//Day 64 /14-05-22 /Sarajevo-Zenica

Today I would cycle solo again and heading for Zenica. Some 80K from Sarajevo. I would have preferred a longer distance but the region between Sarajevo and the Croatia does not have a lot of hotels or campings…I had plotted a route following mainly small roads and was not sure what to expect. 

I had again a great hotel breakfast, Bosniak this time (cheese, sausage smoked meat,…) , pumped some additional air into Black Horse tires, packed and left the Sarajevo…To leave the city I had to climb some short but steep hills but soon I was out of the city following a limited time a bigger but not so busy road before I could started cycling a small road following a railway track. Later in the day I would follow most of the time the Bosna and Ribnica river valleys.

When I left Sarajevo, the sky was grey with some very light rain. Quite different weather compared to the last days. The rain was so light though it wasn’t even worth wearing rain gear. So I cycled mostly on small roads, sometimes besides,  sometimes underneath the highway. The scenery looked very German / Low Austria to me except that the villages did not have churches but mosques. I passed some small villages but met very few people and traffic along the way. 

One thing I noted was that a lot of houses where empty and/or for sale. Not sure why but it was quite visible. 

20 K before Zenica I was send on an big unpaved road. I think in the past that the road was paved but that heavy lorries riding from/to the quarries along the road have destroyed the road. A lot of potholes but riding quality was still ok. After riding the Ciro and the mountain trail I believe all surfaces are cycleable…..I had also one climb to 670 meters but the 350 meters of climbing was quickly a fait accompli. 

After the climb it was a nice descent into Zenica, not a city I would recommend to visit as there is little to see. The city is the center of the Zenica-Doboj canton and known for its ironworks factory and regional university. A lot of communist era apartments and a city centre which mainly consists out of concrete shopping malls and a one pedestrian street. Some nice hotels though. I took a room at the Carpe Diem Boutique hotel. For 35 euro’s I got a big room, kingsize bed and …..an electric open fire. The shower was the best I had since my Balkan trip. The last couple of days I had not slept that good, often waking up early, so after my shower I quickly fell asleep whilst I was reading…..In the late afternoon I made a walk through the city to see if there was anything else to see except shopping malls…there was not. The weather by know was again sunny (tomorrow 28 degrees are forecasted). In the central street preparation was ongoing for a running race which would take place in the evening. I had an icecream, but again not of ice cream champions league level. I walked back to the hotel, had a drink and wrote today’s post. This evening I will go for dinner of hamburger and fries in the busy hotel’s restaurant which seems a bit the place to be of Zenica. 

 

All by all it has not been a bad day, cycling went well, the scenery was better than expected, I have nice hotelroom and will probably get a good burger to eat. Tomorrow again the distance to cycle is limited, 90 K, to the city Doboj which I think will be a little similar as Zenica, even smaller. I will continue to follow the Bosna river and expect the scenery to continue German/Austria like. Not bad. The day after I will ride into the South-East part of Croatia and start  heading North to Zagreb.

Lessons learned :

• There is sometimes water under the bridge where a road should be.
• There is money to be made as a hotelroom socket layout advisor. 

Song of the day : Comfort - School is Cool