18 مدينة - شاطئ - غسالة

Route: Danube Cycle Path 5 (Tekija-Negotin)

distance traveled: 83 km

Highlight of the day: there is a washing machine and a pool!

The day began in Tekija at the house of the supermarket owner. After we had already packed everything, she came out and offered us a coffee. We accepted gratefully, so she brought us a coffee with coffee grounds. Julius has already drunk this here before, but it's not for me. We talked with hands and feet and fragments of language with the woman and she told us about herself, her 2 children (22 and 20), that she actually comes from Belgrade and moved here before the children. We said that the area is very beautiful, she said that she doesn't perceive it anymore. Then she asked us a bit about ourselves, if we had siblings and so on. Considering that we didn't have a common language, it went surprisingly well!

After that we went to the supermarket where we replenished our water supplies and bought groceries. Then we started. The first 12 km were still through the national park, but now it was flat. Occasionally there were some wooded hills in the background. We actually overtook the Swiss from the previous day. But they were also driving at our pace. Then the landscape changed again, the whole surroundings became flat and we passed by the Djerdap dams and a lot of industry. In Kladovo we took a breakfast break with croissants and bananas. There was a kind of city park with a long circular bench and a great view of the Danube. The Danube was not as great as the day before due to the industry, but still beautiful.

Afterwards we initially went through Kladovo. Somehow all Serbian cities are the same, every place has a pedestrian zone or a center. Depending on the size of the place, this center varies. Kladovo was apparently not quite small, because here the pedestrian zone could be seen. The buildings here were old, not in particularly good condition, although not neglected. Instead, there are tables, chairs and umbrellas everywhere in the pedestrian zone and many people, no matter what time of day, even children. All of Serbia seems very lively. We pushed our bikes through, then we cycled out of the city again, where it went slightly uphill. I didn't notice that at all, but I had a very difficult time and had to be very annoyed with myself and my lack of strength. Julius calmed me down and showed me the incline. So I could come to terms with my 9 km/h. In between, we stretched and then followed the incline higher and higher. There on the "plateau", so at about 100 meters of altitude, we no longer saw the Danube as often. The path took us through smaller places, many fields (sunflowers and corn) and few avenues lined our path. We could have also cycled on the outside, along the Danube, but that would have been a detour of over 20 km. Finally, we returned to the Danube and followed a larger road. We wanted to take a small lunch break at a place and stocked up in one of these mini-stores. These stores are all the same, there are refrigerators with drinks in front of them: Cola, Fanta, water in huge bottles, and inside there are groceries. Today we varied a bit and bought a yogurt.

So we sat down on the beach of Brza Palanka with our lunch. We ate, enjoyed the wonderful beach, joked around and watched people. There were also families with children who splashed around and flew kites. We stayed there for a long time, about 1.5 hours. When we left, old acquaintances came to the beach, namely the French cyclists. They even went swimming there.

Initially, we followed the road again, then an unpaved path. At first, we were skeptical, but then it was actually quite pleasant to ride, except for a sandy section right at the beginning. Then we came to a section that was completely newly paved. Although there was still sand here at the moment, you could clearly see the construction work. They were even working on it at that moment. And a construction worker, about 55-60 years old, actually greeted us with "Servus!" Instantly likable, that guy. The path became more gravelly again, and we found ourselves somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but not on wide plains and fields, but in a densely overgrown area. Ferns poked into the path from the left, so no trees and bushes. And again and again, we caught a glimpse of the Danube on the right. And it constantly went up and down. That was cool. Finally, we cycled back on paved roads and through towns and soon arrived in Negotin. We cycled into the town, searched for the famous pedestrian zone and found it right away. It's like everywhere else: many restaurants, mixed with all sorts of shops and many chairs and tables in the square. There was even a bike shop. Because we hadn't booked accommodation yet and don't have internet in Serbia, we sat down in an ice cream parlor, enjoyed ourselves there and used the free Wi-Fi to search for hotels. We had already seen signs on the way, but we were early anyway.

We found a hotel, not far from the old town, and it was cool! It even had a pool! It consisted of several buildings, the woman at the reception spoke English, and showed us our room. First the wrong one, but that didn't matter. On the way, I saw a washing machine in a small room. I asked casually if we could also have our laundry done here. She first asked her boss, and he said we should just give him the clothes right away. We handed over our complete stinking laundry and they actually washed it all for us. In the afternoon/evening, we jumped into the pool, joked around, bathed, swam and simply enjoyed it. It was really nice. Also in the hotel with us: many policemen, including Czechs, who are apparently stationed here for border security, and the French. In the evening, after showering, we decided to eat in the hotel because there was apparently still some food available in the reception room and a thunderstorm had brewed. When we entered the room, someone was already sitting there, namely: the Swiss! So we were all there. Apparently, at this time, the kitchen had already closed, but they didn't want to send us away without food and offered us spaghetti. We thought that was a great idea. It turned out that these were actually intended for the policemen and were diverted for us. It was very very delicious, although a bit little. Afterwards, they even gave us a dessert made of choux pastry, which was too dry for me, but Julius liked it. We sat there for a while and chatted, also with the Swiss, who told us they had already heard about us from the Germans before they met us. In the room, we ate some of our snacks and then fell asleep soon after.