The End

Well we made it back home. The last couple of days in Belgrade were great. We saw the most magnificent crypt at St Sava, recently completed and awe inspiring. We also had a magnificent farewell dinner with our Serbian mates, complete with the best live traditional music that we've struck along the entire journey and lasting late into the night. Well, late for us, but it seemed like the party was only just getting started for the group of 30 or so women who we were sharing the restaurant with ;-).

The last day was relatively quiet, with a walk back up to Kalemegdan fortress to have a final lunch overlooking the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, and then farewell to Kate and Colleen as they headed off to Italy. Packing and resting followed that, and then a quiet dinner and a nice Italian restaurant, where Kieran finally got to taste the raspberry rakija that he has been keen on trying for the whole trip. The night was most notable for being the only time in the whole trip that we arrived home wet, as a weather front came in as we were having dinner and we got soaked on the way home. Beats having it happen on the bike, and we are thankful that the rain avoided us for most of the trip.

We are extremely grateful to Nemenja who very graciously packed our bikes for us, and to Nikola and Dragana for putting us in touch with him. Vlad and Dragan acted as our transportation officers to the airport and checking in was only a minor hassle with the two bike boxes. The biggest issue was with the tools packed in the luggage - apparently the torque wrench (with its contained spring) looked like it might be a modified pistol! Thankfully a quick unpack and repack resolved that problem.

The flights were ordinary in the way that can happen with international travel. Everything was delayed, but we were lucky that the delays cascaded through the system and meant that extra time in the airport in Belgrade meant no time in Abu Dhabi and we managed to catch the last flight back to Canberra, arriving about 2 hours after the scheduled time. Our own beds were most welcome when we got home!

James has been diligent and the bikes are reassembled and ready to go again. Gillian has decided she loves hers, which was completely reliable (if not always completely comfortable) and didn;t miss a beat throughout the whole trip. A couple of parts went missing in the transfer (Gillian's bike box was pretty extensively beaten up by the airline), but for the total sum of $13 these were replaced by the local bike shop. We're actually looking forward to getting cycling again, although maybe not quite as much or quite as far for a little while. Stay tuned for the next adventure...

Belgrade

Belgrade is trying to kill us. We have been having a great time undoing all the good work we achieved on the bike. Gillian and James have been here before (as has Kate) and we are lucky enough to have some good friends who have been embarrassing us with their hospitality and generosity. This has taken the form of many big meals, showing off a variety of Serbian cuisine. Below is an example of lunch on our first day, at a restaurant chosen by Zoran - one of the aforementioned friends. Bear in mind this is only for 6 people - it would be nice to think that it is larger than usual, but really, it's about average...

We have been doing all of James' favourite things, lunch at Kalemegdan, dinner in Skardalia, wandering around Knez Mihailova. They all seem to be as much fun as he remembers. We have also been on a tour out into the countryside to visit two Serbian Orthodox monastries from the 14th and 15th century. This was very interesting, and instructive, and it was good to get out of the city and see some of the Serbian countryside. Thanks go out to our guide Milica - who has a vast knowledge of the history of the region and the traditions of the Serbian Orthodox church - and driver Alexander. Of course the tour included an enormous lunch (despite our efforts at moderate ordering) and was followed by a large dinner, which included music from two bands playing traditional Serbian songs. Kate somehow managed to sing along. We will be rolling off the plane in Canberra.

Today sees us heading off to see St Sava, the largest Orthodox church in the world, and surely many other interesting parts of the city. We will have to be disciplined at lunchtime as we have a big dinner planned with James' work friends and colleagues.

The ride - the stats

1602 kilometres
6 countries
0 flat tyres
1 stack
5 countries with live snake sightings
22 days riding
22 accommodation bookings
700mL of sunscreen
72.8 km per day average (on riding days)
2 lost(forgotten) chargers
3 ruined panniers
4 parliament buildings visited
3 ferry crossings
89.2km longest ride
47.3km shortest ride

too many to count:
cornfields
sunflower fields
churches
roadside shrines
other cyclists
good meals
gracious hosts
beers

Stari Slankamen to Belgrade

We made it! In the end our last day was pretty easy, with a flat ride into Belgrade (ignoring the big hill out of our accommodation...). We started the day with breakfast, of course. James, having done the shopping the previous evening had kind of forgotten that breakfast was a thing, so you can see our "breakfast" of champions for the last day's ride below.

With that taken care of we were on our way. We had a short day and a relaxed schedule, which meant we could (and did) stop for a coffee break after the first hour or so. The way into Belgrade was pretty unremarkable for the most part, passing through increasingly dense towns until we hit Belgrade proper. James had somehow managed to arrange the navigation to go past the Institute of Physics (no surprise, really), where we were able to catch up with our friends Dragana and Vlad before heading to lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the Danube.

From there it was a short ride across the river (actually, the Sava river, Belgrade being on the confluence of the Danube and the Sava), to our accommodation in the middle of the old section of Belgrade. The apartment is lovely, and very conveniently located. It has a washing machine, which was greeted by rapture-like delight as we took the advantage to properly clean clothes that had (at best) only a rinse since Budapest. Relaxation was the order of the afternoon, while we waited for Kate and Colleen to arrive after their big Persian adventure. Vlad had kindly volunteered to take James to pick them up from the airport in the evening, and once back to the apartment we headed out for a late dinner.

We're all looking forward to exploring Belgrade and catching up with our Serbian friends over the next few days, if only to stop hearing James tell everyone how much he loves it here...

Relive 'Danube - Grand finale'

Novi Sad to Stari Slankamen

This morning we had a little lie-in followed by a late breakfast in Novi Sad. In hindsight this may have been a tactical error. The route from Novi Sad was steep with a long ascent up a hill - 5% for 4 kms, a category 3 climb (on Strava anyway) for those acquainted with the Tour de France. Gillian was not mentally prepared for the slog today and chucked a wobbly half way up (Roge, if you are reading this you will know what this entails). Best not to describe a route that 'undulates' to Gillian for a while!

The view from the top was spectacular so maybe just worth the effort. Some of the downhill sections were a lot of fun, there just weren't perhaps enough of them. We did encounter some local cyclists who where flying up the hills and we think they were saying encouraging words to us as they passed by.

At one of the route junctions we found a church under construction which was just gleaming in the (very hot) sun. This part of Serbia is home to 16 Orthodox abbeys. We didn't have a chance to visit any today as we were on a schedule to meet our Airbnb host for tonight. As it was we were running really late. And the meeting arrangements were somewhat different to those we expected.

We finally meet up the Milos (our host) who showed us the way to his house. Which is lovely and has a fabulous view of the Danube from the balcony. Below you can see Kieran enjoying a well deserved sit down and Gillian reclining on the bench trying to recover from her fit of the vapours.

Milos discovered that James likes playing chess and the price of providing a taxi service into town to get supplies was to play a game. When Gillian chose this accommodation - a real Serbian holiday house on the Danube - she did think that there was a number of restaurants and grocery stores within walking distance. The location on the Airbnb website does not quite match the reality. Next time Gillian mentions "quirky", James and Kieran will say "five star"! All part of the adventure...

We have discovered a stash of 80s CDs which we are cycling through now and sipping a few beverages on the balcony. Who doesn't love Madonna and Was (not was). Next might come the Barry White.

Belgrade tomorrow!!!!

Relive 'Danube day 30'