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  • Day 72

    Crossing the Danube into Bulgaria

    August 9, 2020 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Today, we wanted to cross the border to Bulgaria. As we weren't completely sure about the current border situation in Corona times, we left early. We saw the sunrise and at the same time a thunderstorm just ahead of us. So after only 6km, we had to stop to wait out the rain.
    The rest of the way to the border was flat and busy, so we tried to go quickly. People are definitely more used to cyclists in this area (one option of the Danube Eurovelo passes here), and waved to us or greeted with a "hi, how are you". As it was Sunday, quite some people were outside drinking coffee and/or beer and chatting.
    We wanted to cross to Bulgaria via the Danube River bridge. Against all expectations, border crossing went smoothly after we had found the right lane for bicycles. We gave our passports to the Romanian border security, he gave it to the Bulgarian guy sitting right next to him and we got them back. No interrogation about our travel intentions or possible symptons or anything.
    The Bulgarian city on the other side is called Vidin. Here, we saw a sign of the Eurovelo 6 and followed it to the fortress. At the fortress, we relaxed for a while, enjoyed the view and had some lunch. We also spent some time cycling through the city. It's quite interesting to see the ugly, shabby Sowjet highrises next to a modern park along the Danube river. Many people were outside and really friendly asking us about our trip.
    From here, we only had to cycle around 20km to our campground. However, these were exhausting because of the heat (35°C) and the surface (some sections of cobblestones). The campground, though, is located in a nice green and cool valley, protected by trees. So the only thing we did was relaxing and playing with the dog. He had so much energy that we didn't get him tired 😂
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