Dragoduna to Bucharest, July 8, 80km

Police Escort into Bucharest! Yea!

This was a welcome easy, though very hot, day. We needed to bike 68 km to the outskirts of Bucharest, and rendezvous for a police escort to our hotel in the city center. Being creatures of habit, we still got up at first light and had breakfast at 6:30. Then it was leisurely ride to the meeting point, but before long it turned into a race – I came in fourth – and a two hour lunch and wait in 100 deg temps for a motorcycle police escort.

Along the way we got to see potatoes being harvested by hand and loaded into carts. In the towns, individual home owners stacked bags of potatoes in front, along with watermelon and tomatoes, for sale.

As we neared Bucharest even our secondary road started getting busy with truck traffic, so it was a welcome relief to get off the highway. At 12:30 we linked up with the police escort and a 12 km ride into the city with a blue light flashing and sirens blowing through red lights. The locals must have thought it was a parade and waved at us like we were celebs. It was fantastic!