Sept. 6: fortified churches and another long day...

Today, we biked 55 miles, about half on gravel and sand. It was further than we’d expected given the mapping, and much tougher terrain. But we got to pass by 7 fortified churches, plus we are staying by one tonight for a total of 8. They are medieval looking places in medieval looking towns.

On the gravel portion today, we got to go through probably one of the most remote parts of Europe that isn’t covered in snow. It included fields, so it’s visited by farmers, but it was lonely and quiet, except when we were chased by a feral pig. We got to ride through amazing beech forests as well, and just admire the absolute quiet and the butterflies chasing our tires. At one point, a dog jumped out from behind a knoll and I yelped; we have grown wary of dogs. It was followed by dog after dog and at first I was worried but then I noticed that many were puppies and then I saw the shepherd with them. There must have been 10 in total and they ended up walking happily with us for a short while and licking Emily’s legs.

A few notes: there aren’t many shops in rural Romania, and in the really tiny places we have seen vans driving down the roads, blaring a pre-recorded voice for various foods, clothes, and toilet paper. In many villages, we have seen cheaply-made three-story monstrosities; we heard these are made by Romanians who have made money elsewhere in the EU and now want to show their wealth off. Many are half complete and look forlorn; they are more sad than proud.

Now we are in the picturesque Biertan, where we just had a giant meal that we shared with a funny-looking dog. We then gave some of our food to a little kitten who was hiding in a building near our guesthouse. I joked that we will leave here with a pile of animals in our panniers.