Motourama Part 23: Serbia – Not So Flat After All!
Hello family, friends and followers! For today’s tale of our adventure, Serbia has a few surprises in store for us.
We packed the bikes, and left for a quick tour through the city the following morning. Driving in Belgrade got a little bit more interesting, as the drivers were very self-confident about their driving, which we did not always feel too comfortable with. This was the first surprise, and a taste of things to come.
Temple of Saint Sava. One of the only things we went to see, before we got fed up with the driving style in the city, and left.
The trip away from Belgrade, direction Sofia, was a whole different story. As boring as the ride had been the day before, as exiting the landscape was this day. The scenery was amazing; Serbia was showing itself from its best side and the roads meandered up and down the hills and mountains, always revealing new vistas – the second surprise.
The local shuttle service.
Let the mountains begin!
Yes! The curves are back! If you look closely, you can see a building constructed in the cave ahead.
Curves!
Curves, curves, curves! Look out for your bag, Denise!
The straight roads in between were a reminder of the day before, but did not bother us the least.
Because the curves would come back in full force soon again.
Even the surface, we were driving on, was constantly changing. Furthermore, we experienced how tarmac is being repaired in four easy steps:
First step: the tarmac around potholes is dug out, and piled up. It looked like molehills to us.
We were zigzagging through the holes in the street at a crawling pace.
Second step: cleaning up the holes… Well, or taking a break from doing that.
Which looks like this, then.
Third step: adding new tarmac and some heavy machinery (in the background).
Fourth step: sprinkling some loose tarmac/gravel on top. Tadaa, your patched up road is done! All the steps were at least about 15km apart from each other, but why hurry?
All in all we were getting into the flow; sometimes flying, sometimes crawling through the landscape, with the best radio reception in our headsets ever. Arriving at our destination, Sofia, that day was not what mattered – it was actually the journey there.
We even took our time to stop for photos.
A closer look at Esben’s point of view.
And how Denise captured Esben. We’re going full meta here.
And a last one to put the icing on the cake.
Taking time for a picnic was also mandatory on such a lovely day.
The hills are alive with the sound of baah-ing.
Just before the border to Bulgaria, we came across a lovely waterfall.
A small bridge for the locals to cross the stream dry-footed. Quite idyllic.
We made it across the border to Bulgaria as the sun was setting.
That was a day we would always like to do again. Awesome ride! Eat, rest, repeat!
Until next time, keep on the lookout for days to treasure.