I know I was going to follow the Danube (Donau) route for most of the way but I was not sure what to picture. The first day I follow a dirt track right on the river. There are small weekend houses and the whole thing has a beach feel to it, complete with fishing shacks and sandy beaches.
(Blagi! If you read this: I must have passed the weekend house but never saw the fishing lake. Once I realized this, I was at least 5km further. Sorry I missed your dad's wine!!)
The next day the scenery becomes truly spectacular. Breathtaking really. Or is that the 5km stretch at a 10% grade? The road is in a canyon and the cliffs are enormous (this gorge is called The Iron Gate and the Danube gets to its narrowest point here). The tunnels are unnerving: please remember I am not a very gutsy woman. They are clearly marked so I know I have 17 more to go. There is no shoulder and little traffic.
And sometimes there is a different kind of distraction: a castle built in the rocks or the hugest pig I have ever seen, dead or alive.
It looks beautiful along the Danube - in some ways it sounds just as I pictured it, in other ways not. Maybe it feels a little bit like East Bohemia, with all of the weekend cottages?
ReplyDeleteThe tunnels sound unnerving for sure, but it's funny to think you don't see yourself as a "gutsy woman" as you are riding solo across Europe! :)