Day 14 Made it to the Danube

Nine months ago I was feeling the itch to do another tour. I looked at a map and thought, I’ve never been to Athens. Then I looked north and saw the Danube. I didn’t think it was possible. Today I reached the

I left Svilajnac early after saying goodbye to Zorica and rode about five miles to the little station at Markovac. The route included another Serbian adventure — a floating military-style pontoon bridge that actually moved when cars crossed it.

Markovac station may be one of my favorite memories of Serbia. The railway workers were drinking coffee and smoking inside. One woman would put on her bright red railway cap whenever a train approached, walk outside and signal it, then come back in and take the cap off. When I jumped up for what turned out to be only a locomotive, she laughed and told me, “I’ll tell you when”.

The passenger train arrived about 45 minutes late in the rain, and out she came in the full-length railway coat they had brought her. She motioned me where to stand.

The conductor helped me get the loaded Koga aboard, and I was riding comfortably toward Belgrade instead of fighting Serbian traffic for another long day.

Belgrade supplied plenty of traffic anyway. 😄 But once I fought my way through it and reached the Sava River I rode along the waterfront and eventually saw where the Sava joins the Danube.

That hit me.

I’ve been thinking about the Danube for nine months. Tomorrow I start riding along it toward Budapest. Farther upstream in Vienna I’ll meet Gigi, and eventually we’ll ride together along the Danube toward Copenhagen.

Something that once seemed almost impossible has somehow become where I am standing.

Tonight I’m on the ninth floor of a very comfortable apartment overlooking the river — showered, sweats on, feet up. Small dinner, early bed, and tomorrow the bike points north again along the Danube towards Novi Sad.Read more