Rachael and I both went to bed last night feeling a bit put out with our classy waterfront Grand Hotel. Grand it’s not, we agreed with three complaints. One, there’s no coffee maker. Rachael has gotten addicted to her 6AM coffee, which she drinks cold after brewing and refrigerating it the night before. Two, amazingly enough there’s no control for the air conditioning - a problem, because it’s actually cold in our room. We consider leaving the door to the balcony open, but feel guilty about wasting the electricity. Then we consider calling the front desk, when we discover that that there’s no phone - gripe #3. We give up and decide to just cuddle together under the blankets, but it’s certainly a surprise.
Then, this morning I open a cupboard for some reason and see a coffee pot staring me in the face. Next, Rachael starts getting dressed and finds a phone buried under her clothes. Inspired, I look one last time and see a wall temperature control staring me in the face that clearly must have mysteriously arrived in the dark of night.
Where the hell did this come from? And why was it set to 16C?
So we’re feeling better about our hotel when we head down to breakfast at 7. And then we feel much better still when we enjoy a fabulous spread: made to order omelets, croissants, all manner of cold cuts, dried fruit, cereal and sausage. And the view from our table on the balcony isn’t bad either.
I forgot to bring my camera to breakfast this morning. Looking at the sunrise, I considered rushing back upstairs but decided there wasn’t time so made do with the iPad. Which reinforces the adage that the best camera is the one you have with you.
Pretty easy ride today. Just thirty miles to Labin, a hill town near the coast that we stayed at on our last visit to Istria two years ago. The first half of the ride is a snap, riding mostly on the level along the coast. The road is a bit congested and uninteresting for the first few miles as we bike past one seaside resort after another. Finally though we’re out or the resort belt and the ride becomes prettier with every mile. By the end, it’s reminding me of the balcony roads in Corsica.
Eventually, we leave the coast and start climbing. The last half of the ride features two climbs, neither as serious as we expected. After climbing gradually about eight hundred feet, we top out at a high viewpoint overlooking the long, narrow inlet of Plomin Bay. We were here just two years ago, so I’m startled to see this sight again and be reminded of how much I’ve forgotten since then.
Then, a gradual drop past the end of the bay nearly to sea level, and then a second climb up the other side, arriving in Labin not long after noon. We stop at an ATM and grocery for a quick snack and then head straight to our hotel room, pleased to be arriving before the day warms up too much and happy we can check in early and lie around for an hour or so before going out to look around the town.
Looking west along canal-like Plomin bay. Not shown is the enormous, unsightly 340 foot tall chimney of the Plomin power station, the tallest structure in Croatia. If you ask nicely, we’ll include a photograph of it when we return this way next week to catch the ferry to Cres.
