Day 36: Rain

This morning it happened. Just as I wanted to leave heavy rain with some lighting started. Instead I just marvelled at the rain for half an hour. Wonderful! When it subsided a bit I started my ride.

Nice glasses, eh? But they are really practical
since you can clean them with a single sponge wipe 
during the rain.

For the first part I stayed on the R465. The road I had already used yesterday. Almost no traffic, good conditions. Happy cycling.

But that road ended in Maglaj. So I had to change to the bigger M110. This was the part I dreaded the most when planning the route. The motorway only starts in Zenica. Between Maglaj and Zenica all traffic is on the M110. To make things worse heavy rain started again when I got to Maglaj. Still I decided to go on, since I had a long way to go. And the traffic was not quite as heavy as I had feared.

A few kilometers later the rain ended and a racing cyclist overtook me. Happy to see another cyclist on the road I decided to use him as pacemaker. I could follow him for quite a while until an ascent of 7% where I had to let go. When I reached the top a tunnel started --- that may not be used by pedestrians, carriages and bicycles ??? And there is no alternative. So I decided to just go for it. Embrace the exhaust fumes for 600m and go as fast as possible.

A few kilometers later I stopped at the side of the road to eat and drink when a police car stopped behind me. I tried to think about what to tell them. But they just asked if I was ok, where I was going and wished me good luck for my trip. Fastest police stop yet (later I had another stop by an "inspection" team, that took a bit longer, since they had to make phone calls first to find out what to do with me).

Start of the alternative route with the motor way overhead.

From Zenica on BRouter had proposed using a different valley than the motor way, which seemed like a good idea. It went uphill, but with nice tarmac and not a lot of traffic.

Nice tarmac. Nice views.

But after a few kilometers a construction site started and I had to cycle on gravel again. I'm kind of used to this by now, so I just hoped that this was a short part. But this time one of my front tires was tired of gravel and gave up :( So I had to replace it. Third flat tire in more than 4000 km is still ok I guess.

After reaching the top of the mountain I had hoped for a fast descent and an early arrival in Sarajevo. But the descent was a gravel road again.

At times the road was so steep that I feared I'd start sliding instead driving down. By now I'm convinced that BRouter purposely makes fun of me by luring me onto tracks that seem nice in the beginning, but turn ugly once it is to late to turn back. 

Even in the center Sarajevo it found probably the only piece of gravel road:

I had to cycle 10km through Sarajevo. For the first part I feared that this might not be a pretty city after all. But once I made a left turn that led through an archway inside one of the houses I entered the old part of the city that is very nice.

Since it was already late I could only walk the city in the dark after checking into the hotel, but it was still bustling with activity. So I just got an ice cream and some food later on and watched was happening in the streets. Probably cultural melting pot is a good description.

Now I'm going to catch some sleep and hope to see more of the city in the morning...