Ruth: Today we climbed over a 1070 meter pass and descended into the Mara valley. This is the heart of the historic region of Maramureş. Things are suddenly much more traditional. Horse drawn carts are common, as are the traditional wooden homes. When we are not climbing in the Carpathians or drinking the strong blueberry liquor we are usually exploring wooden churches. Today we stopped at ...
Gordon: Yesterday we left the comparatively flat roads of Transylvania for the hills of Maramures. Travellers come here for two reasons: to see one of the most traditional cultures remaining in Europe, and to visit the UNESCO designated wooden churches sprinkled across the region.We dropped in our first wooden church yesterday. Within a minute of parking our bikes, a beautiful young woman materialized with the ...
Gordon: While we are waiting for our bikes and gear to arrive we have taken a sidetrip to the town of Sibiu, which is perhaps 200 kms south of Cluj. We came by BlaBlaCar, which is a rideshare app popular in Romania. A BlaBlaCar ride is faster and cheaper than the bus, and affords the opportunity to have some social interaction with locals. We had ...
The number is listed as “Customer Relations,” and the message that repeats with the electronic music assures us that they understand that our time is valuable. Forty five minutes into this process I begin to feel that I am playing a role in some twisted psychological experiment. With too much time invested, I can’t give up in spite of the anxiety and anger welling up ...
Our bikes and bags are still missing in action. Today I am buying deodorant and shampoo, but it is amazing how little we can manage with. Fortunately, we have our camera, chargers, and a second pair of socks and underwear. Cluj is also a lovely city, but we are both anxious to get our bikes and start riding. Yesterday we met up with Vlad, an Art ...
We made it to Cluj-Napoca after travelling roughly 24 hours door to door. Our forty minute transfer in Toronto made us scramble, but we made our flight to Munich and on to Cluj. Our bikes and luggage were not so lucky. If all goes well they will be delivered to us at our hostel and spare us the aggravation of finding a cab big enough ...
After one of my toughest springs ever, it is time to turn my mind to preparations for our cycling trip in Romania and Bulgaria.
In the last decade I have had a complicated relationship with walking. Walking has given me both my best moments and my biggest heartbreaks. I thought our long separation was to be permanent, but the past two weeks in the Azores have given me a taste of all that I have missed. In the summers of 2009 and 2010 I walked 750 kms across France on ...
Gordon: During the last couple of days we have been doing a series of walks in the wilder, eastern portion of São Miguel. Yesterday we went for a beautiful coastal walk before lunch, and then an excursion up a lush canyon afterwards. On the return leg we passed through the tiny community of Sanguinho, which does not have road access. There were clearly many more ...
Ruth: We are back on Sao Miguel and once again I am blown away by the diversity of the island. This morning we went on a short hike that did a circuit of the Gorreana tea plantation. (Gordon tells me that it isn't pronounced like an S.T.D.) The plant that produces tea, it turns out, is a member of the camellia family. After visiting the ...