Izvin to Szeged, Hungary. 1500km mark.

Last night was a great sleep in an excellent hotel.  Dinner was excellent and breakfast was even better.  We had along way to ride today and we needed all the food we could stomach to complete the 138km to Szeged, Hungary.

We rolled out of the Hotel Rocco at 8am, we had about 20kms to reach the town of Timisoara and from there we had to make the decision whether to head north to Arad or Northwest to the border crossing at Cenad.  We had been told by several people that the border town of Cenad had closed to the public.  If we had to travel up to Arad and then to Nadlac, this would add another day to our tour, something we didn't want at this stage.

Whilst riding through Timisoara and dodging cars and trams, Peter stopped and spoke to a group of men having the Aussie morning tea.  Now this was the perfect chance to speak to the locals and find out the best way out of town and also whether we could enter Hungary via the Cenad border crossing.  Maurice was always of the view that this would be possible, but because we had several opinions we needed one more to confirm it. We joined the guys during their morning tea and had a great chat about telecommunications in Romania and also their relationship to some Australian companies.  Quite interesting.  They also shouted the coffee. 

Cenad was our next point for the day.  We had near perfect conditions all morning, flat roads and at times a good tailwind.  We took less stops this morning as we needed to cover as much ground as possible before our lunch stop.  I certainly didn't want to be riding after 6pm. 

I took the above photo whilst riding towards the Hungarian border today.  In the western region of Romania the major religion is Lutheran.  This church was built to support the Lutheran faith.

We pushed on out of Timisoara along the No.6 highway to the town of Biled.  We stopped at Biled at this little corner store which was basically a mini pub.  We took up our position amongst the local drinkers and made our lunch which consisted of tuna, tomato and cheese rolls, washed down with a can of coke. 

After a good hour break it was onto Lovrin and then Cenad on the Romanian Hungarian border.  The border crossing was pretty straightforward, we just handed over the passports, stayed on our bicycles, and they come back and told us to move on, just like the cars in front of us.

 The above photo was taken as we entered Hungary.  Now we had to ride another 35kms to the town of Szeged.  I wasn't looking forward to another 35kms today, but it had to be done as tomorrow was a rest day, and I didn't have anymore Romanian money left.  The photo below is the border control for Romania Hungary at Cenad.  This is the smallest border crossing for the 2 countries and not used by many people.

It was now time to push on to our resting place for the next 2 days.  Everyone was tired and just wanted to get off the bikes.  We had covered over 540kms in the past 5 days and carrying over 40kgs including our bikes, had taken a lot out of us.

We slowly crept into Szeged and were amazed at the city before us.  It was so modern, with a cycle way, trams and cars that actually give way to you.  The photo above was taken on the major bridge leading into the town.  We continued on in search of accommodation, I found 2 young girls that had to be spoken to and they helped us with directions to a nice apartment complex.  We followed them on their bicycles and they helped translate what we wanted with the owner.  We are now staying at the Mosoly Apartment for 2 nights.  It costs 30 Euro a night and has 3 beds, Wifi, air con, Hungarian TV which is just fantastic, and a balcony looking over the street.

We quickly had a shower and walked down into the centre of town for dinner.  I'm really keen to go back down tomorrow in daylight and check out the scenery.  Peter and I walked back to the apartment and took it easy for the rest of the evening. I told Peter not to wake me until 10am, as I need my sleep.  I'm sure my cycling buddy Len knows all about how much sleep this little Aussie needs on tour.

Tomorrow is our rest day with little sightseeing, eating, cleaning the clothes and bikes.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.