24 Romania - Wide - Lake landscape

Tuesday, 28.8.2018

Route: Danube Cycle Path 5 (Lipnita - Seimenii Mici)

Kilometers ridden: 76

Highlight of the day: the breakfast service, break on the Danube, evening walk by the lake, the bed

We woke up because we didn't sleep well and because we heard dogs and crickets and owls and roosters outside. So we got up, got ready, and the mayor and his wife prepared breakfast for us. They had all sorts of things, again the spreads, bacon, sausage, cheese, vegetables, white bread, etc. Natalia is very nice, but she talks a lot in the morning. Florin is more of the quiet type. Natalia packed something for us, a lunch package, rolls with cheese and ham. They then drove in front of us and showed us our way. Then we said goodbye very warmly. They gave us their email address so that we could keep in touch.

Then we really started and first went uphill. At some point a car honked and I was startled. Julius shifted faster and recognized Natalia and Florin and greeted them. In the next village we bought water (and a Kinder Bueno for me) and withdrew some Lei. The exchange rate is about 1 to 4. We continued, up and down hill. The landscape was very wide. It was just wide and far, almost nothing, only large fields and meadows, but also small lakes or Danube tributaries from time to time. But we didn't notice much. At some point we came back to the Danube, where we had our lunch break. There was a small stone wall by the Danube, behind it a meadow that steeply descended to the Danube. We sat down at another masonry precipice and ate our lunch package from Natalia and the peaches from the old man. There was another man there, but we sat further away and chilled a bit.

Afterwards we went uphill again - as it should be, but there was a great view of the Danube! Finally we arrived in Chernavoda, which is a big city. At first we went in completely the wrong direction, because the description said to turn right. But after about 2 km, we found that very strange, so we turned back. It turned out the intersection was new. But that didn't matter. We drove over a bridge over a Danube tributary. It was quite interesting: it was red and there was a Romanian and a European flag hanging at each pillar. Then we went through the village a bit. Chernavoda isn't really cool, but that doesn't matter. Then it went uphill again. In between, we stopped briefly, even though it was only 7 km to Seimenii Mici, and bought something to drink. We were rewarded with a great view of the Danube for the following climb, and then it was downhill all the way to Seimenii Mici.

The hotel there is huge! There is a very large restaurant with a large hall. Our room was also very nice. But besides us and another couple, there were hardly any people there. There was hardly any staff either, only 3 people. They asked us if we wanted to eat something today, and we said yes. On request, we decided against fish and for meat, and they offered us steak with fries and salad. Then we took a shower first. We could probably have eaten outside as well, but we missed it. The hotel was right next to a – probably artificial – lake, which was probably used for research or breeding. Overall, the resort was very nice, you could even go pedal boating, next to it was a horse pasture, but there was absolutely nothing going on. Anyway, we ate and then planned the route for the next few days, because we realized that there were hardly any more accommodations until Tulcea. After about 2 hours, we had planned everything. Then we took a walk around the lake, which was very nice, except for the mosquitoes. Fortunately, there were hardly any dogs here. In the room, we tried to get a German channel on the TV. Julius changed almost everything, so we ultimately couldn't get any channel anymore. Then we ate some cookies and relaxed and soon fell asleep.