Day 18: Tue 14 Jun - Beska to Belgrade (capital)

Ride: 70km

We were all looking forward to a shorter day. The combination of hills with heavy traffic yesterday seemed to take its toll, especially when the vehicles are large and / or fast and driven by mad Serbs.

However the sun is shining and the Danube is a picture this morning so all's goodly. 

Ouch; a 14% climb out of the Danube where the motel was located in order to rejoin the route. Not the ideal start for the day, but we all survived ok to face another day in the saddle. 

The ride today was mainly on quiet country roads through fairly unattractive villages and towns. Nothing worth stopping for, except the coffee so we headed for the capital. 

The last 15km into Belgrade was on a main road with unpleasant heavy traffic. To add to that the roads here are in a bad state of repair so you have to concentrate on not riding into a nasty pothole. We've decided that the road repair crews that are so common place back home are nonexistent here. In stark contrast to this on entering the outskirts of the city we were able to join a beautiful bike path / walking promenade which gave us lovely views over the Danube, dozens of floating restaurants and city. Our accommodation tonight is a old guest house type place, the front door of which opens onto a pedestrian restaurant street.  Not far to walk to find our tucker tonight.

Belgrade view across the Danube

Postcard type picture from Belgrade