When I normally say ‘rest day’ it is no such thing. It’s a ‘day off the bike day’ but today really is a ‘rest day’. I won’t go into detail but I wasn’t particularly well yesterday evening. The symptoms were more associated with a bug of some sort however, rather than dehydration. Perhaps I’m not dehydrated after all. Whatever the cause or symptoms, I do feel better at the moment, certainly compared to last night.
As I said at the end of the previous post, Novi Vinodolski isn’t the kind of place you would choose to spend 36 hours in on this kind of trip but as a place to recover from sickness, it’s perfect as there isn’t really anything to tear me away from my room in this guest house. And what a nice room it is! Think (rather appropriately) private hospital room without the doctors and nurses on hand. Very modern, clinical (in a good sense, i.e. clean), comfortable, air-conditioned. I do have a dodgy picture if an angel about to push two children into a raging torrent on the wall to look at (I’m sure there are other interpretations – make your own mind up below) but it is far nicer than Hotel Eva last night. Eleanor & Boris, the owners, were very welcoming but the place needed a bit of an upgrade. I would have been content to stay for another night but, as I suspected after checking availability on Booking.com when I woke this morning, my room was no longer available. Boris to the rescue! He had a friend just down the road who had a room on their house… “Does it have a private bathroom?” I enquired considering how often I had to use the one at Hotel Eva last night. “Yes, of course… 50€.”
The lady who owns the property duly arrived, fully briefed about my medical condition (“…idiot from England cycling from Greece to Portugal in this weather…”) and after I inspected the place, the deal was sealed. Kelly (the owner) & her sister Sabha from Germany seem to run the place and have shown great kindness with help transporting my things from the hotel, camomile tea, more camomile tea…
My only trip out so far has been to the supermarket across the road to buy water, factor 50, an isotonic drink (to see what it tastes like – never had one before) & some bread that I nibbled through for lunch. I may well remain here, horizontal, for the remainder of the day.
Tomorrow, cycling day 21 I will set off for Italy. Trieste is 120km so in theory is an attainable destination. That said, I won’t be taking risks and if I need to stop earlier, I will.