July 22, 2018

Today I checked something off my bucket list, walking a section of the Cinque Terre (Five Villages).  I had the biggest smile on my face when we found that the trains were running, albeit sporadically.

We were chatting to the lady at the Tourist Information Office for the Cinque Terre National Park, she was telling me that the trains were not running to Monterosso La Mare – the furthest village from La Spezia. Then she looked up and said \”that is the train to Monterosso, it leaves in 10 minutes\”. We ran to the ticket machine and bought a one-way ticket to Monterosso.

Usually, you can buy a combined train and park pass which allows you to hop on and hop off the trains at each of the villages and the Park Pass which allows you hop and hop off the trains and for a bonus you get a free pee. No charge for the toilets.

Today we were advised only to buy one-way tickets on the train, as they were not sure if any other trains would be running!

As we were on the train heading to Monterosso, I was not worried at all how I was going to get back to La Spezia. I was going to walk from Monterosso to Vernazza and I was going to enjoy the walk and the view – a tick on the bucket list.

The Cinque Terra National Park was established in 1999. The National Park is the smallest of Italy’s National Parks at 3,860 hectares but is the most densely populated with approximately 4,000 villagers in the Five Villages. The five villages are Monterosso la Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

We got off the train in Monterosso and took some photos of the beach area. Monterosso La Mare is a very popular sea-side resort area. There were lots of Italians setting up their towels on a little spot of beach or renting one of the hundreds of beach chairs and umbrellas at E20.00 per chair and umbrella per day.

We headed up the blue path towards Vernazza.

Ralf looked at the route we were about to follow and I could tell he was not happy.  He was a little worried how his ankle would react to this kind of terrain.

We knew we had to buy a National Park Pass,we knew we could buy them at the train station but we were well past the ticket booth, we carried on walking and just before we joined the main path, there was a ticket booth. We asked to buy the combined train and park pass. The young man told us not to buy the combined path as they were not sure if any other trains would be running.

The route from Monterossa to Riomiggiore takes about 5.5 hours to walk. Unfortunately there are two sections you cannot walk due to land-slides and major maintenance work.

That’s o.k. I was on a trail on the Cinque Terre and I didn’t care how I was going to get back to the hotel or how hard the walk was. It was beautiful.

The path started with stone steps, then continued on to a wooded path. In areas the path was narrow and in other areas the path was a little wider. It took us just over 1 hour and 45 minutes to hike to Vernazza.

The temperature was very hot, but the view over the sea and when we came into Vernazza the view was exactly how I imagined it to be. Colourful houses stacked up the mountainside, almost falling into the sea. A bay with stunningly blue waters and puffy clouds in the sky.

We had lunch in Vernazza. 

As we walked down the hills we heard an Italian speaking English behind us.  He was with two Americans – a personal tour guide.  However, he was commenting on two women who were rubbing sun cream on each other and how much he would like to offer his services.  We all started to laugh, and the Italian said something to Ralf. Ralf told him \”My grandfather said you can always look at the menu, but always eat at home\”

We then went to the train station with our fingers crossed hoping to get on a train to the next village (Corniglia).

There were three La Spezia trains that were cancelled but one was running although very slowly. The delay went from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Eventually the train slowly rolled into the station and we hopped aboard. To be on the safe side, we decided to head to Riomiggiore, the closest village to La Spezia, we knew we could get a taxi from that village back to La Spezia, if necessary. We did miss out on two villages, but they were not as stunning as Vernazza or Riomiggiore.

In  2011 Vernazza was inundated with a massive flood. It roared down the mountain and flooded the Town up to the second floor of most of the buildings.

Riomiggiore is literally a village that starts at the sea and climbs up the mountainside. We walked up to the church and then carried on up to the top of the hill. As we looked up the hill and then down towards the sea we wondered how people survived in this region.

As we came down the hillside to the train station, the train was due in 15 minutes and no delays. Maybe our luck has changed.

A fabulous day of walking, hills, villages clinging to the mountains and beautiful scenery. The life is very hard for villagers of the Cinque Terre.  As we walked Ralf spotted a line of some sort.  Then we discovered what it was for – collecting the olives.

We arrived back in La Spezia tired but relaxed.  There are some lovely buildings in La Spezia.

Tomorrow Pisa. I hope Ralf is not disappointed.

July 21, 2018

Both of us were nervous about the approaching train journeys. How difficult was it going to be to get two loaded touring bikes on to the train. We knew in Venice there were elevators to get us to the platforms, but how far will we need to lift the bike onto the train!

We stood on platform 6 waiting for the train to come. Then we saw people moving rapidly away from the platform. Ralf asked a fella what was happening, the train had come in on a different platform. We barged our way through the crowd to the elevator. I forgot to mention that only one bike would fit in the elevator at a time. I went first and headed to the first door on the train. Fortunately, there was no lifting involved – roll on and roll off. The train guard was whistling and telling me to get on the train! I had my front wheels on the train and my back wheels on the platform. Ralf had not arrived on the platform and this train was not going without us.

The guard came towards me waving his flag and whistling his little whistle at me.  I told him in no uncertain terms that the platform had changed and my husband was coming with his bike. Fortunately, Ralf arrived at that time and we pushed our bikes on to the train.

We had asked previously where the bike carriage would stop, so that we could be in the right place. Due to the switching of the platforms we were not in the right place for the bikes and had to hang on to our bikes in the train. As people wanted to get off, we had to move from one side of the opening to the other.

We arrived in Bologna and changed to our train to Parma. The train had an area for the bikes. However, we would have had to carry them up three steps. What sense does that make? Once again we were moving the bikes back and forward as people got on and off the train.  Most people were very understanding.

When we arrived in Parma, we knew we had a five hour wait. However, I noticed there were several trains going to La Spezia before 6:00 p.m. I asked at the information desk  if we could get on any of the earlier trains. No such luck, they didn’t have a spot for the bikes.

However, we spotted five guys getting of a “no-bike” train. Ralf chatted to one of the guys who got of the “no-bike” train. They said they had bought the tickets and man-handled their bikes onto the train. They really struggled getting them off the train. I think it was a good idea for us to wait for the “bike” train.

We cycled into Parma and had lunch. I went into the Tourist Information Office and told the woman that we had three hours to kill.  She gave me a quick itinerary of what we could see in that time, including several churches and the park. Parma is a lovely city however, it started to rain so we headed back to the train station.

The area around Parma is famous for ham and parmesan cheese. I had pasta for lunch and they sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it, the pasta and the cheese tasted really good.

The rain poured down for about an hour.  This man decided it would be a good idea to have a shower from the run-off from the dirty roof.  He had come out of the bar,\”not feeling any pain\”.

The train to La Spezia arrived at the platform early. This is the first train where we had to lift our bikes into the train, but we could then roll the bikes into the bike storage area. Fortunately La Spezia was also the last stop so we knew we didn’t have to rush to try and lift the bikes off the train.

This was also the first train that we were able to sit all the way as the bikes were safely stored in the bike carriage.

We arrived in La Spezia at 8:15 p.m. and found the hotel. We must have the worst room in this expensive hotel (NH La Spezia).

By the time we had found the hotel, got settled in we were starving. We went for a walk and found a pizzeria and had a pizza and a beer.

Tomorrow there is a train strike in Italy – possibly no trains to the Cinque Terre!!

If we didn’t have bad luck we wouldn’t have any luck at all.

July 19, 2018

 Two days of ups and downs.

On Thursday we left the hostel at about 9:00 and took the 15 minute train from Mestre to Venice (Island). Our prime goal today was to wander, no direction, no pressure just wander the streets and canals of Venice.

Of course we wanted to see the Palace of the Doges, the Rialto Bridge and St. Marks Square, apart from that we wanted to wander the streets.

There is a street that is full of designer stores, GUCCI etc.

Alternatively, you could buy your GUCCI bag from the guy on the bridge selling \”genuine\” GUCCI bags.

It was hot, sweaty hot, and there were lots of hot, sweaty tourists. Then there were the Italians who looked cool and chic. The men in their light-weight suits and the women who looked as if they were ready for a photo shoot for Vogue. Even some of the older women looked as though they had an air conditioner somehow magically attached to their backs keeping them cool and sophisticated.

I was a hot sticky blob! We did have a good day. We didn’t get lost, how can you on an Island? You keep walking until you find a bridge, cross it and keep walking you are either going to find the sea or find the train station. The Grand Canal surrounds Venice, sooner or later you will find a canal that is wider than the rest of the canals (the Grand Canal) and you either go right or left.

It was a really good day. We found St. Marks Square at about 11:00, surprisingly it was not wall-to-wall tourists, although it was busy. A Dutch family approached Ralf, they asked him to take their photo and Ralf agreed so long as they would take ours. We have found people approach us (Ralf has his camera) and maybe we look honest. I tried to stop people walking in front of Ralf as he was taking a few photos of this lovely family. Well, when it came to the Dutch girl taking our photo, the Mom started directing traffic. She would stand in front of people who were going to walk in front of us, at one point she had her hand up like a crazy crossing guard! I could not stop laughing.

Venice is a very tired old lady, you know she was a beauty in her time, but she has aged and in places not very well. The City is faded, in my opinion, a little past her time. The older classical buildings need some major work – but what is the point when you are sinking into the sea. The ground level of all of these buildings are wet, moldy buildings. People live on the second floors and above in an attempt to stay dry. The humidity on the Island was unbelievable. Occasionally we would get a sea breeze, which had a wonderful odor of dead fish, however, there was a breeze.

There is a lot of building work happening. However, the trades people have a nightmare of a job getting the materials to the job site. First they have to navigate the canals, then set up with a “crane boat”. If they cannot do that they hand-bomb the bags of cement or lift them up and down all the steps and over the bridges.

Of course, a trip to Venice wouldn\’t be Venice without a few photos of the Gondoliers.  A 30 minute ride costs E80, if you can rally 4 other people to share the gondolier it isn\’t too expensive.

Towards the end of the afternoon, when my hands looked like little fat sausages, we sat down to watch the world go by for an hour. A group of classical musicians set up and played a variety of music, the first tune was Leonard Cohen “Halleujah”, then a classical piece, followed by “It’s A wonderful World”. A lovely end to a great day.

A selection of photos from the 265 photos that Ralf took.

We got back to the hostel and everything went pear-shaped.

We had hoped to get a warmshowers host in La Spezia, but he came back with a negative. We went back on-line to find a hotel. Ralf found a great deal and we booked it, when the confirmation email came though it was double the price. We canceled immediately – we got the confirmation email to say we had cancelled the booking but the hotel was still going to charge us for the room! Two nights before the reservation and we were going to be charged for the room, that we had cancelled.

What a nightmare.

Friday July 20, 2018

We were woken up at 7:00 by our room-mates leaving for an early start visiting Venice. I checked the credit card, yes we had a charge against our card and our booking had been cancelled. Ralf found an affiliate NH hotel in Mestre, we decided to walk to that hotel and ask them to contact the other hotel and hopefully get all of this nonsense sorted out. Marta at the Hotel NH Venezia Laguna Palace called the hotel in La Spezia. They advised us to contact the booking agent which is Agoda – or to book again and they will sort out the cancellation and rebooking. I am not holding out much hope. But, we have re-booked the very expensive hotel in La Spezia and hopefully tomorrow we can get it all sorted out. Or we dispute the credit card charge with Master Card.

The rest of the morning, we couldn’t decide what to do. Neither of us felt really optimistic nor could we decide how to spend the rest of the day.

Eventually, we went over the train station to investigate the logistics of getting our bikes onto the platforms. There is a lift down and a lift onto every platform – except 6/7. What is the betting that our platform tomorrow is 6 or 7. We did see a couple of touring cyclists on Platform 6. I asked them how easy was it to transport their bikes on the Italian trains. Apart from this platform they have found it very easy. They were two Germans from Dusseldorf, who were using a company called Euro Bike. From what I could understand, the company arranged to take your bags from destination to destination. They had three panniers and a handle bar bag – everything apart from the handle bar bag is transported for them. Oy Vey I planned this trip wrong.

We were going to Murano – the glass making island today, however the cost of the vaporetta (E20 each) and the fact that we wouldn’t buy any souvenirs (glass does not travel well on a bike), we opted to investigate Mestre.

Mestre main centre is under appreciated. O.k. it is not Venice, however it does have a lovely square and the best gelato we have tasted to date. The young lass behind the counter laughed at my attempt at Italian, however, I think I got a bigger scoop because of the attempt.

Mestre was a walled city and there is the remains of a tower and they have built a “reconstruction” of the draw-bridge.

Of course the “Tourist Police” were around and asked a girl who was sleeping on a bench to sit up. They also stopped a group of cyclists from cycling through the pedestrian zone.

Our mood picked up by the end of the day. We are back at the hostel watching the young folks parading. It is a little like watching “Discovery Channel” with a David Attenborough commentary.

“See how the female tosses her head and then ignores the male, she is looking through her tresses to see if he has noticed her. The male – slack-jawed approaches. Will she ignore him or encourage him. A brave male is accepted at the table, but will he be eaten for a main course or dessert”. “A lone female is left at the table. Will she find a mate tonight? Yes it appears she has, a smile, a flick of the tresses.”

“The mature, monogamous couple watch and smile at the youngsters mating game, secure in the knowledge of their everlasting love”.

After watching the youngsters for a while two young ladies from the States joined us (Texas and Oklahoma). They are doing a year exchange in France – in microbiology. They are taking advantage of their week-ends to see other parts of Europe. Two really nice young ladies.

July 18, 2018

 What a lovely ride today. It was a short distance to Mestre (Venice).  Having a short ride that would give us the afternoon to get the boring stuff done. We left San Dona Di Piave and headed on quiet roads to Mestre (Venice). We are now below sea level by 4 metres!

We cycled along a flat coastal road, on one side was a lagoon that opened out to the sea and on the other side was a canal.  Very quiet and peaceful ride.

As we got closer to Venice I thought the roads would be really busy and chaotic, but they were quiet. At about 10 kms outside of the City we had a cycle lane and followed along a uni-rail tram line. The cars were on the left of the uni-rail and we were on the right side. Ralf had plotted the route along the causeway (the very straight line) and then into the City.

We came into one square where they did not allow you to cycle through. We noticed the locals were pushing their bikes so we followed suit and pushed our bikes.

There are new “tourist” rules in Mestre and Venice. “Walking around the city bare-chested or inadequately dressed; causing willful damage or defacement; sitting in areas not specifically designated for the purpose; sitting in public areas to consume food and drink; dropping litter; the use of bicycles and roller skates and the playing of sports and games that can cause annoyance to others; the use of stereos, radios etc at high volume; feeding the pigeons. There are tourist police that will tell you not to do something and you can be fined!

As we pushed our bikes through the square, we noticed two roadies leaving from a café. Clipped in and about ready to cycle off. The tourist police appeared out of nowhere and told them to push their bikes!! The lady unclipped straight away, the guy was not too keen, but after a talking to, he walked his bike.

We arrived at our massive hostel at 12:30, check-in was 2:00. We were told we could leave our bikes around the back and we went for lunch. We have never stayed in a hostel that has eight floors.

At 1:30 we were allowed to check-in. This is a very modern hostel – it would have been a hotel, but each room has up to 9 beds with showers, and toilets en-suite. There is a kitchen where we can cook and a common area. This is the biggest hostel we have been in, it is very clean, although the kitchen looks like a bombs hit it after 8:00 p.m.

Ralf was checking in and I sat down on a very soft leather couch.  I sank into it and thought I wouldn\’t be able to get up.

This could have been a hotel, if they had finished the ceilings and walls.  It is very unique with industrial finishes. Sea containers used as storage and bars.  Lots of young people but a very good vibe. Today we are sharing a room with a French couple, our room has 6 bunks.

Today we were able to get the washing done (at the hostel) and check out the route to Cinque Terra. It has been difficult to find a safe route across the country. Lots of routes down the west coast and east coast and across the top of the country but none from Venice to Pisa.

For some reason Ralf decided we would take the train across the country. The hostel is close to the train station and we had the time to inquire as to the feasibility of taking a train to La Spezia (Cinque Terra). The fella was really helpful, looking at different routes and the least amount of changes, and trains that would accommodate the bikes. We have saved about five days cycling – and the cost of 5 hotels. We booked the train (E68)! We have five hours in Parma and will be in La Spezia at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

Two full days to enjoy Venice.

July 17, 2018

 A good nights sleep in our hotel room with air conditioning – lovely.

We had a good breakfast at the hotel and headed out at 8:15. We had to stop at the post office because Ralf had forgotten to leave the key at the hotel in Malborghetto, and we had told them we would send it back.

I went into the post office when it opened at 8:20. In the summer the post office is only open until 1:50.  What odd times – 8:20 to 1:50, not 8:30 to 2:00! I was third in line – three service people at the counter. I went to a lady at the counter – she pointed me in the direction of  a machine where I would state what service I needed. Fortunately, there was another lady assisting people with this technology! It printed out a number – #3 and I went back to the first lady I spoke to, who was waiting to assist me! Did I want priority post or regular post – what is the difference in price? Priority post 2.80 – regular post 2.70. Whaaat?

Ralf took a final picture of the square and we headed out. I thought we were going to continue following the Alpe di Adria south for a while and then head inland towards Venice. No, Ralf had planned the route to head inland and south-west from Palmanova.

The first 20 kms was along a busy road and then we took a lovely quiet road for the next 40 kms. Trees planted along the road to keep hot cyclists cool.

We stopped at a closed gas station in the shade (for a wild wee) and to cool down. Ralf spotted this vending machine. Fill-up with gas and get some toys for the road trip!

It was a head down and go kind of day. We were on a nice road, but we still had to concentrate on traffic. While we were on the country roads the traffic was not too bad. When we were on the busy SS14 road the traffic was heavy with transports and cars whizzing by at speed. Although I must say they did give us room when they passed.

We were passed by a roadie, who slowed down long enough to ask where we were going and where we had come from.

Ralf seems to have a built in “lunch” clock. Around 11:30 – 12:30 he will be looking out for somewhere to stop. We spotted a little restaurant with several road bikes outside, seemed like a good place to stop. The roadie we had spoken to earlier was there. All of these roadies were on a Berlin to Rome trip – 16 days, supported ride, maximum mileage of 150 kms per day. We had a little chat with them and they clipped in and headed of after only having an espresso to keep them going. Ralf and I sat down to a good lunch – I had a pasta salad and Ralf had a pannini.

We made one wrong turn towards the end of the ride – that bought us back on to the busy SS14. I really didn’t want to have to deal with the transports after having a lovely ride up until that point. Ralf re-routed us and bought us into the City along a river and back roads. It added an extra 8 kms, but for me it was worth not having to deal with the traffic.

After dinner (which we ate in the hotel room) Ralf went to take some photos of the downtown area. The light wasn’t very good earlier on and it was really hot. Temperatures today were once again above 35 degrees.

Photos of San Dona

July 16, 2018

 The weather rolled in again and we were listening to rain pounding on the tent for a couple of hours (another reason not to camp).

At 6:30 we were awake, surprisingly to a dry tent. We packed the tent, and as we were unable to get juice or milk for our cereal headed into Town to find the elusive Spar. The camp restaurant/bar was open but only serving Espresso coffee for breakfast! We never did find the Spar store, but we did find a supermarket which opened at 8:30. I bought some bread, cheese and meat and a couple of bananas and a cappuccino drink and we ate outside the supermarket.

After a breakfast fit for cyclists, we tried to find our way back to the Alpe di Adria cycle route. We couldn’t find it and decided to follow the road towards Udine. By some amazing coincidence we reconnected with the Alpe Di Adria and were able to follow it for the rest of the day to Pamplanova.

We are now away from the South Tirol and the Dolomites, and are heading down towards Venice. We have dropped over 1000 metres in three days and are in the flat lands again.

The route today was very nice, we had some little climbs, usually when the route took us through small villages and we had a tail wind. However, the weather was really hot – at noon it was over 34 degrees. Even the sunflowers were drooping.  We should start earlier and finish by noon or 2:00 at the latest.

Grossest thing happened today, slug juice on my leg. Due to all the rain over the past few days there was hundreds of slugs on the route, I squished a big one and it got stuck on my tire, as the tire got to my fender the slug landed on my leg – yuck.

We often see the oddest things on our trips.  We had been routed through this small village and came across an old theme park.  At first view it looked like a miniature village – then when we stopped most of the exhibits were of religious buildings, mosques, the stable where Jesus was born, synagogues, and other churches.  I don\’t think they get many visitors.

We stopped in Udine to go to the bank and were really surprised to find a lovely historic City. The route had outskirted us through the boring part of the City and bought us straight into the older city.

We could have spent more time here but it was getting hot by lunchtime and we wanted to get to Palmanova as I knew it was going to be a Town worth spending some time wandering around.

We arrived in Palmanova at about 2:00 and cycled into the centre. As we were about to enter the Venetian walled city Ralf looked at his garmin. He took a photo of the route to the hotel! Amazing.

The city is based on a grid system, it has grass mounds protecting the outer walls, then a moat, then fortified buildings, then the city which eventually leads to a large central piazza. Around the piazza there are restaurants, ice-cream stores and bars.

Our new routine on getting to our destination is plug everything in – garmins, computers, iPad, wash cycle gear and shower and then go and investigate the city/town. After eating we then head back to the hotel to find our next port of call, plan the route and update the blog.

July 15, 2018

After a very restless night waking up every hour with the church clock clanging each hour and my dearly, beloved husband snoring gently beside me, I managed to get a few hours sleep between 3:30 and 7:30.

The breakfast served at the hotel was really good. A variety of bread, cheeses, meats, cereal, cakes and muffins, fruit and yogurts. We definitely had a good start to the day.  There was another group of touring cyclists staying at the hotel.  We think they were from Austria (by the accent) and riding e-bikes.  We met up with them a couple of times during the day.

The route today was fabulous. I knew it was going to be a good route and that is another reason I wanted to stop yesterday when we did. Yesterday with the weather and our moods we would have blown by all the great sites.  We would have missed seeing this very large snail, it would have fed a family of four 🙂

The scenery was stunning and we lost count of the amount of tunnels and bridges we crossed.  On one section we came out of tunnel onto a steel bridge and then into another tunnel – we did this three or four times – tunnel, bridge, tunnel, bridge. My two sisters Wendy and Nikki would have hated that section, but I loved it and so did Ralf – the bridges were amazing.

Most of the tunnels had lights on as we went through. 

One tunnel the lights were activated as you cycled through.  However, there was one tunnel the motion sensor was really slow and at one point we were in pitch dark.  That would be the time that my front light decided to stop working.  We had to cycle really slowly so the sensors would activate the lights.

The longest tunnel we went through was 950 metres long and the temperature dropped by 3 degrees inside the tunnel.  It was very foggy inside and quite eerie.

The route for the most part was gently downhill, a few pedal strokes and you were coasting for the next 500 metres.

Of course, we had earned this downhill from all the climbing we have done over the past few days.

This section of the Alpe di Adria Route is the only section that is on an old rail-line and is very easy to follow and very kid friendly.  There were a few areas where you could get off and go into a Town. However, this old train station had been converted into a cafe and rest stop – it even had a small work-station.

As we cycled through and above towns we could see the difference a by-pass makes on a Town.  We have noticed this phenomenon many times around the world.  The Town-folk want to detour all the trucks. However, by putting in a by-pass you also detour the cars and the town slowly dies.

Past this derelict train station is a multi-highway intersection.

There were a few little hiccups to the day. One set of stairs we had to climb and push the bikes up the gutter and an umleitung (detour) at the end of the route. This took us on gravel paths and back up hill. Oh well you cannot have everything.

We arrived in the Village of Venzone at about 12:30, time for lunch. We stopped at a small bar and I managed to order two panini’s with formaggio and proscuittio (cheese and ham) in Italian. Of course she had to throw a wrench in it and asked if I wanted it cooked. I asked for one cooked and one not cooked. It turns out she was asking if I wanted baked ham or prosciuttio ham. I got what I wanted, Ralf wanted Prosciuttio and I wanted baked ham.  I knew that Fanta and cola were ridiculously expensive and I asked if she had non-alcoholic beer. She looked at me dumb-founded. I laughed and said “yes what is the point” we both laughed.

We then cycled over a small bridge and entered the wonderful historic Town of Venzone. It is the only medieval walled city in the Friuli-Venezia Region. The Town dates back to the Celts 500 BC and the Romans who came after them. In 1976 the Town was devastated by an earthquake. The rebuild took many years, any remaining structures were reinforced and restored using anti-seismic consolidation methods. The ruins were rebuilt – putting the surviving stones together like one giant jigsaw puzzle.

The square is made up of marble stones – it would have been dreadful to cycle over that yesterday in the rain. It is nice to find these wonderful little towns along the route.

We are camping tonight in Gemona, a small camp site that is about E20, free hot showers. Internet is only available at the bar near reception. At the moment there is thunder rolling around the mountain and the clouds are very grey. We prepared our pasta and as were getting ready to eat it, the rains came. We rushed to the tent and ate in the tent, the first (and last) time for everything.

The storm passed and we tidied up and went down to the bar for a drink.

A decision has been made!

We have given up on the camping – the rest of this trip is going to be hotels or warmshowers – the budget has already been shot to pieces, if we are going to continue on this trip without taking the train, we need to be comfortable at night.

There are a million different reasons not to continue camping and only a couple to continue camping.

Reasons not to camp –

• it makes us miserable,
• showers – after having a shower you are then in a tiny cubicle trying to get your clothes on.
• you have a nice shower and then you get hot and sticky again because you have to sit outside in the heat
• you have to eat outside
• sleeping on an air mattress in a tent is not comfortable, no matter how hard you try to get comfy.
• I can go on…

Reasons to camp –

• It is cheaper than staying in a hotel
• In the other places that we have been to everyone talks to each other especially other cyclists, this hasn’t been the case so far in Europe.

Despite sleeping on a slope, with the decision that we have made tonight, I think I might get a good nights sleep.

July 14, 2018

What a day! Our plan was to get south of Venzone (Italy) to a small campsite – a distance of about 100 kms.

But, the day started bad from the get go. We were up early, as usual, and were about to leave as there was no sign of Angelina. However, she appeared and proceeded to make us breakfast. Breakfast was called “mish-mash” a Bulgarian dish she told us. The base recipe is peppers, tomatoes, eggs and feta cheese, but you can add whatever left-overs you may have.

First disaster – Angelina, was cutting up a pepper (jalapeno) and rubbed her eyes – crying, we managed to rinse her eyes and made sure her hands were well-washed. When the dish was almost ready, she asked me to keep my eye on it while she quickly got all her climbing gear ready. I had a taste, it was good.

However, unbeknownst to me she had added some shrimp – I am allergic to shellfish – not deadly allergic, just enough to make me sick. As we ate the “mish-mash” I had a strange tingling in my mouth, then I chomped into a shrimp! I stopped eating immediately and told her I was allergic to shellfish – it is on my profile on the website- but not everyone reads the profiles. Angelina didn’t read my profile. “OMG I am trying to kill my guests” she said.

I threw up after breakfast, but Angelina was in a hurry to get going and Ralf and I headed out to follow the Cyclio de Alpe Adria Radweg (CAAR). I felt dreadful, sweating like a pig and ready to throw up. I told Ralf I was fine, as I knew we had a long day ahead of us.

Then the signs for the CAAR route disappeared and we didn’t know which route to follow.

We got totally turned around and eventually headed back towards Villach and found the route again.

The signs for CAAR were non-existent in Austria – we followed the R3C route instead.

The route was a steady climb for 15 kilometres, nothing too strenuous, constantly upwards.

Eventually we came to the Italian border crossing, although there are no official crossings, this one could very easily be reopened or closed if necessary.

We stayed on the road after crossing into Italy towards Tarvisio, we didn\’t want to get turned around and head into Slovenia! We stopped for lunch at a little café in Tarvisio and then joined the real CAAR route. This route used to be an old railway, which has been paved.

We are in Italy, time to carry toilet paper in my jersey pocket. I had read that no washroom or campsite has toilet paper,  My first visit to a washroom – no toilet paper, glad I have my little stash in my jersey pocket again just like in France.

Then to cap the day off the weather turned nasty and started to rain.  We had only cycled 50 kms. The mountains were covered with angry grey clouds and it started to rain, lightly at first then very heavily, the wind was picking up and a few thunder claps were thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately along this route all of the B&B’s, hotels etc advertise along the route. We stopped at the next advertising sign, spotted the village and headed towards the hotel. Bugger the budget, neither Ralf or I were having a good day and we needed to stop.

The hotel is lovely but a little expensive E87 per night including breakfast. We were told by Angelina that English is not widely spoken in Italy, that’s o.k. it is part of the adventure. However, in this area German is widely spoken and we were able to reserve a room.

By the time we had showered and washed our cycling gear the grey clouds had disappeared and the sun came out.

Sods law, we could have cycled on, but we were not feeling very happy I think it was a good idea to stop and recharge the batteries.

We had a lovely walk around the small Town. Which has several things going for it.

An old fort at the top of the hill which is part of a longer walk and a fun animal walk through the Town. The Town has placed wooden carvings of animals throughout a walking path. These animals can be seen through the seasons in this area.

Tomorrow with recharged batteries and feeling better we will continue on the CAAR. We actually get a lie-in tomorrow as breakfast is not served until 8:00 a.m.

Finalizing the blog tonight, the thunder is rolling around the valley and the rain is pouring down.  A good end to the day to stay in a nice room instead of the tent.