Shanghai

So, what now?
We are sitting in a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai which does the distance in four hours instead of one month on our bikes.
After Ulan-Baatar it felt like the finish sprint. On the mongolian side there was not much to see but the Gobi desert which turned out to be a bit like London in autumn. No subway but the Transsiberian railway passing us from time to time, less people, more horses but more rain days than we had in the whole of Kazakhstan and Russia together.
The feeling that it was a finishing sprint was helped by the perfect roads in Mongolia and China and the fact that we desperately needed a shower since we only found one river in China which looked clean enough to take a bath. This really boosted our self-confidence, to go to as many chinese roadside restaurants as possible. Not that we didn't go before, but we felt a little more civil.
China also was the first country,for me as a vegetarian, where I had hardly any problems finding something to eat. My secret was to say "tofu" "doufou" "toufu" or "dofou" until they understood that I wanted something with tofu,which always turned out to be very nice.
After 10 days in China, sometimes spectacular, sometimes with so much smog that we looked like coal workers and felt like chain-smokers, but always well fed, we arrived in Beijing.

When we arrived in Mongolia we were Kings of the road, when we arrived in Ulan-Baatar we felt simply like kings, when we arrived in Beijing we felt like nothing could touch us.
We were soon tought better by the traffic which came quiet close, still our egos were bigger than the trucks, which I think, helped to get us to our meeting point with our contact, Clemens. Without the slightly-bigger-than-normal-ego, we would probably still be waiting at an intersection, hoping for someone to let us pass instead of just telling yourself that you made it to Beijing on a bicycle and letting the ego push the traffic away.(At this place wanted to put a analogy to Moses, who parted the traffic but we had no egyptians following us, so it would have been improper)
So after 5 days staying with Luweng and Clemens, who helped us with everything we had to organize and showed us the best places to eat(thanks!), we have seen some very nice places in Beijing and our egos shrank back to a more normal size. If you do not believe that, well, like I said, nothing can touch us.
So what now?

On the onboard tv they show an ad, for a documentation about a guy who rode his bike from Beijing to Shanghai in 18 days. It is nice to relax in the comfy seat and watch the scenery pass by and to know that we will arrive at exactly 01:92 pm, that is now.

Look, don't touch

Sometimes I wish it was the other way around, then again, it is mostly old men looking at us. And if I imagine them touching, with the same intensity they sometimes stare at us, I am glad they only want to look.
Here in ulan baatar things are different. There are not only old men staring at us, trying to read our souls but a lot of beautiful women. Well not exactly staring at us but catching a quick glance at the two guys with the huge bicycles (which look a little like we are collecting trash with all the empty bottles and things we just strapped on top because by now they are too lazy to stow them away properly) sitting by a fountain ,looking lost and like they were ripped out of their natural habitat.
I am not sure if I want to know, if there is something like pity in their quick glances or just the curiosity towards something, that doesnt belong by that fountain. (I mean everybody would look at a slightly damaged peacock in the steppe or a donkey painted in bright colours with a lazy eye. Lazy eye and damaged, because we have yellow-pink front wheels right now.)
Maybe they want to talk to them but are not exactly sure how they would react. (I for my part would not try to talk to that colourful donkey, it might bite or just look at you; and who would want to be seen talking to a strange donkey sitting by a fountain!?)
My favourite answer to the question at hand is, that they find these strange guys somehow appealing, view them as a possible adventure and secretly want to get on that bike and ride with them into the sunset.
They could also just be looking for the source of that strange smell and then be kind enough not to stare.
The soul-reading old men might have the same thoughts as the beautiful women. I dont know and it is kind of pointless the write about it at this place.
What I do know, is that I prefer the quick glances to the soul-reading stares. Not because i dont like being stared at, but because I like to steal quick glances myself. At whom, I will not tell.
By the way, tomorrow we will be going to the "miss mongolia" show.
Like two old men.
Looking, not touching.

Altai- the short-version

The Landschaft
Since we left Barnaul we have, more or less been in the altai-region and the further we went, the more beautiful it became.
The first few days in the altai we had mostly pine forests and big rivers which were crystal clear, you could drink their water without problems.
Later on, the rivers became smaller but not less drinkable and the forests became thinner and opened up to green fields. The landscape also became more like a real mountain range, with painfully steep climbs and downhill parts which were a lot of fun because the road we are on is fantastic.
But the best part was when we first saw the first snow capped mountains in the distance.
By then the big rivers were behind us and we had mostly smaller streams which were, without exception, ice cold. Really nice to look at but if you actually have to wash yourself in them, they became a lot less nice.
The last part of our altai tour on the russian side, was on a series of plateaus on an altitude between 1500 and 2000 meters. There were even fewer trees, fewer rivers but beautiful mountains in the distance and a very rocky landscape with hills in all shapes and colours. Really cool.
Now at our last day in russia on our bikes, we are by a small, very nice river and really glad, how the altai part of our trip went.
Even though we are in the mountains, we only had one day of rain.
If I would have to say which part of our whole tour was the most beautiful, I would probably say the altai.
We hope Mongolia will be equally great.

The people
we met in the last days were mostly people who were part of the Mongol Rally, a Rally from London to Ulaan Baatar with old cars. Each day we had between two and nine of them passing us on the road. The only time we had the chance to talk to them was when they had to stop to fix something or took a break.
We also met two really nice couples, one from turkey ,one from Germany and France, who were not in such a hurry and could tell us a lot about what will await us in Mongolia. The roads won't be as bad as we feared and the longest stretch with no possibility to stock on supplies and water will be about 200 km. So hopefully everything should be fine.

The food
was exceptionally good since we discovered that we could make our own potato salad, which led to Cedric being on a mayonnaise-diet.
Also we discovered, that fried onions with honey, pasta and olive oil (in that exact order) make a fast and delicious meal.
No matter what Mongolia throws at us, as long we have onions honey (right now we have 1,5kg in case there is none in Mongolia) and pasta, we are fine.

Barnaul

Today we arrived in barnaul in the altai region. In the last days we recovered from a little low, first Cedric than me and now we are back to our top form(nevertheless a little scared from the altai mountains... :-) ).
On the way here we met a lot of people among them two germans travelling with a 20 year old vw polo from germany to mongolia.
Yesterday celebrated the birthdays of Ruslan and Alexey who demonstrated his rally driving skill on the dirt road and also let us have a go in his russian like-a-muscle-car-lada.
Like always we met them by coincidence by a lake where we had our campspot. Also there was a huge swing into the lake which was great even though we still havent managed to do the backflip we always went for. (For pictures check out Cedrics post: http://abkuerzungindiemongolei.blogspot.com/2014/08/und-wie-ist-das-uns-jetzt-noch-mal.html )
Tomorrow we will continue towards mongolia where we hopefully will arrive in about two weeks. Somehow I am really excited that suddenly Mongolia is so close.

Back in Russia again

Our last days in Kazakhstan were really good. We had great campspots and always tailwind. One of the best spots was at a small river where we hung a rope from a tree to swing into the water. It was great fun. Because of the tailwinds we always arrrived quiet early and hhad a lot of time for reading, we also started to actually use the guitars we have with us. Mostly Cedrics guitar, since mine is completely broken by now. Surprisingly it is a good Cajon substitute, hence not completely useless. The border crossing from Kazakhstan to Mongolia was no problem. We could skip the line and were waived right through. It's great with the bikes, no waiting in line like all the other normal folk. 

On our first day in Russia, Cedric took a involuntary mud bath, which was a lot of fun, at least for me. Luckily we met Arman the next day. He stopped us on the road and invited us to his parents house with the words: "moi dom (my house) shashlik". The evening was ike a lot of fun, good food and Vodka. The night didn't end with Cedric's bike ride, but unfortunately there are no more photos. So some of it might be lost to living memory.

Astana and beyond

We made it to Astana by bike. For me it is one of the milestones on our journey and we are really content with ourselves.
Astana itself is a little bit like disneyland for architects with a lot of glass and marble and some really impressing architecture.
When a fellow traveller in our hostel asked after the old-town, the manager just laughed and said: "no old-town, new town". Everything in the city center has been built in the last 15 years and the surroundings of the city are one huge construction ground. It is not my favourite city but I am really glad that I've seen it. These hyper-modern and monumental buildings are such an enormous contrast to the rest of kazakhstan we have seen so far, espeacially the south of Kazakhstan where there weren't even any proper roads.
After we spent two nights in a hostel and one night in our tent with a view of the skyline of Astana, because our tent is much more comfortable than the hostel beds were, we picked up our long awaited package from Germany with new saddle for me and new tent poles and left Astana towards Pavlodar.

Water and the beauty of unspectacularity

Since we left Kostanay about onen week ago, nothing spectacular has happened. The roads were good, we always had campspots which were at least ok and the wind was never too strong. Basically it was really nice.
Also the landscape is pretty unspectacular, mostly green corn fields to the horizon on the one side of the road and on the other the railway from kostanay to astana. The only thing which was a bit unpleasant is the heat. It is impossible to stay in the tent later than 9:00in the morning because it gets like an oven in there. During the day we usually have around 35°C. So we each drink our 4 liters each easily. Despite the heat we made good progress towards Astana and because of the good roads and wind we are not as tired in the evenings. What also helps is, that we found a lake or a river each night. Sometimes big enough for swimming or at least to rinse the worst dust off and soften the salt crust on our foreheads. It is really great to be able to have a lake or river to wash in. Without it we would only be able to take a 0.75l shower, which is better than nothing but still not quiet enough. This and the fact, that we always have to ask other people for water, to fill up our bottles, somehow really changed my attitude towards water. It seems much more important and suddenly takes a big place in my daily live. Every time we have access to a shower it seems like a great luxury.
Right now we are in Atbasar, a small town 250km from Astana where we took a hotel room so we can watch the world-championship-final. In case germany wins we are planning to set up the first "Fanmeile" in the history of Atbasar.
Below a few pictures with my new camera, yes i finally found one in Kostanay where we also found the old public transport buses from berlin. It felt like home. :-)

All good

After we had an amazing time in Orsk, which Vicky made possible by organizing everything for us and helping with our problems with the russian language we continued our journey north towards Troitsk. Although we keep improving, our russian is not perfect yet, as we learned again today at the migration police where we had to register. Some people seem to think that if they repeat the sentence louder with intensive eye contact ,that you will understand it. Well, we usually don't.
On our way to Troitsk we got invited by some really nice people who let us stay at their home (have look at Cedrics blog entry http://abkuerzungindiemongolei.blogspot.com/2014/07/von-schlagen-in-der-sauna-und-anderen.html?m=1 )
That we just met those people without doing anything but sitting by the river got us thinking. Somehow some of the best things on our trip just happened without us doing anything but being at the right place at the right time. But maybe even that is not true. I think, that other good things would have happened if we would have taken a different turn or stayed longer in one place. Somehow everywhere we go there are good people. Either we are incredibly lucky, we just like everybody or there are so many more good people than bad ones, that you dont even get in touch with those.
I am positive ,that we will continue meeting good people on our journey, if by statistics or luck. I am fine with both.
Since i still dont have a camera, below only one photo taken with my phone at one of those good people's house. Cedric with his secret crush, Lisa.

The great kazakh hospitality

After we had our black friday 13th (Check out Cedrics blogpost Freitag der 13.) with everything from flat tires to broken back achsles and lost cameras we also had the best time in Kazakhstan so far. After we got the back achsle of my bike repaired provisionally with the help of a lot of really nice people and a car mechanic in the village near our campspot, we continued on our way to Aktobe where we had the number of a guy we met in a diner in a village in the middle of nowhere. In Alga we had one of the really nice experiences. A boy stood on the side of the road and told us loudly in english to stop. He introduced us to his neighbourhood, his village, his family and invited us inside to eat.e homemade cheese was amazing and his family really nice and very welcoming. After 30 minutes they told us very nicely that we were free to move on now which is perfect. No uncomfortable silence where you dont know if you should stay or go but a nice goodbye. The next day we arrived in Aktobe and tried to call our contact, Evgeni, in the hope that his multilingual wife would pick up. She didnt and since you cant talk with your hands and feet on the phone it was really difficult until his son, Sergej who speaks english, got on the phone and we were able to meet them. They invited us to stay with them in their home even though they didnt know us at all and we really didnt smell of roses. We prepared the dinner and later we watched the game Germany-Portugal together with Vodka and beer and Chips. A perfect night. Today they helped us to get all the spare parts for our bikes we needed. It is incredible to what lenghts they would go to help us. They drove us around the city the whole day in search of the parts we needed and of course we were not allowed to pay since we are the guests. We will stay with them one more night and move on tomorrow towards Orsk.

Below are a few more pictures from aktobe and a wedding party who stopped me on the highway and gave me money to take a picture with them. I am thinking of starting a modelling career.
 

Luxurious Atyrau and Migration police

We arrived in Atyrau after a flat tyre put an end to the plan of arriving here yesterday. Our campspot was dry and dusty and windy. Thats pretty much it.
Our search for an accomodation here in Atyrau, which we need for registering here in Kazakhstan, was not that easy. After not finding anything we had to settle for a rather expensive hotel for our standards. The shower was really welcome andwe even have a fridge in our room.
Since the migration police is closed for today we have to go back there tomorrow. Even though we have to register at the latest today ,they assured us it would also be fine tomorrow. We'll see about  that tomorrow at 10.

Hitch-hiking by bus, camels and scorching heat

Right now we are in a betting office in the kazakhian plains where we took refuge from the sun and 40°C in the shadow. The problem is that there is no tree or bush high enaugh to cast any shadow. And the camels and wild horses move too much to have a rest in their shadow.
But the interesting part is how we got here. We left georgia by bike, wanting to catch a ride to russia in azerbaidjan because we needed to get to the kazachian border as fast as possible because of our visa and we only had a.transit visa for Azerbaidjan itself. When we crossed the bordee we had to catch a bus to Baku where we arrived in the evening ,with just enough time to get out of the city to find a campspot just by the motorway. Beautiful. The next day we tried to hitch hike with our bikes which actoally worked. After 20 minutes a Truck pulled up and took us close to the russian border. We even got a free lunch, invited by the truckdriver.
The next day we crossed the russian border after hours of waiting, they are not used to bikes to cross the border and you are not allowed to cross over to russia by bike so we had to catch another ride to drive the 300m to the russian or rather Dagestan side.
There we tried to catch another ride. After half an hour we got a ride. The driver was convinced to take us by a old big man who turned out to be a policeman. And the police in dagestan are not just police but have the god like power to pull up any car and order them to take us with them. So basically we moved from police station to police station for two days where they ordered buses and cars alike to take us with them until we were at the kazakhian border in time. The people didnt even hate us when we delayed the bus and didnt even pay but even invited us to lunch. Great people!
When we arrived in Kazakhstan the land made it very hard for us to like it. The first 2 days we had flies everywhere. As soon as you stopped you were covered with them.
Then there are always strong winds from the east, ao headwinds for us and last but not least the heat.
Then there is the other side with wild horses everywhere, camels walking around and rivers every 30-40km where you can refresh yourself with a quick bath.
Strangely the best thing so far was when we met a turkish truck driver last nigt who invited us to the complementary cay and made a really good salad for us. In the background horses came from everywhere to drink at the river nearby and to round it up we had an amazing sunset. Maybe Kazakhstan is not so bad after all.

Azerbaijan, here we come

Yesterday we arrived in beautifuln Stephansminda, wanting to cross the border after a wet an cold night (snow in may, why?!) and were stopped by a georgian policeman, 25 km from the border, 20 from the blocked road. He made clear to us that he would let no one pass and that we should go back. When we said something about our Kazakhistan visa ,he started to laugh. So far so good, we decided to stay a night and to ask around if there would be other ways to get to the border.
Later that day ,we found out, that the road will be blocked for at least 10 days and that the russians closed the border as long as the streets remains closed. So even sneaking around the policeman and the blocked road wouldnt have done us any good.
So we sat down to search for other options. The best we came up with is this one. We'll go back over the mountains, get a transit-visa for Kazakhstan, take the train to Baku ,the bus to the Russian border and cross there. Inschallah ,as we learned in Turkey. The fun part, besides going back over the mountains, is that we will meet Till and Aigar in Tblisi again. There just seems to be no getting rid of them. :-)
Since I cant add pictures of the planning and the policeman ,i'll add some others of the last few days.
The first one is with Johnny the honey dealer, his mate and Annie and Steve who are above 70 and cycled faster up the mountain than we us, though in our defence I have to say, that they had hardly any luggage.
In the third one it is snowing, although you cant really tell from the picture i think.

Vodka and blocked mountain passes

So far quiet a lot happened in our quiet short stay in georgia. We had our first two raindays in a row, we had our first buzz on the highway, we had the hottest days of our trip and for the first time we might have to turn back.
So first the rainy days. Actually nothing spectacular ,it just raoned for two days and we didnt like it because the Georgian roads we were on in these days were quiet full and it is no fun being overtaken by a truck with a safety distance of 60cm in the wet. This is why Cedric tried a different approach, being picked up ,as you can see in the picture below. Unfortunately for the truckers or for him ,i dont know but no one stopped.
The vodka incidence happened 3 days after batumi. We ran out of food after a very thin breakfast ans couldnt find any place where we could buy something to eat. The day was really hot and we were in the mountains. At around 12am we were getting really hungry and at 1pm we were starving when we saw a huge house beside the road with a bread painted on it. We went in to get some brea and when we came out we were invited to a drink by two old big guys sitting on the veranda in front of a table with delicious food. Polite as we are we kindly accepted the offer. As if we didnt know not to drink on a empty stomach. Luckily we were also invited to eat with them so we didnt have to push the bikes when we left an hour and another vodka later. I really think that the glasses are bigger here in Georgia ,or just with the two of them. What came then is predictable, we went to the next nice place to lay down, ate some more and took a nap. The next day we passed the Gomi-vodka factory and couldnt resist.
The other days were a little quieter, we met annoying(at least in my opinion)children who gave us a big Georgian flag, we slept on a porch ,30 meters off the highway, we rode on the motorway for one day and no one cared and we met a corean guy who travelled to georgia on a folding bike.
Now to the blocked mountain pass. As it turns out two days ago an avalance blocked the road 30 km ahead of us and we cant pass. What we will do about that we will see tomorrow. The best case scenario is that there is a way around the blocked area you can go by bike and its only the cars which have to stop, the worst case scenario is that we have to go back and find another point to get across to russia. So fingers crossed!

The good live with the Visa

So ,where to start... first things first ,we have our russian and the kasachian visa. They arrived in Samsun after 5 long days of waiting and we were free to continue our trip with our new travel companions Till and Olcay. The first day after Samsun we camped right at the beach of the black sea which turned out to be a meeting place for the local people for drinking ,music and dancing. We were already preparing for a long night full of turkish music and Efes beer, but they left early and we were alone again.
The next day ,we continued on the d10 along the coast and made good progress towards Trabzon, since it was mostly flat. That night we found a beautiful camping spot right by the sea in a garden of a summer home. the only problem was that Olcay broke his trailer, going through the ditch to cross the road. The people there were Very nice there and even fixed the trailer. The next morning after 200 m of riding Olcays gears broke. We tried to fix it but after I hab my turn ot was completely borken and we had to leave him behind. With a bad concience we rode on to meet an english teacher, Till contaced via couchsurfing ,she organised a sleeping place for us in a garden pavillion of a restaurant so we didnt have to set up our tents. In the evening we met Samy. He is a real funny guy, 23 years in germany now back in turkey he was happy to talk german and we shared some Raki at the beach by a fire fueled by plastic boxes ans some wood. It doesnt even smell that bad and they burn extremely well, just as a little tip to all the outdoor enthusiasts!
The next morning we had an amazing turkish breakfast with the family of a friend of Aische ,the english teacher.
In pouring rain we continued our joirney to Trabzon and arrived there to meet our contact who would later organize a sleeping place for us withe help of half of the Trabzon University students. Its amazing how uncomplicated and hospitable the people here are.
The next day we met Olcay to our surprise. He had the bike fixed and must have sprinted all the way to catch up with us. He also organized a sleeping place in a dormatory (which has a climbing wall!!!) for us where we met a lot of good people and experienced firsthand that there is not a big difference between the german: "tonight we are gonna dring a few beers" and the turkieh equivalent. Somehow we have a headache today ,it must be the air here in Trabzon.
tomorrow we will continue our trip with a Lithuan biker we met in the Trabzon city park ,playing on a drum.
As you might have noticed, this is our first blog post in english. Since we met a lot of people on the road so far and most of them were not fluent in german ,we decided that we write in english aswell as in german. The posts will not be the same ,Cedric will continue to write in german.

Warten oder 798672562094

798672562094. Wegen dieser Nummer sind seit 3 Tagen in Samsun und warten. 798672562094 das ist die Trackingnummer für unsere Reisepässe die seit gestern noch in Carles-de-Gaulle auf einen Flug in die Türkei warten. Ce sagt die franzosen sind nicht dran Schuld, ich bin mir da nicht so sicher. Laut 798672562094 sind die Pässe mit dem russischen und dem kasachischen Visum am Freitag bei uns im Hostel. Vielleicht ja auch früher.
Samsun ist zwar ganz nett man kann Go-Kart fahren ,wir haben einiges erledigen können, die Räder in Ruhe am Strand in Schuss bringen können aber so langsam wollen wir doch weiter. "Because bycicle riding is fun", um mal die beste Band mindestens Heidelbergs zu zitieren.
Am Tag unserer Ankunft haben wir ein paar Kilometer vor Samsun 3 andere Radler getroffen. Zwei deutsche die von Istanbul nach Georgien fahren und einen Spanier der von Spanien auch in die Mongolei fahren will, allerdings südlich über den Iran und das alleine. Aber er ist ja auch schon 8000 km durch Afrika geradelt ,also kein Problem. :-) War super mal ein paar andre ernsthafte Radler zu treffen und sich etwas auszutauschen. Falls ihr das lest: Gute fahrt euch!

Istanbul

Das erste was uns an Istanbul auffiel war, dass es verdammt groß ist. Von den Vororten bis ins Zentrum haben wir  ca 3 Stunden gebraucht. Als wir dann in Istanbul angekommen sind war der Straßenverkehr erstmal ziemlich heftig, als wir uns dann drauf eingelassen hatten wars dann wie Achterbahnfahren. Hat richtig Spaß gemacht.
Als wir dann irgendwann auf dem Taksimplatz standen war es schon ein tolles Gefühl. Das Hostel zu finden war nicht so einfach, Straßennamen stimmen nicht immer mit den Karten zusammen und es gibt hier in der Gegeng mehr als ein "Chillout -Hostel".
Am nächsten Tag sind wir dann  durch die Stadt gelaufen und haben bemerkt, dass es ziemlich bergig ist und nochmal, dass es groß ist.
Die Stadt ist sehr lebendig, überall wird etwas gebaut, rum transportiert oder verkauft. Leider ist es auch sehr touristisch. Nicht ohne Grund, die Stadt ist beeindruckend mit den vielen Moscheen, Basaren und Starbucks, netten kleinen Cafés und McDonalds.
Heute waren wir im Stadion ,Kasimpasa gegen Bursaspor um mal die berühmte Atmosphäre in einem Istanbuler Fußballstadion mitzuerleben. Es war ein bisschen wie bei einem 1.Fc Sandhausen Spiel. Die Auswärtsfans waren für die Stimmung zuständig. Die Heimfans waren immerhin teilweise da. War trotzdem ganz gut.
Wir haben den Aufenthalt um einen Tag verlängert, es gibt genug zu sehen und meinen Knien tut die Pause gut.
Fotos folgen.

Momchilgrad- oder die Stadt wo Milch und Honig fließt

So, seit vorgestern sind wir in Momchilgrad. Der weg hierhin war recht bergig aber man hat davon nicht viel gesehen, weil es so neblig war. Teilweise konnten wir nicht weiter als 50 meter sehen was wegen der Autos kein großes Problem war sondern eher wegen der Kühe die plötzlich aus dem Nebel mitten auf der Straße auftauchten.
Als der Nebel sich dann gelichtet hatte, konnten wir auch etwas von der Landschaft sehen, die wirklich schön ist.
In Momchilgrad angekommen, wurden wir dann bei den Großeltern von Elis, einer Freundin Cedrics aus Jena, einquartiert. Das Essen ist hier der Hammer und das schönste daran ist ,dass es immer eine Kleinigkeit gibt. Selber etwas zu helfen ,sei es den Tisch abzuräumen oder die eigene Wäsche aufzuhängen ist verboten. Meine Gitarre hab ich hier auch endlich repariert gekriegt, unter Tatkräftiger mithilfe des Großvaters. Erst hat er von einem Nachbarn die Bohrmaschine geholt ,ich habe das Loch in den Gitarren Hals schön langsam gebohrt, das ging ihm zu langsam also wurde die Schleifmaschine geholt um den Bohrkopf zu schärfen. Leider hatte der Stecker einen Wackelkontakt ,der musste behoben werden. Für den Gast kein Aufwand zu groß. Am Schluss hat von Schleifmaschine bis Gitarre alles wieder perfekt funktioniert. dann hat uns der Vater in seiner Mittagspause zu einer historischen Schlossruine gefahren von der man einen genialen Blick auf die Umgebung hat. Danach gab es richtig gutes Essen.
Die Fahrräder haben wir auch wieder auf Vordermann gebracht und die Beine gut ausgeruht. Obwohl es hier dank der genialen Gastfreundschaft der ganzen Familie, von Schwester bis Oma sind alle im Dauereinsatz, freuen wir uns, dass es morgen weitergeht. Auf die Spaghetti mit Soße freue ich mich nicht.

Belgrad

 Mut zur Luecke, oder finde den Fehler kann man die Bilderserie oben nennen. Von diesen Booten schwimmen, oder nicht, ganz viele auf der Donau wo wir bei der Einfahrt nach Belgrad City vorbeigeradelt sind. Als wir dann in die Stadt zu unserem Hostel wollten, haben wir die bisher fahrrad-unfreundlichste Stadt kennengelernt. Extrem dichter Verkehr in relativ hoher Geschwindigkeit, Buergersteige die (mindestens) einen halben Meter hoch sind, brechend volle Buergersteige und das alles auf kyrillisch. Gluecklicherweise waren wir am richtigen Ende der Stadt und haben das Hostel nach nicht allzu langem Rumfragen gefunden. Danach haben wir nur noch gegessen, als Nachtisch den vielleicht besten Kuchen unseres Lebens und sind ins Bett gefallen. Heute haben wir unsere mittlerweile routinierte Touritour gemacht. Aufgefallen ist uns hauptsaechlich, dass Belgrad auf eine Art ziemlich haesslich ist, auf eine Andere auch sehr interessant. Und dass man zum Aufpumpen von Autoreifen keine Tankstelle braucht (Siehe unten). Es ist alles nicht so rausgeputzt wie bei unseren letzten Stadtbesuchen und es stehen ueberall nette, aber runtergekommene Gebaeude, neben neuen Haesslichen. Hier fehlt wohl hauptsaechlich das Geld, wie man uns auch in unserem Hostel bestaetigt hat. Die Stadt hat aber auch tolle und wirklich schoene Ecken zum Beispiel einen total ruhigen Platz hinter einem Tordurchgang direkt neben der vollen und hektischen Hauptstrasse und die Stadt ist sehr schoen gelegen wie man ganz unten sehen kann. Toll ist auch, dass es die erste Stadt ist in der wir kein Wort Deutsch gehoert haben.