The start of my day was not so pleasant, but it just got better after that. It was foggy, so I delayed my start a little and wore the safety-vest I had ‚delivered‘ to Krakow by one of my colleagues. That with the white helmet made sure I was visible, but that does not really help if there is just no space for cyclists…
So there was kind of a bottle-neck in the valley, so no space for more than one road, that carries a lot of (heavy) traffic. There was not even a hard shoulder for me to use anymore. I used every opportunity to let the traffic behind me pass, lay-byes, etc. In one of these a couple of bin-men with their little lorry saw me and motioned to me that it was far to dangerous to cycle here (agreed), and although we did not have a common language, we put my bike and panniers on the back with the collected rubbish, and I joined them in the cabin. It was only about 2km, but I was so grateful! This all went really quite fast, I did not manage to get pictures of my stuff with the rubbish….
After that the valley opened up and I was on smaller roads, sometimes even on bike lanes, much more pleasant. The weather was quite good again as well, I was in shorts and managed to dry some of me washing on the bike.
I had my first break in Zilina which I had not expected to be so pretty.
And then I had the best lunch on a long time sitting on a very nice terrace in the sun – yes, this time of year I am seeking out the sun and not trying to hide from it. Some impressions of still following the river valley.
I was starting to get slightly worried, when the first two B&Bs did not have room for me, but I was third time lucky. As I am fairly high up I managed to capture this hot-air balloon at sunset.
what a fantastic picture of the hot air balloon!
and so nice and thoughtful of the bin-men to make sure you arrive safely!
Thanks to the bin men !!!
The beauty of nature, landscape and contact with nice people, which can be found everywhere in the world, only opens up if you slow down.
Cycling or walking opens up things that you would otherwise have simply overlooked.
Goethe pointed out, that speed is a problem in itself „Reichtum und Schnelligkeit ist, was die Welt bewundert und wonach jeder strebt, Eisenbahnen, Schnellposten, Dampfschiffe und alle mögliche Fazilitäten der Kommunikation sind es, worauf die gebildete Welt ausgeht, sich zu überbieten, zu überbilden und dadurch in der Mittelmäßigkeit zu verharren.“
Great tour, wish I would do this in the near future myself …