Final route from Amsterdam to Belgrade

Grotere kaart weergeven

Day 28

D0km; 04:30 - 10:30
Surcin - JU 262 - Schiphol - GVB 192 - Amsterdam
We arrived well by regular flight and later on we managed to pick up the bikes that arrived by cargo. This marked the end of our 2200km cycling holiday "From Amsterdam to Belgrade".

Day 27

D14km; 8:10 - 9:15
Beograd - Surcin
After spectaculair wrapping up by the JAT cargo department and significantly higher rates than firstly informed, the bikes are checked in as cargo. Eventually they will arrive in Amsterdam this Saturday....

Day 26

D45km; 11:00 - 16:30
Slankamen - Surduk - Batajnica - Zemun - Beograd
After family stops in Surduk (3x) and Zemun (2x) km we arrived after 2200 km cycling in Beograd where well deserved champagne was waiting.
Cheers!

Day 25

D48km; 10:15 - 14:00
Novi Sad - St. Anastasia - Beska - Slankamen
Today a small stage to the Starcevic weekend house at the Danube where we were welcomed with Rakia. The myth about Vojvodina as flat as Holland does not exist anymore. The longest and steepest climb of the whole tour, >10 %,  was met at Sremski Karlovci at the edge of Fruska Gora. Also the highest speed was measured with 49 km per hour where 30 km was allowed....

Day 24

D0km;
Arriving in Novi Sad on Monday afternoon we decided to stay in Novi Sad for one day. This appeared to be a wise decision as on Tuesday it is raining and raining and.....
In the next stage on Wednesday we plan to cycle to Slankamen.

Levi9 in Novi Sad gave us the opportunity to upload photos to this weblog. Starting at Day 1 a number of photos are added to this blog.

Day 23

D101km; 10:00 - 16:30
Sombor - Sivac - Kula - Backo Dobro Polje - Sirig - Novi Sad

This day was the fastest day so far. Due to the mild wind from the Northwest we were able to reach an avearge of almost 20 kilometres per hour and despite our late start we arrived at Levi9 on half past four already.

Day 22

D70km; 10:00 - 16:00
Baja - Batmonostor - Hercegszanto - Bezdan - Sombor
After about 1950 km we entered the Republic of Serbia at Backi Breg where we continued our way on the Serbian part of the 'Donau Radweg' guiding us till Sombor.

In Sombor the greatest challenge appeared to be to find a restaurant.... Finally we found one specialised in domestic cooking, starting with rakia as aperitif.

Day 21

D70km; 9:30-16:00
Paks - Kalosca - Fajsz/Danube - Baja
One day to go and we hope to enter Serbia. Today we packed the second and last Limes book. We followed the Limes route most of the time. It is a well known byking path along the old North border of the Roman Empire. We've seen some peaces of the Roman walls and crossed some Roman bridges.

Today on the road we made up the route ourselves and continued bicking on the Danube dikes. The temperature was higher and the wind was blowing from the North, which enabled us enjouing the surroundings even more. Along the forests, corn and sunflower fields we've also noticed a lot of paprika fields. The dried paprika's were offered for sale as necklasses in most of the villages.

Here in Baja, we are in hotel Duna again, but this one has a beautiful view and lovely interior. This hotel does not remind to the communist but to the Habsburg period, that is slightly more romantic while listening to some street musicians playing 'Die schoene blaue Donau'.

Day 20

D87km; 10:00 - 17:00
Szekesfehervar - Sarhatvan - Cece - Paks
Back to Danube. After a shortcut we are at the Blue river again in Paks where we enjoyed some local fish soup. The stage was slightly boring with cycling on a more or less straight road between sunflower and corn fields, wandering how the locals can live without cappuccino or espresso. We somehow managed to stay dry and not too cold, although the temperature remained around 10 Centigrade. Its a matter of dressing up anything you have taken with you. Also usefull as the bags become lighter.
Our Hungarian improved dramatically. Very usefull when after 40 km you finally find a place with coffee with a couple of locals gambling on the fruit machines, discussing the politics and having an early Palinka.
Tomorrow some news about how we survived (the last one?) communistic hotel in Hungary. That happens to be the only place with B&B in this place.

Day 19

D96km; 10:00 - 17:30
Gyor - Tap - Bakonycsernye - Szekesfehervar
After a slow start - we expected a lot of rain - it appeared to be dry and we deecided to jump on the bike. It was expected to be a flat stage, however.... At least it stayed more or less dry and today we cycled more than expected.

Day 18

D44km; 9:20 - 12:15
Mosonmagyarovar - Asvanyraro - Gyor
10 Centigrade, wind and lots of rain. Time for a break.

Day 17

D99km; 9:40-16:45
Gross-Enzersdorf - Stopfenreuth - Bratislava - Moson-Magyarovar.
Today a 3 nation stage through Austria, Slowakia and Hungary.
For tomorrow we have a new plan for our comming journey through Hungary. This as consequence of a friendly chat with our waiter tonight. He is a biker himself an had lots of tips for us. He did not mention the weather forecast....

Day 16

D103km; 9:20 - 19:00
Mautern - Traismauer - Tulln - Vienna - Gross-Enzersdorf
Lost somewhere after Vienna in yet another "Umleitung".

Day 15

D119km; 9:30 - 18:45
Mauthausen - Dornbach - Ybbs - Melk - Mautern
Cycling on good cyclepaths, but the down side is that the pubs are on the other side of the Danube so again, long sections without breaks.
Tomorrow we hope to visit the first "B" capital (Bonn retired as capital). Please notice that Wiena starts with B in many languages (Bech).

Day 14

D96km; 9:20 - 17:30
Jochenstein - Aschach - Linz - Gusen - Mauthausen
At half past nine cycling we left rainy Germany and entered Austria.
It was difficult to find a coffee stop so the first 43 km were cycled long before noon...
So far we have seen ships from Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Malta, Ukraine and Serbia, and almost as many power plants and locks at the Danube.  Some of these are used as a path on our journey from one to the other side. Today we have crossed the river by boat two times.

Day 13

D103km; 9:15-17:30
Pfilling - Deggendorf - Leitthen - Passau - Obernzell - Jochenstein
It was about 1 km before the Austrian border that we decided to stop for a 'zimmer frei' at the Danube in Jochenstein (25km east of Passau). Cycling today was not very exciting, but we remember cycling through Germany as very comfortable and pleasant where we met a lot of kind and helpful people.
We were pleasantly surprised by the length of cycling paths that we could share with the other fitness fanatics. This made the trip much more comfortable than racing on the motorways with quick Geman cars.
At first we were astonished by the size and solidity of the portions served in restaurants and the size of the beer glasses. In the meantime we noticed this is not as bad after a hard day cycling.
We found the locals most helpfull and kind till the point that we started consciously to pick the lonley places to turn the page in the guide, just to deminish the chance that someone appears from nowhere explaining us the best roads and history of the region.
And now, up to something different in Austria, like schnitzel and apfelstrudel mit sahne ;-)

Day 12

D99km; 9:20 - 18:30
Kelheim - Pentling - Regensburg - Woerth a.d. Donau - Reibersdorf - Pfelling
At Bogen we were accompanied by a senior German who cycled some 6km with us and gave us a guided tour and some explanation about local climate and geology as well as wintersport in the 'Bayerischer Wald'
Dinner was celebrated at our Gasthof at the banks of the Danube. Tomorrow we are heading for Passau and maybe further.

Day 11

D91km 9:30-18:30
Eichstatt - Kipfenberg - Toeging - Riedenburg - Kelheim
After amstel, kromme rijn, lek, waal, rhine, main, erf, tauber, altmuehl we finally reached the Danube at Kelheim. From now it goes all downstream.

Day 10

D113km; 9:45 - 19:30
Leutershausen - Gerne - Gunzenhausen - Treuchtlingen - Eichstatt
The best day so far.

Day 9

D96km; 9:15 - 18:45
Tauberbischofsheim - Weikersheim - Creglingen - Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Leutershausen
Today we have hit the roof of our tour at Kirnberg at an altitude of around 500 metres in the Nature Reserve Frankische Hoehe. A few kilometers earlier we passed the city of Gebstattel. This village is on the border of the water streams towards the Rhine/Main on the one hand and towards the Danube on the other hand. From here water is Danube oriented.
It was one of those days when you have to remind yourself you are doing it all just for fun, but therefore the  result is even sweater: highest point of the whole journey (500m), fastest descend (44km/h), slowest climb (7km/h), longest net cycling time (6h20min) and lowest average speed (15km/h)
At the end, the local specialities with mushrooms made it all worth.

Day 8

D86km; 10:15 - 17:15
Aschaffenburg - Woerth am Main - Miltenberg - Schweinberg - Tauberbischofsheim
Today a slow 'Sunday-start'. Preparing for the hills we  slowly took an extensive breakfast.... recovering from the Aschaffenburger Sommerfeste that somehow reminded us to Koninginedag...

The climbing was tough but we were releaved to see that it was less tough than expected. The most difficult hill after Schweinberg ended with an relaxing descent to our destination for today. And now, on a nice terrace, we are enjouing tasty and big meals with good beer as we are usually experiencing in Germany.

Day 7

D98km; 9:15 - 17:30
Mainz - Frankfurt am Main - Steinheim - Aschaffenburg
Today we crossed from Rheinland Pfalz through Hessen to Bavaria, where we will stay until we leave Germany. We said goodbye to the Rhine and enjoyed our last day cycling without hills. Tomorrow climbing will start..
It seems that Germany is partying at the moment. During the day we enjoyed a big party in Frankfurt along the river Main and at night the Summerfestival in Aschaffenburg starts.

Day 6

D106km; 9:15-18:00
Koblenz - Boppard - Niederheimbach - Heidenfahrt - Mainz

It has been a long stage again. We celebrated this in a coktail bar with beer and Margarita after looking for an hotel for almost an hour. We have tried to upload pictures but so far due to technical problems we failed to find a computer that allows upload pictures from our camera.

Day 5

D108km; 8:45-18:10
Cologne - Wesseling - Bonn - Kripp - Andernach - Koblenz
Most of the time cycled along Rhine racing with the vessels on the river, mainly from Rotterdam. At the end of the day a few thunderstorms but during the day the weather was excellent for cycling. Tomorrow we are heading for Mainz.....


On the pictures various waterlevels of the Rhine and the famous Lorely bend

Day 4

D0km
Wet, wet, wet and museum feet in Cologne

Day 3

D105km; 8:40-17:45
Xanten - Moers - Uerdingen - Dormagen - Cologne
Scared by the weather report, we left Xanten this morning. Fortunatelly, except for the last hour or two Pluvius had mercy with us.
We enjoued some lovely parts cycling on the dikes along Rhine. Today we have also seen too many traffic lights.

Day 2

D90km; 9:15-17:00
Rhenen-Nijmegen-Kleve-Xanten
The day started testing whether our equipment is waterproof. After one hour the weather became better and at 12:30 we entered Die Bundesrepublik. During this stage Mici showed her experience built during the training trips while cycling against the wind... Bart cycled up front most of the time..

Day 1

D99km; 10.30-18.15
Amsterdam - Haarzuilens - 't Goy - Amerongen - Rhenen (Utrecht).
After our departure we left Holland around 11.30 at Uithoorn. We crossed through Utrecht from NW to SE. The weather was dry and mostly sunny.

Day 0

Holiday has started and final preparations are carried out. Tomorrow is the first stage.
The Limes map has been updated. The route will updated in more detail after the trip.

Day -1

Today is our last working day and holiday starts.

Day -6

Today a small tour. Again a trip to Kopje van Bloemendaal. Today Bart's first helmet test after crashing while detaching his new shoes....

Day -9

Link added: Arjan & Ankie (www.vandertang.org)

Day -12

Yesterday 2 more pictures were taken on the border of Holland and Flevoland on the Hollandse Brug (Dutch Bridge), near the city of Muiderberg.

Day -13

Today a nice training trip to Almere De Vaart, the rose grewery of the Stricker family. Conditions were excellent, small breaze from the Southeast, temperatures between 25 and 30 Centigrade and a clear sky. Total length of this trip was 106 kilometres. Details on map and pictures follow later. On the picture on the right hand side you see a small reparation carried out on Bart's new bike-shoes after loosing his cap in the lake...

Day -20

Again poor weather in Holland. Mici went to Health City to train, Bart did a small tour to 'Het Kopje van Bloemendaal'

Day -27

Today a small trip, due to the bad weather. Main destination was Uithoorn, a trip along the Amstel of 34km. The trip has been added on the map.

Day -29

Link to google maps added. See Maps on right hand side, below photographs: Greater Amsterdam.

The map contains the weekend training tours so far.
10/06: Kennemerland / Bollenstreek (80km)
08/07: Amsterdam - Voorburg v.v. (105 km)
15/07: Rondje Haarlemmermeer (60 km)

Day -34

This Sunday we planned to do smaller tour of 60 kilometers.
Due to a knee injury Mici decided to go to the fitness club rather than go cycling. Bart planned to go cycling but had to wait until thunderstorms were finished.

After returning from fitness and the weather becoming better, Mici decided to join Bart on the 1st part of his tour. Although Mici finished a fitness session, she also succeeded a cycle tour of more than 50 kilometers. Bart did a 'Rondje Haarlemmermeer' of more than 60 kilometers.

The XS4ALL blog we started has been removed. The layout of this blog has changed and a few links have been added. These can be viewed on the right bottom corner of this blog.

Day -36

Today it is 36 days to go. Our planned starting day is around 18-aug-07

We started this blog to report to other people about our trip and about the preparations. We are still considering what is the best way to report during our trip.
We also started a blog at XS4ALL: http://blogger.xs4all.nl/bartvdt
In a later stage we will decide which blog will be maintained during our trip.

Last Sunday we had a training trip of 105 kilometers. We cycled from Amsterdam to Voorburg and visited the exposition of Katja Schendzielorz.
This weekend we plan a shorter tour of about 60-75 kilometers