Orient Express Day 33 Brad to Alba Iulia - 108km

I had a very restful night sleeping top to toe with Stirling. Those who chose not to share a bed and camp by the pool instead endured rain and sundry animal noises throughout the night, I am told.

After breakfast of Miles' Meusli at the pensione, I waited on the terrace as the others dined on hard boiled eggs, ham and cheese which I could not face, not being a "breakfast person". I headed out with Stirling with Edna continuing to ride behind with Mieke PC and Rudolph. We knew that hills were on the menu today so took it easy through the quite beautiful rustic towns.

I continue to be fascinated by the old style haystacks which dot the countryside and as the day progressed I saw the various stages of construction, the first being harvesting the cuttings.

We had two climbs before lunch, one for 12km and the next for 5km before we hit the lunch truck at around the 53km mark. The weather was warming up but we were lucky to finish climbing before the real heat of the day. I feasted on watermelon which was refreshing but couldn't face sandwiches so I snacked on my remaining Naty chocolate wafers.

There was plenty of time on the hill climb to take some photos and here are a few:

 

After lunch, it was an exhilarating but often bumpy downhill for around 50km with more interesting little towns and a quite industrial town of Zlatna.

As we edged closer to Alba Iulia, the open farmlands receded into almost suburban areas but there were still reminders of the "old" Romania to be seen.

Not sure whether the property developer will be able to sell his renovated apartments in the middle of nowhere.




















We found our hotel in Alba Iulia without too much difficulty but the town did not look like much riding in. I got a map from reception to discover that there is a whole old city to the side of great significance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_Iulia

Having skipped breakfast and lunch, I set out with Stirling in search of food and we wandered through part of the old city to an Italian restaurant where I had spagbol and a chocolate milkshake - nourishing comfort food. Stirling decided he would like a new look so we wandered around until we came upon a little hairdresser shop where Stirling underwent a great transformation!

We bumped into Edna and her riding buddies on the way back and everyone took great delight in Stirling's new look. While they made plans for dinner, I was satisfied to take a bottle of Fanta and some biscuits to the room where I retired for the night.