Goodbye Danube

After driving about 2194 kilometers along the Danube, it was time to say goodbye today. Another 82 kilometers or so in Romania, one last time crossing the river by ferry, and then farewell!

To catch the 12:00 ferry, I got up early and set off at 7:30. The hotel owner had even left a plastic bag with two apples and vegan crackers by the exit – how kind of him!

When I started, the roads were wet, but it wasn't raining. That soon changed, though; it started to drizzle. It didn't bother me much; I just put on my rain jacket and left the rest of my rain gear in my bags. Again today, I had a tailwind and almost perfect roads all the way to the ferry. By 10:15, my bike computer already showed 70 km – more than half of today's planned route. And finally, I arrived at the port of Turnu Măgurele at 10:45, ticket already purchased, ready to depart.

The hotel owner had explained to me that the ferry runs regularly, not just at 7:30, 12:00, 16:00, and 19:00 as stated on the website. Since 16:00 was too late for me—I still had about 60 km to go—it was important to me to be there by 12:00. And perhaps the ferry does indeed run more frequently, for example, in the summer when it's busier, but today I waited until 12:00 because there was no ferry before then. So I'm glad I caught this ferry; otherwise, it might have been late. There's a mandatory break from 13:00 to 15:00, as also mentioned on the website. The wait was a bit chilly, as I had gotten a little wet, but luckily I was able to sit in a small cabin and kept warm with stretching exercises. I usually don't do enough stretching anyway.

After a 20-minute ferry ride in Bulgaria, the customs officer waved me through, while the two cars were apparently inspected more thoroughly. The excellent tailwind was now gone, as I was no longer heading due east, even though the wind was still blowing from the same direction. The roads were also significantly worse than in Romania, so progress was sometimes a bit bumpy and sluggish. But I had plenty of time. And while at the beginning of my trip I had to keep an eye on my heart rate, now I was automatically in a low heart rate zone and cruising along at a relaxed pace.

Before the only slightly longer climb of the day, I took another break, and after that it wasn't long before I was at my hotel – at 3:20 pm. I'd never been that early before.

After everything seemed a bit easier to understand in Romania – if you speak French, you can guess many Latin-derived words – I'm now a bit lost again, as many things are only written in Cyrillic script. And even if I can read it, I still can't guess the meaning, as was often the case with Romanian. At least the place-name signs and waymarkers are usually written in Latin script, so I can practice the alphabet at the same time – I already did that in Serbia, and I'll encounter the Cyrillic script in several more countries.