Romania

I must have overslept this morning. When I got up it was already half past nine. It didn't seem that long, but ok, at least I felt refreshed. By the time I set off it was half past ten. I actually wanted to leave a little earlier to avoid being as tight as yesterday.

But today I had a good start. At first there were a few individual raindrops, but it never really rained and then it stopped completely. In no time I was at the Vidin-Calafat Danube bridge and after crossing this giant structure, which opened in June 2013, I was already in Romania. Later I learned that the Danube is 1 km wide here. Nothing left of the small river like I had encountered in Germany.

After crossing the bridge I had a strange feeling about my rear wheel again - and the air pressure was actually a bit low. I hoped that pumping in some air would be enough and then continued driving.

752 After I briefly looked at Calafat, we continued on the same road to Bechet and the kilometer markers showed me how far it was. Things went quickly because I had a pretty strong tailwind. But after a short time I noticed again that I didn't have enough air in the rear tire. Yesterday's repair was probably not successful after all. I also had an uneasy feeling. The small bus shelter on the side of the road came in handy: I ​​could set myself up easily here, would be protected even if it rained, and could devote myself to my rear wheel. This time, however, I didn't patch the tire, but instead replaced it directly with a spare tire, which I also had with me.

From now on it went even faster towards the east, because the tailwind was still constant and the tires were now both full of air. So I almost flew over the asphalt because the roads were also very good. And even though it was a normal public road and not a bike path, it was pleasant to drive because the traffic was very limited and the few drivers overtook at a good distance.

After four hours of riding, my bike computer was already showing more than 100 kilometers covered. And shortly afterwards I was in Bechet, almost exactly at 4 p.m. local time, which is 3 p.m. in Switzerland. It's nice that there are days like that when things just run by themselves.

By the way, I later found out that I hadn't slept that long after all, the only thing I had missed was the change from winter to summer time. So within 24 hours I “lost” two hours. All the better that I arrived at 4 p.m. and can now recover well for tomorrow's stage.