-
- Arriving into Istanbul – our GPS sent us right through the Grand Bazaar! Amusing but challenging – had to get security to escort us through!
-
- Our kind hosts who put us up on our first night in Turkey.
-
- Just outside of Sozopol
-
- Rescuing a suicidal tortoise from the road – the second in 2 days!
-
- Our own deserted beach near Sozopol, our hostel owner took us there.
-
- Begli Tash, some early Thracian rock formations near Primorsko
-
- suicidal tortoise number one, after being returned to safety 🙂
-
- taking the tortoise for a drive back to safety
-
- Turkey!
-
- Pete relaxing at Thracian rock formations – apparently this was the King’s chair
-
- Tortoise rescue again!
-
- Sozopol/Black Sea
-
- Sozopol/Black Sea
-
- Cooking dinner while wild camping
-
- More Thracian rocks…
-
- More Thracian rocks…
-
- More Thracian rocks…
-
- More Thracian rocks…
-
- Paddling in the Black Sea
-
- Beach cooking
-
- Paddling in the Black Sea
-
- We made it all the way to the Black Sea!
-
- Having dinner while watching the sun go down in Sozopol
-
- View from hotel balcony in Sozopol
-
- View from hotel balcony in Sozopol
-
- View from hotel balcony in Sozopol
-
- View from hotel balcony in Sozopol
-
- Hitching after spoke-breaking incident…thankfully only had to wait for 20 mins to get a lift
-
- Broken spokes
-
- Leaving Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Leaving Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Those distances are as the crow flies – more like 3400km by road to London!
-
- View from Arbanasi, near Veliko Tarnovo
-
- Bulgarian train
-
- Thankfully we were carrying a spare tyre…
-
- Not sure I would be too worried if this was chasing us!
-
- Fountains in Pleven, Bulgaria
-
- Guess who is staying in this hotel?!
-
- Repairing Pete’s front rack which fell to bits on a potholey road in Bulgaria
-
- Cyrillic alphabet makes for interesting navigation!
-
- Storm is on its way, time to seek shelter!
-
- Cycling is tiring!
-
- Keeping track of speed and distance
-
- Beer!
-
- Deserted beach near Sozopol
-
- Wildlife marshes near Sozopol
-
- wild camping
-
- unusual to find a menu in english, keeping this for future reference!
-
- turkey feeling threatened – but it’s nowhere near christmas!
-
- backyard menagerie, very common round here
-
- bulgarian flag
-
- belogradcik rocks!
-
- belogradcik from above
-
- love the english translation of the story of how the rocks came about
-
- fortress
-
- new game – guess what drink you are going to get from the machine!
-
- belogradcik – prettier from afar!
-
- bulgarian countryside
-
- taking goats for a walk, more common than taking dogs for a walk round here.
-
- country number 8
-
- leaving serbia
-
- serbian countryside
-
- the road to bulgaria
-
- at an altitude of 900m – good views but hard work to get there!
-
- there be mountains ahead…pain coming up!
-
- we were fully planning on wild camping, even had water/fuel/food on board, but then out of nowhere appeared a wonderful thermal spa hotel with rooms for only 15 euros/person – almost rude to say no!
-
- view from balcony of pools being filled in morning.
-
- same hotel. we even got free drinks from the manager because we were the first western tourists to visit!
-
- danube again!
-
- belogradcik from afar, certainly an impressive setting
-
- bombed belgrade, still not fixed
-
- belgrade’s stonehenge?
-
- ada cinganjali, an artificial lake in belgrade. great on a hot day.
-
- why don’t they make beers this big back at home?
-
- busy street in belgrade. national holiday so everybody is out and about.
-
- view from belgrade fortress.
-
- pete living life on the wild side
-
- random assortment of military weapons for kids to play on in the park – really not sure why
-
- same dress and river as in budapest, but different bend!
-
- old men playing chess in belgrade park
-
- storks
-
- wild camping in serbia
-
- northern serbian countryside – very pancake like!
-
- country number 7
-
- frogs making a tremendous noise in ths pond, honestly!
-
- follow the yellow brick road…off to see the wizard!
-
- stork nest!
-
- rural methods of farming still prevalent here
-
- rural southern hungary
-
- time to get the anoraks out!
-
- Budapest
-
- Statue on top of citadel in budapest
-
- sunshine!
-
- Budapest
-
- more Budapest….
-
- citadel
-
- chillis in budapest food market
-
- sausages!
-
- very tall phone box!
-
- arriving into budapest, parliament building in background
-
- parliament building
-
- pete on a recumbent, belonging to a guy we met in Szentendre, on our way into budapest
-
- come back with my recumbent!
-
- Estzergom, Hungary
-
- Estzergom
-
- working well in rural hungary
-
- entering hungary
-
- Slovakians appear to have an odd idea of what constitutes a good bike path – gravel is not good!
-
- nor is very bumpy concrete! pete particularly didnt enjoy this as he was still breaking in his new saddle he bought in vienna!
-
- there was a donkey and cart there, just missed them!
-
- odd totem pole things in hungarian country village
-
- great bike path by the danube in hungary
-
- moer of the same…
-
- good bike path, in slovakia this time
-
- cycling out of bratislave with Matt and Mallin, his slovakian friend who showed us the way
-
- white-water rafting by a huge dam in slovakia
-
- dodgy old tram in bratislava, you can really tell the communists were here
-
- entering bratislava
-
- entering slovakia from austria
-
- vienna to bratislava. route nice but a bit dull.
-
- early birthday treat in vienna from my parents – yum yum! not all for me I should point out though!
-
- Schonbrunn castle, vienna
-
- fountains in castle gardens
-
- grim reaper (note the beer we added!) in budapest park – creepy!
-
- vienna, schonnbrunn castle
-
- viennese fountains
-
- vienna – spot our bikes!
-
- entering vienna
-
- great fountains in tulln
-
- Beautiful evening in durnstein, in lovely wachau region of the danube
-
- old car, new car in budapest
-
- durnstein, wachau
-
- on the danube
-
- danube again!
-
- Melk
-
- mum – “we’ve done all of 5km, it must be time to stop for a coffee!”
-
- mum and dad
-
- family photos
-
- cheesy or what!
-
- on the danube…
-
- here we come!
-
- the world’s smallest church?!
-
- random giant pear statue
-
- mautenberg, on the danube
-
- hochwasser means high water ie how high the danube has reached when flooding – these posts were on the side of our hotel – can’t be fun!
-
- Linz
-
- keep pedalling…there must be a coffee shop somewhere round here!
-
- merry bunch of cyclists on ferry across danube – pete, me, parents with dean, matt and greg, who we kept bumping into
-
- lunch on day one of parents’ holiday
-
- gettign going
-
- dean and matt setting off from passau
-
- why did they have to put the youth hostel so high up? did not enjoy the 22% hill to reach it at the end of a long day to get there!
-
- at least there was a good view from the top
-
- view from youth hostel in passau
-
- and again
-
- and again
-
- if we had known what weather we were in for later that day, we wouldn’t have smiled while taking this photo…!
-
- Regensburg
-
- for the record, we didnt have much of a choice about taking a ferry for this short section of river, as it was through a gorge and so there was no bike path!
-
- danube bike path, known as the donauradweg
-
- In Ingolstatd
-
- hmmm, maybe we should have ignored the gps and stuck to the road?!
-
- if only all campsites were like this
-
- durnstein, in the wachau region of danube in austria
-
- never did work out what this was warning us about?!
-
- cool noah’s ark in campsite outside of ulm
-
- ollie the goat in campsite!
-
- billy the other kid goat. very cute, thankfully behind a fence.
-
- ulm, where we joined the danube
-
- stuttgart to ulm, lovely valley
-
- novel multi-storey car park?!
-
- stuttgart
-
- buying lunch…spot the baguette!
-
- you know you are in the countryside when people bring their tractors to the supermarket…
-
- we like that kind of sign!
-
- mmm kebab!
-
- We made it to France!
-
- Leaving England!
-
- Waiting for the ferry
-
- waiting for the ferry
-
- doesn’t bode well!
-
- starting the almost never-ending flapjack supply…
-
- en route to canterbury
-
- leaving our house!
-
- black forest, owww those hills hurt!
-
- entering germany
-
- greg, fellow cycle tourist that we first met in saarbrucken
-
- brrrr!
-
- mercedes bike in mercedes museum in stuttgart
Christine and Pete's Big Cycling Trip 
It’s great to follow your journey by reading your blog. Thanks for posting pics!
By: Ruth on May 17, 2010
at 9:15 am
I’m glad there are people like you who like Bulgaria.
By: Rumen Ivanov on May 13, 2010
at 11:49 am