3 emails now on the blog
not to replace e-mail and blog
but if you want to follow
our route
day 1 hayrabolu turkey the day of surviving adversity actually -1.1kms( minus although leah will debate this)
day2 havsa turkey 53 kms amazing first day
day 3 edirne turkey 40 kms a bit too much highway
day 4 svelingrad bulgaria 77kms through greece sunny no food in turkey
day 5 rest day in svelingrad sunny
day 6 topolovgrad 66kms cool overcast multiple hill climbs aprox 20-25 kms uphill WITH HEADWINDS
day 7 Nova Zagora overcast , less cold, not windy (until last 5 kms why is that) 69 kms
mileage debate between gps and cycle computer
leah found a bulgarian map leas detailed scale but the towns are written in bulgarian alphabet -VERY HELPFUL and more details of mileage between towns
route has been perfect -lightly travelled ( although vehicles are limited in this country) rural ride
roads vary from excellent to rutted and amazing potholes ( but these are tolerable
accomodation working out very well and inexpensive
lots of wondeful birds ( mainly LBJ little brown jobs-sy says BBB boring brown birds) all with wonderful songs
food fine
restaurant ordering a humerous endevour
tomorrow 40kms with a significant climb
then rest day
then another larger climb day
fitness and butts improving
us
2nd email
last e-mail re our route went to day 7 Nova Zagora
day 8 Tvardica ( can't do accents
no hotel initially but we were directed to a 'guest house that was so perfect we took a rest day for
day 9 rest day a fair bit of rakia ( home made brandy drunk by ambrose- Leah had a gall bladder attack scare
day 10 a climb and an amazing downhill to Veliko Tarnovo a pass route we had not predicted when we did our (leah's )map studying but we garner info as we travel
day 11we take a rest day in VT
day 12 stay in TVand celebrate catholic easter ( eastern orthodox palm sunday) by doing a local cycle without panniers to a historically important monastery (Dryanovski0 with accompanying caves
day 13 Pavlikeni via celebrated churches and monasteries at Arbanassi ( wonderous)
day 14 -our first hotel headache when our planned destination Pordim did not have a hotel so another 20 kms. to Pleven
day 15 rest day
day 16 griff's 14th BDay and our second hotel stress when the hotel in Nikopol existed but WAS CLOSED ( see blog) so we went on to
Belene 100 KMS !!!
day 17 svistov 50 kms from plevan ( read back)
day 18 ferry to romania to Turnu Magurele easter saturday and midnight eatser celebrations
day 19 ( today) our 3rd hotel stressful experience ( easter sunday) hotel in draganesti-olt existed but was closed and again we have to ride on for a total of 98.5 kms to slatina
tomorrow train to craiova we have headed furhter east and north than planned and will use train to get better positioned, save some energy and time, avoid big roads and experience romanian trains
next few days from romania to Vidin and on to serbia
there you go
hotel stress stressful but there are great positive stories on those days too and the boys are heroes with these challenges
3rd email
day 20 to craiova by train (we had lost days and got to far north east because of the hotel stress)
day 21 rest day in Craiova
day 22 trin to bailste and cycled to Vidin, bulgaria via Calafat
Day 23 into serbia and into negotin
day 24 over the carpathians to Donji Milanovac
Day 25 rest day short ride (50km) paniierless to narrowest part of danube
day 26 along danube gorge big tailwind and lots of tunnels sleep in golubac
day 27 croos danube meet nice german cyclists another tailwindy day sleep in bela cryka
day 28 80km day to pancevo great tail wind we were flying
day 29 rest day in belgrade (walked at least 20k
day30 north to ecka (thought to be 75km turned in to 107km after more hotel stres spen night in 4 star!!!
day 31 May Day tired legs and hypoglycemic ambrose into novi sad. hotel finiding a daily adventure. takes and hour of our time
rest day tommorow. croatia in 2 days. ed and paul in 16
a
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