Over the Danube and onto Bucharest.

 Sleeping in the tent for the 2nd time on tour was well worth it.  We had plenty of security at the guesthouse and was never concerned about our gear being knocked off.  We pulled down the tents and loaded up the bikes for the next leg of our journey, Bucharest, Romania.  But first it was off for breakfast. For 5 Lev which is about $3 Aussie dollars we had cheese, tomato, bread, coffee or tea, eggs and juice.  What a bargain. 

We rolled out of the English guesthouse around 8.30am for the 6km ride to the border crossing.  One thing I do have to say is that the road to the border is a disgrace.  No real road signs and potholes everywhere.  As soon as we got to the border I noticed at least 100 trucks lined up to enter Romania.  We were not required to produce our passports at border control, and told to just ride over the bridge to Romania. 

The line of trucks spread from the Bulgarian side of the border, up over the bridge and down into border control.  As we made our slow trip across the bridge I noticed a police car coming up from the rear on the wrong side of the road.  I thought why not just follow him, the drivers might think we're important and are getting a escort over the bridge.  We just sat behind the police car all the way to the border.  We did manage to take one photo of the bridge crossing.

Once on the Romanian side we had to go through customs and then we were on our way.  As soon as we got on the road and away from customs the road opened up to a dual highway with a good shoulder to ride on.  The road was very flat with a mild headwind thrown in for good measure.  We've travelled over 750kms on tour and everyday we've had a headwind.  Not fair.  Today we clocked up 76kms.

The road to Bucharest the capital of Romania is straight as far as the eye can see, and goes on forever into the distance.  We had a couple of small climbs today, but nothing too challenging for us athletes.  At times I rode ahead of Mary and Maurice as I needed to stretch out every now and then. 

We stopped at one small shop for lunch and loaded up on bread and salami and some muesli bars.  I felt pretty good today considering how far we've ridden in the past 11 days.

With 20kms to go before we reached Bucharest we regrouped for the final run into town.  We rode straight into the centre of Bucharest, over the tram lines, dodging buses, cars, motorcycles and trams.  It was a hassle to find a good place to stay without paying over 100 Euros. We managed to find the Hotel Tripoli which costs $33 Euro a double with breakfast.  For dinner we walked around town and managed to find a nice restaurant.  We pigged out on everything, from coke, burger, deserts and cappuccino.

Walking back to the hotel in an unknown city at 10pm at night is not the smartest thing I've done on tour thus far, but at least I did it with 3 other Aussies.   There's no riding for the next 2 days.  We intend to have a good look around the city and take a rest, after all, that's what a rest day is all about.

 Just a photo showing how close we were to our destination for the day.  2 rest days to follow.

Peter and I having a photo taken whilst crossing the Danube River from Bulgaria into Romania. 

Until tomorrow, safe riding.