J30 – 1/16/2006

Serge crossed the city of Rijeka at noon.  From here on we will follow the Adriatic coast on a small, steep road wedged between the mountains and the sea and which gives us some beautiful views.

Rijeka is a very polluted and large harbor city, which we didn’t really notice except to hold our noses.

Even though our credit card was accepted in filling stations and hotels, for the first time we had to change money.  We had no problem using our credit card at automatic cash machines to get local currency,
he kuna: 1€ = 7.3 kn.
 
The Croatians are not very disciplined drivers.  More and more tourists are drawn to this country and the inhabitants are very welcoming.  Italian, French or English are spoken so there was no language barrier for us.

The atmosphere is rather special, similar to that found in French seaside towns, which are all closed in the winter.  So much the better for us because in the summer the  traffic must be infernal.  Also, we can also take advantage of low season prices in the small, deserted hotels.  We were able to do some washing and to put down our luggage for a night.

At 13H30 Serge passed the 41 km mark, his best average since he started.  But he paid for it by suffering fatigue, which meant he had to eat a tube of honey, an energy bar and a fruit paste all in one feeding.  Now the road descends but it continues to be very uneven.  Looking at our detailed map we see we will have this same terrain for some time because 560 km separate us from Dubrovnik.

Stéphanie and Thomas will leave us tonight to go back to Italy and take their plane back to Rennes tomorrow.