Please, please pave again

I woke up rather early to the sound of a pounding rain, so it was not until around 10:30 that I had left my room - and started a day which was to remain overcast.

Outside Bicaz, I pondered whether I should take the longer main road or a short-cut through a national park and even though most folks I had asked told me to avoid the road, I went for it. I did not regret my decision, even though it was quite a hard climb, but it wasn't the climb itself, but the quality of the road (was it one?) that got to me. From the top, I had a wonderful view of Lake Izvorai Munteluj; a little shepherd dog must have thought I was a sheep, as he wanted to follow me; the shepherd had to go out of his way to herald him back. On the way up, I stopped at a wooden monestary, later on in another monestary in Durau.

Back to the civilized world, somewhat beat due to the road (o to the lack of it), I had a nice chat with a teacher and the students of a school on an excursion to Grinties, they were thrilled to see me biking their country.

On the bike again, I headed westwards this time, on the road 17B. By the way, the road signs in Romania are very clear and there is something I outright love: there are milage (OK, it is the mertic system, so kilometer) markers and each contain the road number, the distance to (and from) the next large town and the next small village. This makes navigation rather easy and it also allows you to pace yourself, always knowing the distance you've made or have yet to make. The only issue is that in some places these road markers are so washed out that nothing is legible on them.

Anyways, one thing about road 17B: there was a large number of tire repair truck shops at the beginning and soon I found out why. It was a very unpleasant ride, with a number of potholes simply impossible to miss. Everything hurt and I was more than happy to have stopped at a B&B after some 30 km's of being on this road (well, this really wasn't one).