To Albac, Romania

Today’s ride was beautiful, but it was a hard day for me. Something I ate last night played havoc with my GI track. I was feeling a fair bit better in the morning, but definitely not 100%. So the climb was a struggle for me. The main part of the climb was 2500’ over 10 miles. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, I was certainly moving slowly. Nonetheless, much of the time I was able to ignore my discomfort and enjoy the lovely views.

We had a bit under 20 miles to get to the start of today’s climb. Initially we rolled through several small towns like this one.

I liked the washed out look to this trailer as I rode by.

Of course, riding through towns meant seeing churches.

You might think that I am posting photos of almost every church I see, but really it is only a small fraction. They are everywhere.

The views as we rode towards the mountains were lovely.

Once we got to the pass itself, the climb was fairly consistent which allowed me to get into a regular rhythm.

I thought this stone wall was very interesting. I have never seen anything like it.

At some point in the second hour of climbing, I was able to get views of the nearby hills.

But there was still more climbing to go. The lunch van was at the top. However, I was so focused on food, drink, and resting, that I forgot to take any photos.

On the way down, I noticed this church getting renovated.

Over the past two days, I have seen many haystacks staked out like these. This is a traditional method of drying the hay.

Most of the descent to our hotel was along this river.

I will end this post with one more church photo. Tomorrow is a mostly downhill 100 km ride. I am hoping that a good night’s sleep will have me feeling much better tomorrow. Thursday will be a rest day which I am looking forward to.