croatian roads

          I was impressed with Osijek and had enjoyed my visit the cycle out from the centre was reasonably simple out the main square down to the river then follow the pleasant cycle path to the end of town, there was a Lidl there I got water and juice it seemed to be a poor area so i locked the bike up and took of the bar bag and was worried about the bungee chorded backpack whilst i done a quick shop the rushing made me forget to get some snacks, i regretted this later because I was heading of into the countryside with no Croatian money and no snacks with around 80kms to the border of Serbia,
     

nearly all of this cycle was to be at the side of a busy road no cycle lane, it was like cycling in Scotland there was plenty signs saying cycle route but no cycle route just the side of a scary busy road and the roadside rubbish had returned,
          the distance wasn't too big a problem essentially I have cycled much more in a day, my initial plan was to do 140km to Novi Sad the nearest big Place once over the Serbian border, But the roads were narrow with lots of traffic, this distance was a big challenge that day
     

  I stopped in a city called Vokovar to take plenty pictures at what should have a been a third of my days journey, this city had seen A terrible amount of fighting during the serb croat war, the biggest battle in Europe since WW2 had happened here, the city was shelled and virtually destroyed by bombing it was mostly rebuilt now, but there was a water tower they had left to show the extent of the shelling,
            I had noticed a bit of rubbing happening whilst cycling that morning and thought I should investigate when i stopped to take pics of the shelled water tower.  the problem was my back brake was stuck on just like my front brake had done but this time! I had to stop and repair it as i was going to hit hills, i had never properly fixed the front brake so i would have to fix them both now as a rubbing brake is hard work,the last thing i needed this day was bloody extra hard work and no brakes was not an option on this busy main road with hills
       

   I cycled up onto a plain once out the city and into the country again, the scenery  and weather were lovely, for the next 30-40km i was on this narrow main road with trucks and cars flying past, this road dropped three or four times down to the river level and then steeply back up. its really exhilarating flying down a road on a bicycle i would be downing about forty mile an hour on a laden bike, when these steep drops had a bend into a village or hamlet doing that speed was scary and i was glad i had done the work on the brakes! the exciting downhills i tried to take advantage of as much as i could because the climb back up on each occasion had me in the granny gears off the saddle and shattered at the next section of flat upper plain farm roads,

         it took me a lot longer than i had hoped to get to the Croatian border at the bridge over the Danube into Serbia, there wasn't much traffic coming in or out i felt at the Croatian town of ilok , i joined the Que of cars about 4-5 in front of me as I pushed the cycle over and handed my passport through the window, the girl just scanned it and handed it back to me with a smile just a formality, then i was in no mans land on the bridge,

         I thought back to the bridge i crossed at Niagara falls from Canada into america there is a sign half way over that bridge with the countries on a sign post you can stand at the sign and have your photo taken with one half of you in each country, that would have been good but not here the bridge actually needed a paint,  I was now leaving the European union and entering a non EU country, the Danube looked stunning horizon to horizon and I was wondering if I would see it again!