June 20th
Stage 60 Ciocarla to Constanta 34 kms
Setting off from the railway
crossing at Ciocarla it was difficult to believe that in an hour or so, all
being well, of course, I would have completed the entire crossing of Europe
from Galway in the west of Ireland on the Atlantic seaboard to Constanta in
eastern Romania on the shores of the Black Sea. Nonetheless, I was holding my
breath, sometimes literally, as truck after truck thundered past me on the 17
km straight and undulating stretch to the main
road junction after the Danube to Black Sea canal. Still, all went well
as I turned on to the four lane highway, leading after 15 kms or so into
Constanta, and it wasn’t as difficult as I had feared. Traffic was relatively
light and kept its distance. Curiously, even now one or two 
people would cheer
me on. Only on one section where the road bifurcated to Tulcea and I found
myself forced into the middle of the
road did I feel uncomfortable. I paused at the pilots boat, named Constantia,
hauled up beside the road to indicate the entrance to the city, for a photo
stop, and then it was unexpectedly easy plain sailing the final five kilometers
to our hotel on the Boulevarde Decembre 1918, from which Katherine and I
walked, with the bicycle, together down to the decrepit, once magnificent but
now very sad, Cazino, on the very shore of the Black Sea. Mission well and
truly accomplished. It remains to explore what appears to be a fascinating city
tomorrow and then to go home. 
34 kms 671 kms from
Severin. 4736 kms from Galway
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