Monday August 15: Osijek Croatia
An Unimpressive Bike Tour
Last night was not a good night for either of us. I'm finding that my throat is getting increasingly scratchy, and I don't think it is allergies. I had trouble falling asleep and took my antihistamines. A few hours later, I woke up and repeated the process. Amy also didn't have a good night's sleep either.
We didn't have anything scheduled for the morning, so we slept in an extra half hour and got up at 7. Amy got up a bit before the alarm to get some tea, as her throat was rather dry and a bit sore.
After breakfast, we went back to our room and went back to bed. There was about an hour and a half before some musicians were due to arrive for a musical set in the lounge. Both of us managed to get some more sleep. We just finished listening to them play.
Lunch will begin in 15 minutes, and then we have an hour to eat and get ready for the afternoon's activities. It is a warm sunny day.
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For me, today was pretty much a waste. I would have been better off bailing on the biking and joining Amy.
At a high level, I think we were supposed to dock the boat at place Y, and do tour around Y and Z. But due to low water, the boat couldn't get to Y, so it stopped at X, where there was an hour and a half bus ride to get to Y. Because of the bus ride, they didn't have time for Z, so that portion was dropped.
I wasn't looking forward to spending three hours or more in a bus, so I was sort of expecting that the bike ride would be much closer. No dice. The bike ride was at Y, so I didn't save any of the bus ride.
The bike "ride" was the bike equivalent of when we were meandering through the park in Belgrade. It was even slower than yesterday's biking, by a significant amount. For the most part, I rode next to the guide, while he talked about what we were going past. The guide was an older gentleman, and he despite his efforts, he really wasn't that interesting. So the tour portion was not that interesting, and the biking experience was almost non-existent, so I would have been better off joining Amy's tour.
We visited an undershot water wheel mill, and we visited the Catholic cathedral. That was the most interesting part.
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Amy (and the rest of the group) got a flute concert at a church, and then they went (in three smaller groups) to a person's house, where she got some food and drink, got a tour of the house, and listened to them talk about their lives.
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I'm not as bad as Amy was, but my nose is running more, my throat is slightly scratchy, and I'm feeling slightly run down.
Right now, we are about to hear about what is going on tomorrow, and how we are going to manage the disembarkation on Wed. Half of the people are going on to Amsterdam, and half of us are getting off at Bucharest.