Paris-Pekin 15 April

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Tuesday 15 April - Bucharest to Slobozia, 130 km

Raining quite hard in the morning. A late start because we hqad some schoolchildren accompanying us some of the way. Police escort out of Bucharest, then we used main roads all the way. These are 2-lane roads hardly better than English “B” roads, with enough hard shoulder to cycle on. It was very windy and quite cold, and there were big lorries passing all the time spraying us with dirty water. Not at all nice!
There were lots of people waving to us in the towns and villages, which was nice. Many people had their animals out grazing on the road verges: these appear to be common land. There were many cows - sometimes one, sometimes two or three; goats, horses and chickens. Their owners waved to us too.
The weather cleared up a bit around lunchtime and the afternoon was not bad, though there was still quite a wind. The roads were incredibly boring, long and straight and lined on both sides with trees. They paint the lower 3 or 4 feet of the tree trunks white, which makes a sort of road border. Even where there are new trees planted the little twiggy things are painted white.
There are lots of memorials along the roads to people who have died in accidents. In one short stretch I counted 12 - there must have been a multiple vehicle accident. How they have so many accidents on straight flat roads I cannot imagine.
We had a police escort into Slobozia and are staying in two hotels - this one is large and tatty and out on the edge of town; the other one is more central. I am sharing a 3-bed room with 3 other women (two of them are sharing a double bed). Dinner was not bad: salad, fried cheese, pasta and some sort of pie for pud. No WiFi here.

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