Cycling Over a Mountain Pass, Through the Carpathian Mountains

Our rides on Tuesday and Wednesday, both in Romania, were as different as day and night. Tuesday’s 67-mile ride from Timisoara to Caransebes was flat, with little scenery of note, and ended in a fairly nice town with a picturesque central square. Wednesday’s 60-mile ride was mountainous, with beautiful vistas in the Capathian mountains, and ended in the dreary town of Orsova.

The mountain pass we took through the Carpathians is the same one that the Orient Express used to cross these mountains. The train stopped in both Caransebes, an important rail hub, and Orsova. The road we took was never far from the railroad tracks, though we only saw them occasionally, when they ran right beside the road or when the road and tracks criss-crossed, with the road passing under rail bridges.

The mountain pass has been called the Oriental Gate, since it connects Western and Central Europe to Southeastern Europe and the Middle East (formerly called the “Orient”, or Near East) in Roman Empire days and subsequently. This terminology explains why the train from Paris to Istanbul was named the Orient Express.

On route to Caransebes

In the town of Lugoj, Romania

Main square in Caransebes

At the end of the main square


Pictures from our ride through the Carpathian Mountains:

Train tracks on a bridge over the road

Lunch in a small mountain town

An elderly couple stopped by to give us a handful of plums for our lunch