Typical

Today was a typical day. We woke up, and hoped that when we unzipped our tent, it would reveal a nice day.

Morning View

It did, though by the time we were done with breakfast, dark clouds had rolled in, threatening a cold rain. We bundled up, grabbed our waterproof jackets, and hit the road.

We biked into a headwind for most of the morning, sandwiched between river and mountain. There was only one road and one direction to go, and honestly we didn't really want to be on it today. We rode on anyhow, doing our best to enjoy the scenery.

Romanian Mountain Road

Eventually the afternoon sun burned away the looming clouds. When it was clear we had escaped any threat of rain, we stopped to remove a few layers.

We found some nice cold mountain water to refill our water bottles:

Tyler Filling Water

… and met a friendly dog. Last time we went grocery shopping, Tyler grabbed a bag of dog biscuits to feed the particularly lonely looking strays. This guy was pretty skittish:

Tyler Feeding Romanian Dog

But he warmed up to us after a few treats:

Tyler Feeding Romanian Dog

Down the road, we met some cool people whose kindness helped shake the last of our morning funk. David and Ousman, two really tall French cycle tourists towered like demi-gods over our hobbit statures. They were very nice. And very tall.

Hobbits (Us), Demi-Gods (David & Oussman)

Not long after we left, we found some more dogs to befriend. In addition to bad roads, we've been warned about mean dogs in Romania. In our experience they are all just big softies who want some attention:

Tyler Feeding Romanian Dogs

And food, of course:

And love:

Tyler was having so much fun with his dog biscuits he tried one on these cows too. They just stared.

Romanian Cows

Late in the day our road took a turn inland, sending us on a climb that was surprisingly refreshing, though my climbing face doesn't really reflect that.

And then, just as we were nearing our destination of Orsova, we came across something completely unexpected. The tallest rock sculpture in Europe! Carved into the mountain to our left was the likeness of Decebalus Rex. Cool!

Decebalus Rex - Dragan Fecit

After ogling the sculpture for a few minutes, we finished our ride, found a nice hotel with wifi and hot water, and settled in to rest.

Another seventy kilometers down, another set of memories for our scrap book. Not too shabby at all!

Tara