Day 66 - Niš to Pirot

 75.4 km - Total so far 3,636.30 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 66                        837 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Pirot, Serbia.

We left Niš at about 8:30 am and it was fairly easy as there was little traffic.

The route took us through a small village near Niš, where folks pile their cords of wood right on the road. From there we were onto a gravel road that followed the ridge line. The scenery was very nice.

A bit later, we found ourselves on another gravel road with many homes on either the side of the road. We think those were summer homes because today is Saturday and most parking spaces were empty. It was cool riding in the shade but some parts were pretty physically demanding.

Wood pile in front of house

Summer homes by the river

We got back on a paved road that followed the river. It was nice and flat and easy to make good speed. It was a river gorge with a lot of rock faces. This road is known as the tunnel road, for the 13 tunnels that you have to travel through. We had a similar experience riding through snow tunnels and sheds in BC. The longer tunnels are very dark and sharing one with a large truck is not pleasant.

Tunnel #2

I was psyching myself for the climb after lunch. Our riding application mapped out a relatively long but smooth climb to the top. It was not so smooth. I walked 2/3 of the 11 km to the top. Hélène waited for me quite a bit. Once you get over the top, you get a fast 5 km descent to a pack of dogs waiting for you at the gravel quarry. Hélène’s 115 db whistle stopped them dead in their tracks. By the time I rode by, they had forgotten what they had planned on doing. From there getting to Pirot was pretty much downhill again. 

What struck us today was the breath taking scenery. In Pirot, we are in a valley surrounded by mountains.

Our apartment is nicely situated near the town centre in an ugly building. The buttons in the elevators are odd in one elevator and even in the other. To get to our apartment we have to press 5th floor, get off the elevator, walk in the open to the other side of the building and walk down a twisty staircase to level 4.

Our building, red arrow points to our unit

View from level 5, apartment is just below

Hélène’s video will show the tunnels and ReLive will show the elevation gain for today.

Tonight is our last night in Serbia as tomorrow we cross the border into Bulgaria.

Day 65 - Krusevac to Niš

77.5 km - Total so far 3,560.90 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 65                        911 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Niš, Serbia.

We had a long day planned and we wanted to leave by no later than 8:15 am. We were well on our way to meet that deadline until one of our neighbours showed up for work. He had heard about us from a coworker who mentioned seeing an older guy walking up the stairs with a bicycle. That day, the coworker offered me help bringing the bikes upstairs. 

We had a good 15 to 20 minutes chat with this young civil engineer who worked for a small engineering management firm located in the building where our apartment was. These kinds of encounters are one of the reasons why we prefer apartment rentals over hotels.

It was pretty straightforward riding by the Turkish house we missed yesterday. From there it was straight out of Krusevac onto Rd 159 and our first climb. Today we had a good tailwind pushing us. Once in a while, our direction would change and we then got a crosswind or a nasty headwind. 

Turkish house

We kept picture taking and stops to a minimum so we could get to Niš early. Traffic got pretty busy as we neared the city but eventually we made it to a large green space, the Niš Fortress built by the Ottoman empire in the 18th century.

Old Istanbul gate

We headed to our apartment for a quick change of clothes, a stop at the grocery store and a bakery for sweets.

Our apartment is small and functional and okay for an overnight stay only. We are on the 7th floor but have no view. We only have skylights for ventilation and the ceiling is high. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Pirot and our final night in Serbia. The big challenge thereafter will be to cross into Bulgaria with as few Serbian Dinars (SRD) as possible.

Day 64 - Krusevac

 Total so far 3,483.40 km - 990 Left to pedal

We are still in Krusevac.

We looked at the weather forecast last night and it looked like rain for our ride to Niš. We decided that if there was no bright sunshine when we got up, we were staying here for the day. 

After breakfast, we were out for a walk to get groceries and stumbled onto the local farmers market. We checked out every stall and picked out the ones with the best looking strawberries and apricots. We could have also shopped for shoes, clothing, household items and meat. 

Market

The afternoon was spent planning for the next four days. Again we had to plan distances based on available accommodations. Initially there was going to be a short day of 38 km but now we have 2 days of 49 km. We will be in Sofia, Bulgaria, on June 02. 

We herd back from Henri (Paris) who we met a few days ago about his terrible experience having to push his bike for over a kilometer to get to the end of a very muddy trail. He had to go to a car wash to get his bike clean. 

Hélène made a post on the Sultans Trail Facebook group to identify the problem and our proposed work around plan. We think we can get off the problem trail sooner but we need to confirm if we can cross over/under the busy highway. The Google satellite image of the problem area doesn't help us much. Hopefully someone in the group familiar with the area can shed some light. 

Hélène's Facebook post on Sultans Trail group

Another option would be to reroute from Pirot and ride on the busier road. We have done it before and safely but it is not pleasant.

I think my second flat tire problem has been resolved. It would appear that my tube suffered a catastrophic failure at the seem. We found a tiny little hole on the inside of the tube that touches the rim. If there was a problem coming from the rim, I would have had another flat.

We went out to explore more of the neighborhood and see an old Turkish house that has been preserved. We got caught in the rain so we will check out the house on our way to Niš.

In lieu of Turkish house we you the mini MiniPani

At least 3 households in the backyard of our building

Day 63 - Jagodina to Krusevac

57.3 km - Total so far 3,483.40 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 63                        990 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Krusevac, Serbia.

We had a nice stay in Jagodina. Pretty straightforward to get out of town as our accommodations were about 300 meters from the route for the day. 

We started with a nice climb through a very nice village on the outskirts of Jagodina. Most if not all of the homes were well looked after and nothing we saw needed repairs. We got to say the universal “Allo” to a large number of people waiting for the bus. We got lots of “Hellos” back.

We got to ride on a not too busy country road almost to Krusevac. We rode through a lot of villages which kept it interesting. We even stopped in a village to buy lunch. We usually picnic but not today. We had burek and Turkish coffee.

I am sure you heard Hélène talk about fencing around properties. After observations over the last few days, we believe that a new tendency is taking hold in respect to property fences. We now see a lot more

“Chromed Fencing”. Yes, people now use chromed fence components probably for the lower maintenance requirements.

Fencing supplies

Chrome fence

We stopped to get water from a roadside fountain. It was pretty busy so the water had to be good. 

Busy water fountain

Our least pleasant moments occurred when we had to cross a small narrow bridge. We decided to walk our bikes on the sidewalk. It was so so when cars crossed but the whole bridge would shake when trucks went by. I think some trucks might have been a tad overweight. 

Narrow bridge

As you might hear in Hélène’s video, we used an overpass sidewalk that narrowed to half width as you neared the top. To make it even narrower, the large bolts stuck out from near the top. I got snagged by a bolt and it felt like I had torn my pants.

Narrow section with bolts

As we got to Krusevac, we got to ride on a large sidewalk that gave us a nice break from riding in city traffic. We finally made it to a purpose built bike path and headed to a coffee shop to where we enjoyed a warm Nes Kafa and contacted our host for tonight.

Nes Kafa

We have a nice apartment on the 3rd floor of the building. No elevator like yesterday we had to haul everything including the bikes. There are stairs in the apartment that lead to the fourth floor bedroom. 

The next city, Niš, is 80+ kilometres away and the forecast calls for heavy rain tomorrow. We decided back in Canada that we wouldn’t spend an entire day cycling in the rain. We had to do that often when we cycled across Canada and we said never again. 

Our hostess took her listing off on Booking for tomorrow night so that we have a place to stay if tomorrow morning the weather is as expected.

That’s all for today. Happy to see the “Left to pedal” down to 3 digits 

A link on the area we cycled in today.

Day 62 - Velika Plana to Jagodina

51.3 km - Total so far 3,426.10 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 62                        1,047 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Jagodina, Serbia, on the 6th floor with a view.

When I got up this morning, I just did not have it in me to look forward to today’s ride on that busy road again.  Turns out that Hélène felt the same way.  Had we not had a deadline to meet, we just would have had another rest day.  

We knew that after about 2 kilometres, we would make a turn on a quieter road for about 8 kilometres. What we did not realize is that once we got to the highway overpass, most of the vehicles on the road took to the highway. It got pretty quiet on the road.

That road took us through many villages and it was a lot more satisfying to see homes and people without the constant buzzing of cars and trucks. We had a tail wind so we got from one village to another fairly quickly. We even got to stop for apricots.

We had one big hill to climb. I managed to get to the top without walking by taking rest breaks so my fitness is getting better. Hélène’s fitness is also getting better so she now has longer waits for me at the top. 

We had a speedy descent to Jagodina. We were really impressed by the place from the get go. Few of those horrible Soviet era buildings, colourful older construction and some nice looking modern buildings.

We found a nice spot in the commercial district for lunch and I got into a pretty long hand waiving and smiling session with a guy who spoke no English. He left with a smile so it was all good.

We got to our apartment at about 2:15 pm and that gave us a chance to relax a bit. We went shopping for fruits at the tiny neighbourhood stores that you find everywhere in Serbia. This was followed by a visit to the nearest supermarket to find the elusive ‘powdered dairy creamer’ for our coffee. We had been looking for a while and we found success.

Very modern, could be in Ottawa

We are very happy with our well appointed accommodations for the night. It’s like a big hotel room with A/C, kettle and fridge. It’s on the sixth floor of an apartment building and we have a terrific view of the surrounding hills. What’s incredible is our cost for tonight is $23.98 CAD. You can’t get a campsite for that price anywhere in Canada.

View from our room

We had planned to go for dinner at a slightly upscale restaurant recommended by a gentleman from Paris who now lives here. The place was closed. We ended up stopping at a tiny little place with outside seating called “Food Corner”. On the advice of the husband and wife owners, we had sendviči (sandwich) beef for Daniel and sausages for Hélène on homemade buns, a side order of wedge fries and a free homemade dessert. A really cheap ($16.27 CAD) and tasty meal that was very good.

Food Corner, where we got supper

Day 61 - Smederevo to Velika Plana

 52.6 km - Total so far 3,374.8 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 61                        1,097 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Velika Plana, Serbia.

Not much to report on the ride other than there was no puncture running the spare tire. I spent an hour last night with the problem tire and could not find anything that could have punctured the tube. I went over the inside and outside of the tire and nothing. I’ve done this before taking an hour to find a tiny wire, like the short bits on a staple, but this time nothing. I hope I get this sorted before we get back to Canada. 

The ride up to lunch reminded me of Northern Ontario with ‘up the hill down the hill’ except that there were not as many hills today and you can see a lot more in Serbia.

We are in a small hotel for the night and we have decided to have supper in their restaurant. Instead of going out to pickup groceries, we decided to right away deal with route planning for the next couple of days. The offer for accommodations is getting pretty sparse and we have to adjust to that. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Jagodina which at 50.3 km is short of our target of at least 60 kilometres per day. 

Flower bushes we enjoyed today

Day 60 - Belgrade to Smederevo

61.5 km - Total so far 3,322.2 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 60                        1,146 Left to pedal

We are safe and secure in Smederevo, Serbia.

We left the apartment at 8:15 to get a good head start on the traffic. Belgrade is a big city and although they have bike paths, there is no guarantee that everything will connect seamlessly.

Our first stop was the Orthodox Church. It’s a huge building and the interior is spectacular.

With the quick church visit done, we back on the road. It was a long climb getting out of Belgrade but it was relaxed. Once we were outside of city limits, we had to contend with much faster traffic. We still got plenty of clearance when passed but the speed of the cars is what gets to you. Our route today offered a few opportunities to take less busy side roads and even abandoned roads. The scenery was at times spectacular but difficult to capture on an IPhone. 

We had climbs before and after lunch. We also had to repair another flat. I thoroughly checked the inside if my tire to find what punctured my tube and found nothing. I used  the spare tire today, a new tube and no problems so far. The plan is to re-inspect the tire later today and hopefully find something.

At lunch, we met Henri a fellow touring cyclists from France who is also following the Sultans Trail. He started in Vienna and he has not yet decided how far he intends to ride for the day. He is a lot quicker than we are. We wish him well in his travels. 

Our lunch spot

Hélène decided that we needed a large bag of local cherries to take along with us  and got one from a street vendor.

Entering Smederevo we did a quick tour of the Fortress.  A couple more climbs and we were home. The owner, Marko, offered us drinks on the house and a nice chat. 

Hélène walking her bike up

We had a nice walk to the grocery store and on the way back we stopped at the local dépanneur looking for bananas. In the process, we discovered that the little dépanneur on the side of the road was very well stocked. These dépanneurs were everywhere in Belgrade. 

We will sleep well tonight and tomorrow we are heading towards Velika Plana.

Marko in the background

Day 59 - Belgrade

Total so far 3,260.70 km

We had our quiet day in Belgrade. First order of business was go to a bike shop to pick up some bicycle tubes, a few patches and light lubricating chain oil.

Why new tubes. When I had custom wheels built for our bicycles, I made sure to order wheels that accept both types of tube air valves. Before leaving I bought tubes with the fat air valves. When I tried to fit those fat valves to the wheel when we repaired the flats, they wouldn’t fit. Yes, I should have checked but I believed that I was purchasing a quality, Made in the USA, product built to specifications. The wheels were sold unable to accept a Schrader valve (same valve as found on motor vehicles). 

The owner of the bike shop gave me a free bottle of oil. He does bike touring as well and got all excited when we mentioned our itinerary.

We did a bit of walkabout. We saw very nice places, not so nice places and everything in between. We saw bike paths that just end when crossing the road might get you killed.

The path ends where the woman is walking

Lots of people live here in Belgrade. Google mentions close to 2 million many of whom were also walking around this morning.

We had a nice bagel lunch in a small cafe where the young daughter occupies herself while mom and dad are busy running the business.

We enjoy staying in an apartment versus going to a hotel as we get to see how people live and where they live. We see all kinds of people like us and others who are not as fortunate. We found that younger people are more interested in helping us. It might be because they are more familiar with technologies like Google translate. We walked by the Nikola Tesla Museum where a large group was getting back into their tour bus. Do they know that people are rummaging through the garbage here in Belgrade and had been for a couple of hours. They probably don’t know and that’s okay. We know because we ran into those people a few times.

Red arrow points to our balcony

Tonight we went to a local restaurant for supper. We seemed to have gotten accustomed to smokers everywhere.

Busy interior

Tomorrow we leave Belgrade and the Danube when we head southeast towards Smederevo. We hope it won’t rain first thing because it is not pleasant to be splashed in the face by buses driving quickly through big puddles. They might have done great things in Belgrade but water drainage does not appear to be one of them.

Day 58 - Slankamenački (Near Beška) to Belgrade

 61.8 km - Total so far 3,260.70 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 58 

We are safe, secure and drying out in Belgrade, Serbia.

We had a great start to the day. We had a super breakfast with strong Turkish coffee, eggs, homemade jams, etc.

Breakfast

The plan was to bike (Hélène) and walk up (Daniel) the hill without panniers on the bikes and wait for Hasna to bring them up by car. Getting to the top was easier than either of us had anticipated.

Our host Hasna

We got back on the route we had left yesterday and made good progress towards Belgrade. We made a stop on route to get picnic stuff.

We passed a few villages but couldn’t see any nice places to stop. We were now on a narrow country road, having given up on a nice places to stop when we stumbled on the place you see in the picture below.

Lunch spot

Our narrow paved country road turned into gravel and eventually led us to a dirt road through grain fields and lots of poppies. Minutes after the picture below, our bicycles came to a dead stop.

Poppies

It rained last night and that dirt road had a lot of clay in it. The clay stuck to the thread on our tires, then caked on the tires and all that clay on the tires jammed against our fenders. The wheels were jammed solid. We would clean the tires, roll the bikes 20 feet or so and everything would jam against our fenders. It was only after we decided to push the bikes through the edge if the grain fields did we make progress. It took us 1:15 to cover a distance of a bit more than a kilometre.

As we got near the paved road, Hélène noticed I had a flat tire. We stopped to fix that. At the spot we stopped, Hélène’s tire found the cutest little nail and now we had two flats to fix.

As we were getting ready to ride again, the rain started. That delay in the field and flat repair now had us in rush hour traffic on a busy road. 

We eventually made it onto a less busy road in Belgrade. We found the bicycle trail system difficult to navigate and found ourselves unable to cross a busy road by using a pedestrian tunnel because of the stairs with no bicycle ramp. 

Hélène’s RideWithGPS also had issues with the rain. The heavy rain falling on the phone would cause a reaction as if Hélène had touched it. We had planned to be nice and dry at the apartment by 3:30 pm but instead we got here well past 5:30 cold, wet and a tad miserable. That is why you don’t have a end of day ride picture. 

Day 57 - Novi Sad to Slankamenački (Near Beška)

51.6 km - Total so far 3,198.90 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 57 

We are safe and secure in Slankamenački.

It felt great getting back on the bikes this morning. Hélène’s route planning for today made it pretty easy to ride through Novi Sad, get to the bridge and cross the Danube.

Once across the Danube there were no more bike paths, no marked lane on the road. We were just two slow vehicles trying to safely make our way towards Belgrade. It was a bit rock and roll and a lot more challenging than riding the dykes. No photos or videos of the 4km climb.

Once in a while, the route took us off the main road into villages to do a bit of sightseeing. 

4 Lion fountain

We had a chance to do a bit of climbing, the road goes up to a 5% grade for 4 kms. Just before the top, our route veered right onto a gravel road and then onto a nice quiet country road. Two dogs decided to give us a welcoming but a few blows on the whistles made them forget why they were in the middle of the road.

View after the 4km climb

We stopped for ice cream at a café grill just across the street from a school. We could feel a positive vibe to this village. The café we were in was expanding, something we had not seen in other villages. There is also a new looking supermarket in the village, Beška.

Ice cream in Beška

Outside the supermarket, we were approached by a couple who asked if we spoke English. “Of course we do, we are from Canada and speak English and French.”

Turns out they were a couple from Kitchener. They immigrated from Serbia to Canada to give their children a chance at higher education. They are in Serbia visiting their son, who lost his Canadian job during COVID, but who found one in Serbia. Their son works as an electrical engineer. 

After the supermarket, it was all about getting to our accommodation for the night. We pulled off the road for a quick break at a spot where 2 guys were in a pick-up truck.  One guy came out with two bottles in hand and offered them to us. He would not take no for an answer so we got ourselves two bottles of lemonade. 

If you look at the route peddled, you will see a nasty little climb to our home for the night. What you don’t see is the 800 meters road we had to go down to get to the final destination. This road is straight down and has a grade if at least 20%. Its gonna be a quick warm up tomorrow morning.

The place is great and offers a superb view of the, you guessed right, the Danube with hills in the background.

Our hostess treated us coffee, cup cakes and locally grown cherries . We communicate using a translation app.

A warm welcome today

Day 56 - Novi Sad

Total so far 3,147.30 km

We slept in this morning and it almost felt weird. We decided that we would take a walk to the town centre and the more touristy places. It took us about 45 minutes. 

Our walk reaffirmed our belief that Novi Sad is not a place we would like to return for a visit. Between our place and town centre, we saw many more buildings like ours, with graffiti on the first two floors and an un-kept appearance. 

The town centre had buildings with similar architecture to what we have seen in other cities. What I found interesting is that the Petrovaradin Fortress (we did not see or visit as it is on other side of the Danube) was designed by a guy named Vauban. He is the same person that designed the town of Neuf-Brisach in Alsace. We visited Neuf-Brisach on Day 20.

Spoke to an American who liked my shirt and admitted voting for Trump because he just could not vote for Harris. He doesn’t hold the guy that holds the office in high regards. I am so glad I bought that T-shirt for the trip.  

We got to see the Synagogue, one of the four in Serbia. They have a small display outside that commemorates the events of April 26, 1944 when all Jews from Novi Sad were deported.

Synagogue

The area we are staying in, Liman, is part of a socialist development effort that started in the 1960s and was completed in the 1990s.

There are many mini marts, this one caught our attention.

Tomorrow we head out towards Belgrade about 110 kms away. We will take two days to do that distance. 

 

Day 55 - Mladenovo to Novi Sad

62.4 km - Total so far 3,147.30 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 55 

We are safe and secure in Novi Sad.

We left a little later than usual because we only had 60+ kms to ride.

Last night was a bit of a disappointment over what we had the night before. We realize that we are travelling in the off season so things might not be “top notch” but when you have to contact the host and tell them we would like a toilet seat as sitting on porcelain is a tad cold. We got a toilet and also the hot water turned on. 

We had a great ride up to Backǎ Palanka and decided to have a quick stop. As Hélène was doing a search on her phone, this kind stranger asked if we needed help. Yup we sure did. She entered the name of the bakery that everyone goes too and off we went.  

We both should have had our prescription glasses on LOL

We ordered ‘burek’ and coffee. We first discovered burek in Bratislava. The Serbian burek is a bit different but still pretty tasty. We have already found a burek place for lunch tomorrow.

Burek

While we were having our burek who would show up but our good samaritan. Turns out Lilianne is French from Paris who married a Serb. We chatted in french from then on. She prefers Serbia over France because she feels safer here than she did in Paris. Once the burek gone it was back on the road with cars for a good 11 or so kms. 

After the road we were back on a dyke, then a bike path, then the road again and once in Novi Sad it back on a proper bike path again. We got to our home for tonight at a reasonable 2:35 pm.

Nice bachelor apartment on the sixth floor with a great view of other really ugly buildings.  

Building we are calling home for 2 nights

We went out for groceries and ran into a bunch of whistle blowing demonstrators blocking rush hour traffic.

Demonstrators

We had a wonderful time at the grocery store and learned how to use a different weigh and tag machine. We are now somewhat competent on four different machines.

So much effort for one orange

Forecast for tomorrow is rain and we don’t mind. We also get to sleep in and have barek for lunch.