screaming traffic. Duncan spotted a break in traffic and darted across. I amde it to the center island. However there I was with noway across. Duncan leaps out infront of the traffic with his hands in the air and stops traffic and I darted across. However there were still several riders trapped on the center island. Duncan is waving his hands but traffic isn't stopping. One lane would stop but the others wouldn't. Mike said Terry we have to help so we jumped out into traffic waving our hands, amongst a tremendous screaching of tires. The traped riders shot to saftey. I think I am going to take up something safe like base jumping with out a parachute. Once there all that was left was to head down to the hotel 2 km in the crazy traffic. I never head the horns or squealling tires all I heard was the pounding of the adrenalin in my head. My shoulder had stopped hurting. This is probably the scariest cycling moment I have ever encountered.

They say that Budapest is the Paris of the east. I believe it. It has the same look and feel. It is in much rougher shape. The roads are poor condition and everything is covered in graffiti. However in credit to the people of Budapest there is no garbage like in Mexico.

Tomorrow is a rest day and I get to recover.

All and all an exciting 58 km.

Thanks for visiting and thanks for your comments

Terry

Halfway Point

Day 25, Gyor to Esztergom, Hungary, 108 km

It seems like it rains every night so that we get the fun of packing up wet tents. The good part of this is that it cools down from the 30+ C we have been having during the day. Breakfast has been set 30 minutes early because of the heat of the day. I think that this has encouraged the early risers, as people were walking around at 4:30 Am. The four of us left camp this morning and took a couple of wrong turns riding several kilometres out of our way. Jurg found a woman, whose son was studying German and he was able to give us directions. It was a good thing we had Jurg with us. The roads turned from bad to worse. The pavement ran out and turned to a dirt track. However as we were seeing people coming from the other direction we knew we were on the right road. Joco found some marijuana growing wild beside the road. But we decided that it was more likely its cousin hemp which does grow wild throughout Europe.

We passed though a number of small towns but there were no coffee spots. The small towns are really just groupings of farm houses, so there are no services. As a result we got to lunch which was at the 65 k mark, by 10:30. After lunch we set off though the town where lunch was along this extremely busy road. I reached down to get my water bottle out and just as I did this I hit a rock which pitched the bike into a curb. I knew I was going down so I grabbed the brakes hard and fought to regain control but there was no saving it because I couldn’t go to the left where the traffic was. So I ploughed into the curb spilling me into the grass. I hit with my right knee and elbow. I sat on the curb for a long time just trying to collect myself. Trying all the parts making sure everything still worked. After what seemed like half an hour I got up (Jim says it was only 5 minutes). Surly is one tough bike and was unhurt by my carelessness. Sorry buddy. I should treat you better. Getting back on was a real tough job as every thing hurt like hell.

I guess I should explain that when we went to Gyor we had left the Danube River valley and entered a side valley. To get back to the Danube we had to climb out of the side valley before we could re-enter the Danube Valley. The hills are easily 1000 feet high and to get from one valley to the next you sometime have to cross a lot of hills. The climb for the day had been set at 1500 meters. We had 45 kms to go it was 34C and there was a huge climb in front of us. About 2 k up the road we turned off the busy road and started the 10 k climb. The road wasn’t pavement the way we think of pavement. That is one continuous piece of asphalt, but more like pieces of asphalt one beside each other. If you took one wheelbarrow of asphalt at a time so it was more like cobbles. Every bump and rut jarred up though the handle bars to my aching shoulders. But I put my head down and Surly into low gear and ground up the hill. The summit was beautiful. Wineries spread out below us and the whole Danube river valley. The road down was steep and riding the brakes put all my weigh on to my shoulders. At the bottom of the hill there was about 10 k of extremely busy road so I got behind Fred and he drafted me in, while Jim rode shotgun behind me. Thanks guys!

At camp I lay on my ground sheet in the sun for about an hour, before setting my tent up and then just crawled in and slept for two hours.

There was huge electric storm around 1:00Am. The wind came up and then the lightning and finally the cloud burst. I understand that the same storm hit the big soccer match drenching 100,000 spectators.

A really tough day.

Thanks for visiting and thank you for your comments.

Terry

Hungry?

Day 24 Bratslavia to Gyor Hungry
We ate breakfast in the boatel restarunt and the food was excellent. This place was just great. I loved it .
I knew it was going to be a hot one so I made sure that I had my water pistol loaded. In the parking lot a managed to get a lot of riders before they even got out of the parking lot. We crossed the Danube on the same bridge we had ridden in on. There was some construction on one side of the road and I rode on the inside of them and then at the very end there was a horizontal barrier arcoss the rode which was completely invisible. I nearly hit it. Then later I learned that one of the French Canadians had in fact hit it. It was her second fall in two days. OCH! We passed on to the bike path which was wide and beautifully paved. There was a line of maybe 20 riders. Picking a good spot I quickly passed them all and made sure to give them all a taste of the water pistol. As I rode off I could hear the screams of my victums. I caught up to the tandum and got behind it as did a number of other riders. We cruised for maybe 30 kms along this big reservoir at speeds of 30-40Km. We were at lunch by 10:20, which was at the 55km mark and had averaged 27 km/hr. Wow!
After lunch four of us headed out and crossed into Hungry. At the boarder all that was there were the empty booths and guard houses. No armed guards no pass port checks, here we are in Eastern Europe home of the former "Evil Empire" and nobody is even going to look at our passport. Kind of a let down in a way. Twenty years and a lot has changed. There is new construction every where. Homes look freshly painted. There are huge shopping malls everywhere filled with consumer goods. Even a lot of the old former soviet apartment buildings have satellite dishes attached to every balcony. It kind of looks like a boom.
When we arrived in camp there were only to other riders in, which was kind of surprising as we had some trouble finding the camp and stopped to change our money. Camp was not so pretty. The showers looked really bad and the whole camp was in a general state of disrepair. It was a nice enough spot just a little beat up that’s all.
Maybe we’re getting use to the riding as today’s 88 kms were pretty easy, and it was a fun day.
Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your great comments.
Terry