Day 29- Novi Sad to Belgrade- 92.3 kms

25 Jun

Well after a good nights rest which was partly interrupted with my mobile going off with cold calls from Australia trying to sell cheaper electricity contacts.... there aught to be a law against these idiots doing these cold calls....

Anyway the day started with the normal 5.30 am wake up. We organised breakfast from the supermarket the previous evening with muesli and jogurt complimented with orange juice.

After a good feed we were off at about 6.30am and although the weather looked threatening it was not raining.... thank god!

The first few kms out of Novi Sad were on good roads through some lovely villages and we were in good spirits after the challenges of yesterday...

Then Cycle Travel took us off the main road on to an unmade road and then it got muddy and there were big puddles across the road and all of this was for 10kms. At one stage we passed through a construction site of a new motorway where they were building overpass bridges and the mess on the road was terrible.... needless to say my bike was a muddy mess again, the wheels were clogged up and my shoes and socks were wet and muddy.... to make matters worse the mozzies were everywhere if you stopped.

After negotiating this we were lucky to find a local soccer ground with a tap which we used to clean the bikes and our shoes to proceed further.....

From there the weather seemed to brighten up and the roads certainly improved

Talking of the weather .... although is has been humid for most of the days since Switzerland, the temperatures have been in the high teens for the mornings then getting to the mid to high 20’s in the afternoon... occasionally we get in the the early 30’s. This is why we get started early to miss riding in the heat and humidity.

The ride in to Belgrade was very simple as the hostel we reserved was near the centre of the old part of the city.

Arriving at the hostel was at about 2.30 pm which was good timing for me as I needed to see a dentist as one of my teeth had fallen apart and although it was not painful I was concerned something might go wrong in the back blocks of Serbia or Rumania and I would be in strife.

After waityan hour for the check in we were shown our room which is in an old apartment building and the style could be described as 1950’s Soviet complete with graffiti and old style lifts....

The cost for the night for us both including towels was 17 Euros ( approx 30 Aussie)!!!

The shower facilities are located in a bath with no shower curtain so the only way to shower properly is to sit in the bath and wash. I think a few of the other guests have tried to shower standing up with the result of water being flung all around the room.... all fun!

After a shower I made my way to a local dentist I located on line near the hostel..... well the street where the dentist was located had some very seedy shops and I wondered whether I had made a good choice. To my absolute delight the dental care studio called Proestetik was very professional and the standard of the rooms were at least as good as in Collins street Melbourne.

The dentist Dr Mihailo Radojevic spoke very good English and did a great job with my temporary filling. The cost was about $50. He and his nurse were very interested in our trip and wished us both well for the days ahead

Having fixed my teeth it was time to have a wander around Belgrade and have some dinner. It would be fair to say the Belgrade we saw was either being cleaned up physically or was in need of a good clean up.

A lot of work is being done on the construction front and in 5-10 years it should be something special.

After dinner and the obligatory ice cream we headed back to the hostel to bed at about 8.30 pm

Today was a better day of riding and I got my teeth fixed up so all is well....

Now for the photos

Early morning on the Danube at Novi Sad