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And that’s it – I’m waiting on the bus home from work – would normally cycle but Bertie Bike is having some respite care at the bike shop – hopefully get him back soon

The first 30 or so miles cycling home was on a mostly good mix of quiet roads and cycle paths. But hard work at times – the stretch between Strathclyde Park and The Forth and Clyde Canal is surprisingly (I thought – although not sure why I was surprised) undulating. Luckily no punctures as there was a couple of stretches with a lot of broken glass.

Joined the canal tow path near Kilsyth – nice and easy cycling and I don’t have to think about navigation as I’m on the last stretch home and I’ve done this bit loads of times. Sun is out as well and the canal is really pretty with the water lillies on it and the wild flowers alongside it.

Make it to Karen’s house – she’s been keeping my house keys safe for me as well as sorting out any geeky gadgety problems I’ve had and helping from afar when I’m panicking about taking Bertie to bits and other maintenance problems.

The heavens open not long after I get to Karen’s so I delay cycling the last 7 miles home until the rain stops, which it does and I make it home just before the next downpour.

Although I complained about being cold at the beginning of my trip and I’ve got very wet at times but overall I’ve had good weather and it was toasty toasty in Romania. Coming back after a spell away you appreciate how green it is – a different vibrancy to it compared with other countries so the rain can’t be all bad.

Now I’m back time to enjoy catching up with friends and family but also got a few ideas for future trips!

For those of you who have not seen the few pictures I have put on Facebook over the last couple of days I am back in a slightly chilly Scotland.

I left Bucharest early Saturday evening and flew to Liverpool and started cycling north from there. I am currently at the campsite at Strathclyde Park and got about 40 miles to do tomorrow to get home.

Leaving Bucharest was a bit stressful – mostly of my own doing – lots of dithering and a wee bit of panicking (or was it the other way round) about getting bike to airport and packing it up and putting it back together at the other end.

I much prefer taking the bike on the ferry – wheel it on; tie it to something to stop it falling over; take what you need eg phone, wallet, passport, food, etc and leave everything else behind – no need to take anything apart – easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Initial thought was to cycle to airport with some big sheets of plastic or bubble wrap and a roll of parcel tape and take bike to bits there but having cycled close to the airport on way to Bucharest I didn’t fancy repeating the journey – I asked at the tourist information, at a bike hire place and at a bicycle shop if there was a good route to cycle there but there didn’t seem to be so this idea was abandoned.

Next plan was to get train to airport, again with plastic sheeting and roll of tape or as per my sister’s suggestion get the folks that cling wrap luggage to cling wrap Bertie bike and this seems to have been done successfully by other cyclists but Karen had me panicking that Bertie would not be protected enough so onto plan C.

Plan C – take Bertie back to the bike shop who I had got to slacken off the pedals the previous day – as I wasn’t strong enough to do it myself and I really need a big spanner and not just my Allen Key – they had offered me a bike box for free, which I had declined.

Bike shop no longer had the box but he found one that was about to be put in the rubbish and I paid the the wee bit extra to have them take Bertie to bits and get him all boxed up.

Now that Bertie is all boxed up I can’t get him and bags to either train station or bus stop as impossible to carry box and panniers – so I organise an Uber – only about £16 – money well worth spending once I’d got over the fear that boxed up Bertie might not fit in as I did not know what size of car would arrive and there doesn’t seem to be a way to tell Uber that you have some unwieldy luggage with you.

Uber arrives and it’s a decent size but it’s a saloon and not a hatchback. Driver does that thing that joiners, builders, car body repair men, etc do (maybe ladies do it as well) when you ask them to fix something that is possibly not fixable – that sucking of air through pursed lips while pulling on the beard that’s not there while eyeing up the job, repeat, repeat – he looked at box, he looked at car – I thought he was going to say whatever the Romanian is for no-can-do and leave me and Bertie bike on the pavement but in the end with 2/3’s of the box in the boot and a 1/3 hanging out and the boot held down with a bungee cord he gives me a thumbs up we head off to the airport.

In my panic we arrive at airport nearly 5 hours early but better early than late and I finally put Bertie Bike in the safe hands (fingers crossed) of Wizzair.

Plane arrives in Liverpool an hour late which is a nuisance as I’ve got a 7 mile bike ride to the hostel once I put Bertie back together again – I do have a front light but it’s at the bottom of a pannier and I forgot to check if it was charged up. I surprise myself though and put Bertie back together quite quickly.

Next morning head off to Halfords to collect new tyre for back wheel, fit it and start cycling north and now I’m nearly home. Had an amazing time and already thinking about my next trip.

Have to admit initial thoughts of Bucharest weren’t good – big, noisy, busy and ugly (except for the fountains) and wasn’t that taken by the hostel either, which wasn’t helped by my very loud,  opinionated, will she ever stop talking American room mate.

Didn’t do much the evening I arrived – it was pouring – and sitting on my bum was probably not a bad thing. Bed was comfy in the hostel and I’d had a good night’s sleep – and I’d found a clean working shower – the one in my dorm wasn’t so clean and didn’t seem to want to produce any warm water – this combined with the sun coming out and everything always feels better and I found myself really liking my 2 days in Bucharest.

The buildings are still big and grey but then they come to life when the sun is on them. And there are splashes of colour throughout the city. As soon as you get away from the 2 main roads that cross over in Bucharest it is mostly quite and a nice relaxing city to wander round.

The fountains in Unirii Square are beautiful both during the day and night and are lit up Fridays, Saturday’s and Sunday’s until winter time – they were built during the Communist era but have been restored and are the “first smart fountains in Europe” and are in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest choreographered fountain display – I loved them.

I walked to the Parliment Buildings.

And then carried on to find out what the gold domed building I could see – transpired it was Bucharest’s new Cathedral – The People’s Salavation Cathedral – and is due to be finished in 2025. Although not completed it is already the tallest Orthodox Cathedral in the world. Young Romanian non-church goers who I met at a campsite a few weeks ago felt that the money being spent on the Cathedral could be better spent elsewhere

There was lots of beautiful parks.

On the way to find food on the first evening I got distracted by another fountain.

And in turn this led me to another park – Carol The I Park and this has the Romanian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – I do like just wandering and seeing what I can find.

On the 2nd day I took the metro to go and visit Ceausescu’s Villa. The metro was easy to navigate and clean and efficient. It felt a bit strange going to see the house of a dictator but interesting.

Near to the villa are a number of lakes and I walked round part of the edge of 2 of them.

A young experienced backpacker, that I met in Brasov, said she hadn’t felt safe in Bucharest due to the homeless people hanging about – and that she didn’t like leaving the hostel by herself. Without a doubt there are homeless people in Bucharest – some I saw with significant physical disabilities – I never felt unsafe at anytime – and not that is good in either place but felt that I saw more homeless people when I went to San Francisco compared with Bucharest.

Overall I really enjoyed Bucharest and to be honest I’m not really sure why – but I’d definitely like to come back – lots more to see and do – both in Bucharest and the rest of Romania.

I purposely left early(ish) – partly to get roads quieter / partly because it was cooler. Getting out of Ploiesti was quite straight forward and there was some cycle paths – some very good – some terrible – couple of bits where the cycle path / pavement was being dug up – when this happens nothing seems to be put in place for the pedestrian or cyclist. At end of town the cycle path runs out and it’s a case of joining the dual carriage – not too bad to begin with but the further south I go the busier it gets. Again I make detours through the nearby villages to get off the main road as much as possible – trying to stay on just paved roads – my rear tyre is on it’s last legs and I have another broken spoke and I’m hoping both hold out until I get to Bucharest. I hear lots of barking to my right at the edge of one small town – all behind a fence and there are lots of dogs and kennels for them – wondering if it might be a rescue centre but didn’t get chance to find out as the road changed to rubble and I managed to slow down? Just narrowly avoiding going through a huge pot hole at speed – I got such a fright the dogs were forgotten about. At another town I stop at a crossroads to check the map on my phone – a lady approaches to help – it looks as if I’m going going to have to join the dual carriageway again – when I say “Bucharesti” – she points right and left and confirms what I thought – in mime she tells me I’m strong – I’m able to tell her I’ve been cycling in Romania for 4 weeks and I tell her that Romania is beautiful – all in mime and odd words – she puts her hands to her heart and gives me the biggest smile ever. In my attempt to avoid the dual carriageway I have to cross it 4 times – once at a zebra crossing and I’m pleasantly surprised that all the traffic did stop – and at 3 pedestrian bridges – at the bridges I had to take the panniers off, get these to the top of the stairs and then return for the bike and then repeat going down the stairs at the other side – at the 3rd set of stairs a guy coming down towards me helped me out – he went all the way back over the other side carrying my bike while I carried the panniers and I was so grateful. About 10 miles from Bucharest I’m thinking yippee I’m nearly there but no – I’m at a really busy intersection and I really don’t fancy it – did a lot of map checking and tooing and froing – there was a train station not to far away but there didn’t seem to be an easy way to get to it – to get to Bucharest I needed ro get to the other side of a railway line that was at right angles to the direction I was going in – there seemed to be lots of minor roads on either side of the railway line but very few seemed to cross it – eventually with lots of zooming in I managed to plot a better route and finally got on my way again and even found a stretch of cycle lane. I walked the last couple of kilometers, pushing Bertie, to the hostel – navigating in a busy city while cycling is not – in amongst the sea of concrete I spotted this huge violin sculpture –

And then the fountains –

Initially thinking I was getting wet from the fountains, but it had actually just started raining – made it to the hostel not long before the heavens really opened.

I will definitely return to Romania in the future but not sure I would repeat the last stretch of cycling.

Thought I might have used up my “wow” moments  for this trip but then I cycled past the Eastern end of The Carpathian Mountains and the views were just stunning.

After a late breakfast – very very delicious late breakfast – we were all heading south to Bucharest – Emma, Matt and Ben by bus – me back on Bertie bike again.

Very steep road out of the old town of Brasov and onto some back roads before joining the main road south – bit busier than I would have liked but worth it for the views.

Now knowing that the rangers put some food out to try and keep the bears in the woods rather than the bears wandering into town to scavenge for something more interesting I thought it was unlikely that I’d get to see any more bears but keeping an eye out all the same but no luck.

As I got to the edge of a town called Busteni I saw posters advertising the castle where “Wednesday” was filmed – combination of the pictures on the posters and somewhere in the depth of my memory I knew there was a connection to “The Adam’s Family”, something I’ve only watched odd bits of but never got into  – I decided to make a wee detour to see Cantacuzino Castle. I paid to go into the grounds only – to go into the castle was guided tour only and in Romanian and as I’d only mastered about 4 words (including prostitute) I decided not to go in. It was still worthwhile going into the grounds as there was some interesting sculptures and more fab views of the mountains.

Not much further away – with a very short but very steep section of pushing Bertie up the last stretch (minus the panniers which I went back for) to Hay Huy Campsite – I’d followed the walking and cycling route – not the car route – when it said cycling it meant for a mountain bike with no additional weight. Campsite was very small but very friendly and more good views of the mountains. This was the first campsite I’d stayed at that had an electric fence to keep the bears out and a shed to keep our food in overnight. Next morning I took the “car” route to rejoin the main road – this was longer and less steep but still would have been hard work if I’d gone up this way yesterday.

Next day I was heading for Ploiesti where I had a room for the night booked. First a wee detour and final real uphill in Romania, to visit Peles Castle, near the town of Sinaia. The castle was built for King Carol I of Romania “because he fell in love with the mountain scenery ” – still in The Carpathian Mountains it wasn’t difficult to see why he liked it. I was only able to visit the 1st floor – it is closed altogether on Monday’s, 1st floor is open on Tuesday’s and then it is fully open the rest of the week – I went on a Tuesday. Looking at some of the pictures of the upper floors there are some brighter rooms but oh my word downstairs was dark and not very welcoming but at the same time stunning. The castle is famous for, amongst other things, its oak carving – and without a doubt they are stunning but very dark – even the library was dark, which didn’t seem to make it very conducive to reading, but again it was still beautiful.

The weapons collection was beautiful – not normally 2 words you put together but the detail and carvings and jewels on some of the weapons was stunning.

The “”Florentine” room was still dark but was fairly brightened up by the 2 Murano Glass chandeliers – not sure that the wood and chandeliers complimented each other but that’s just my opinion.

Next it was off to find my bed for the night. From Brasov to Bucharest I’d asked for advice on which route to take (which included Peles Castle) as I knew it was going to get busier the closer I got to Bucharest – however they all said there wasn’t much option but to stick to the DN1 road – however managed to link up quite a few villages and missed most of the busy roads until quite close to Ploiesti. Got a fabby wee single room with its own shower – it was cheap and in the right area but no reviews which made me wonder if I’d made the right choice but it was perfect and in a nice quiet area – transpired though that they weren’t actually ready for business – booking.com was not meant to have put it on their website for another few days and you could see that they were still in the process of decorating the other rooms – luckily my one was ready and they now have one review.