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'