Fish Soup

Selenca to Novi Sad, Serbia — 38.4 mi, 12.6 mph, 590 ft

Today’s ride was short but hot.  We were particularly looking forward to a quick ride after the long, tiring one yesterday. The roads were straight and flat, but busy, and, as usual, with no shoulder. We did have a nice chance meeting, though, this morning at breakfast. Hans, a solo rider from Austria was on the final day of his tour ending up in Novi Sad (our destination, also, for the day). He was a great guy, easy to talk to, and very interesting — he had spent many years of his life doing development work in Africa.

Hans and his rig

Leaving Selenca

Busy roads

We stopped for drinks and to cool off outside a tiny corner market in Rumenka.  Our eating is really atrocious — sugary drinks, ice cream, and “Chipsy” paprika flavored potato chips for Dex. I’m still trying to get use to the Cyrillic alphabet, which seems to be the preferred one for street signs.

Snack stop

Only the best!

An hour later we were Novi Sad, although it took us a while to find our way to the bridge over the river, over the guard rail, and then down a tight spiral ramp. Of course, there was a short steep climb from the river up to our hotel. Meg and Dex’s bike was “stupid” since it wouldn’t shift to the little chainring!

Home for the night

Our room had four single beds side by side on one wall. Meg has been pickier and pickier with the room selection lately making sure we have AC. We then strategically place her as close to the AC as possible. After a shower and “new” clothes, Meg and I happily lounged on our beds having found Wimbledon on the TV. Ah, relaxation. We rooted on Rafa until we were too hungry to watch anymore. There was a small pizza parlor just up the hill that fit the bill perfectly. We were psyched that our family-sized Hawaiian pizza came with its own bottle of pizza sauce. We like Italian food and have found it to be one of the most popular and common throughout our travels. 

Pizza and our own bottle of sauce

Go Rafa!

Our restaurant selection for dinner, a fish restaurant right next to the Danube, unfortunately, did not go over as well. Dex and Kylie were not keen on the big slab of fish in the soup bowl, the mosquitos, or the ever-present cigarette smoke. Oh well. At least the view was nice.