The long journey home

Over the past 4 days since getting off the Livorno to Barcelona ferry we have had our efforts firmly set on getting home...with the bikes rather than without! Getting home without the bikes would've been easy; a 3 hour plane journey. 

On Monday morning in Barcelona we made first for the train station, our first attempt to hire a car failed so we tried again at a different company, again it failed for a number of small but essential administrative reasons, large Yawn.

The trains that would allow us to take the bikes would've involved 5 changes over the course of 2 days, not a goer!

The coach was our last shot, easy! They sell you a bike bag for €10 and it goes in the hold.  Despite a few good views of eagles (short toed was the only one I could identify) the coach ride was a durge, it took 10hr30mins!! I arrived in Santander with fat feet from not moving enough, wierd podgy, fluid filled feet, John had fat ankles, my feet went back to normal fairly quickly but johns ankles hung about a bit so I christened them his 'Fankles'. 

Worthy of note was a pharmacy sign I glimpsed at whilst the bus was stopping in a town the temperature read 42 degrees, maybe this leg of the ride would have killed us anyway!

Hotel in Santander then some shopping on Wednesday as we waited for our evenig departure. Getting on the ferry was a dodle compared to the lunatic organisation at Livorno. 

The boat is pretty luxurious, tiny cabin but lots to do. We had a large cocktail last night before bed which was a mistake as I didn't sleep a jot, went for a walk around the deck at 4am it was eerie. 

Have seen gannets, shearwaters and skuas this morning (those are birds) and a massive pod of dolphins, some earnest twitchy types with better bins than I, say they saw Orca earlier (that's killer whales but earnest twitchy types don't like to call them that as they are actually members of the dolphin family!) anyway I was very jealous indeed! 

Much love, I look forward to seeing my mother this evening and my lovely wife tomorrow.

Sunset over sea

John with his horrendously strong Long Island iced tea. 

Day 23 (Sunday 3rd August) on the boat

( I had great ideas about going up on deck to see the sunrise over the sea, this is what we woke to though!)

After the initial thunder storm ( which didn't seen to cause any swell ) it was back to wall to wall blue sky, blue sea and hot sun.

We made a few friends including a Dutch family, a Macaw: see above, a retired couple of Kiwis  and a very cute Morrocon boy about 3 I'd guess who took a big interest in my book for about 10minutes and wouldn't let me read it!!

A lazy day, I started and finished A novel by Yann Martel it was excellent but very dark and really got me thinking. 

Finally as evening closed in we reached Barcelona and found out hotel, it is a buzzing place, as John predicted it was parting hard even on a Sunday night.

Barca at midnight.

(Another ice cream) 

Day 24 in Barcelona.

This morning was stressful, we tried to hire a car but it was not possible with the documents we had brought along. Stress!

We tried the trains, 5 changes over 2 days did not sound appealing. Stress.

The coach company Alsas has saved us though. They supply bike bags for just €10 euros and the trip costs €65 each, not bad.  No stess man.

We depart tomorrow at 9am so this afternoon and evening are free to look round Barca.

 (The barca Arch de Triumph)

(Gaudi's awesome Sagrada Familia somewhat spoilt by cranes and scaffolding but still great to see and they've got to try and finish the darn thing I guess!)

Day 22 (sat 2nd Aug) Villareggio to Livorno 33.19 miles

Trip distance 32.19miles ride time 2hr34mins. Average speed 12.50mph

Max speed 22.29mph 

Altitude up 139 feet

We left the campsite our least favourite of the trip so far, facilities were good but they charge you for every single thing they can including using wifi, going in the pool and anything else you might want to do even  taking a shower.

(Bye bye ancient bib shorts thou serveth me well)

So we were happy to see the back of the place.

The morning's riding was supposed to be an enjoyable flat ride, down bike tracks, along the coast. It didn't quite work out that way; we ended up on an A road in extremely busy traffic and John was not happy.

But we got to Livorno in a couple of hours and cycled through its industrial marina. We would see a lot of this marina later. 

Livorno is a fairly rough and ready place but it does offer up some beautiful italian scenes including an old canal system and a beautiful ancient walled park that is surrounded by a moat and must have been a castle or battlement years ago. The park was virtually empty of people a shady oasis in the hot city.

(View from the walled park)

I set up the hammock in shade and lay in it for 30mins while John went shopping and secured his 3rd milkshake of the day, I drifted off a little but was aware I had to watch the bikes.

John came back and I felt bad as I knew he was tired from a rubbish nights sleep so I offered him the hammock while I went for a walk. 

(This is an old photo of John back in Belgium when he really needed the hammock! I didn't blog it then as I knew Nicky would be worried sick and he was pretty ill at that point, but I thought I'd stick it on here now as he's fine and just a hammock thief!!)

My walk proved very fruitful with a pair of hoopoe spotted!! They were digging up grubs under the battlemounts of the park, they are a stunning bird and this was a first for me, also very unexpected in the middle of the city.

Anyhow back to Johno: Give the boy a inch and...... He slept for 2and1/2 hours!! I was bored senseless. I took to watching the endeavours of a troop of ants as they carried crumbs back to their nest.

Finally it was time to move, evening was setting in, I woke john up and we got supplies in and set off for the ferry. 

( Livorno)

We passed a cafe which had the biggest queue I have ever seen for one Cafe it stretched around the corner and down the street. We arrived at the cruise terminal with no problems, unfortunately our ferry did not go from this terminal and with the help of an Italian lady we were told that our cruise terminal was a 20 minute bike ride away.

It was a stressful ride in the fading light through the industrial docks in traffic.

We finally found the terminal and entered into commotion as a large group of Morrocon men were trying to get their tickets for the ferry. There was a huge argument going on. I queued for a long time and got eaten by Mosquitos in the process.  The lack of organisation was quite incredible, after getting our tickets we had to follow the other cars on our bikes for 10 minutes across several bridges to reach the ferry which was docked in a container ship area, we weren't told to do this it just happened.

Then through a highly suspicious system of racial profiling which John said he was sure is illegal as it did not involve looking at any documents the non Africans were all herded into a separate area to wait while the police checked out all the passengers who seemed to be from Morocco etc. The checks were basically being made against people who were clearly emigrating and this was obvious by their vehicles which had roof racks loaded with all kinds of goods and furniture.

We waited a long time and were not communicated with at all, it was late and dark and frankly very poor from the organisers. Oh well eventually we got on the ship and settled into a really quite nice cabin, so all good in the end. Also a lot of people were sleeping in the corridors and probably couldn't afford a cabin, so I don't want to complain and seem like a spoilt brat!!

(Our cabin)

Day 21 rest day 0 miles

Today I will keep it brief, no riding, train to Pisa, laughed at people pretending to hold the tower up then did it ourselves, rubbish lunch in Pisa which is not a great town apart from the tower and cathedral. Either the food last night or the dip in the sea has given me a tummy bug, bad times. Today was proper italian weather blisteringly hot! The end.

(You could be mistaken for thinking facism is all the rage in Pisa, but don't worry it's just the wrong angle!)

Gotta love these photos :)

Mindham got in on the act . 

Day 20 Bercetto to Viareggio 69.58miles

Distance 69.58miles ride time 5hr17min average speed 13.13mph max spd 34.97mph

Altitude up 1242ft

We woke to beautiful blue skies, last night was very comfortable in the shack we shouldn't have been in! The sunny morning meant we could get everything dry, happy times.

Embarking up to Pass della Cisa meant more climbing but it was a mainly gentle climb over a few miles, at times I could see back over the Po floodplain to the Alps they must have been 100miles away at this point so it was a very clear day and probably the most stunning view of the trip. I was hoping to catch views of the sea the other way but it was not possible.

(Bercetto)

Pass della Cisa stands at 1041m that's about 50m higher than Snowdon and pretty much half of the Gotthard pass we went over in Switzerland. It was way better than the Gotthard experience though, for starters the views were so much better today and more importantly there was just no traffic to speak of, just a few cyclists and motorbikes.

( pass Cisa - alps in far distance)

There is a little shop and a church on top of the pass which is covered in thick forest. I looked around the souvenir shop to see if I could find a little present for Hayley, it was the worst kind of grot ever, snow domes and little plastic bears etc. sorry Hayley no presents from there!!

 ( the church at pads Cisa)

Descending from the Cisa pass was some of the most fun cycling we've done, I overtook an old lady in a car who was going very slowly and that felt good on a bike!! It was winding but never scary and just great fun.

(Descending )

We hit Pontremoli and found a garage to get a drink, to our surprise after the woman had served us she said "so don't tell me you've cycled here from London" in a thick London accent!! She was italian born but grew up in London so was the 2nd English person we had chatted to today, earlier during the descent we had pulled into a viewing point where 3 people were sitting, one was an English man who had left Canterbury on foot on June the 1st and here he was walking the  pilgrims route to Rome.

He sounded like he was from Yorkshire to me with a lovely soft accent and it was really nice to chat to him about his travels and ours. 

After Pontremoli  the traffic was heavy and it was flat but not enjoyable with huge lorries going by too close, the Italians do not all observe the metre rule like the French, there is no law about it here. Italy has been my favourite country to tour in though, despite the Italians living up to their stereotype as 'bodgie Premadonnas' they know how to live and how to make darn good food! 

We hit the cost and 20 miles of hotels, cafés, bars and private beaches you only got an occasional view of the sea through it all, the area is just one continuos tourist strip. It is ok but not somewhere if come again in a hurry, I managed to sneak a dip in one of the few public beaches, the Med is warm and you can stay in for ages although the current was strong so I had to be careful.

 (John reading while I swam)

Riding down the coast was not the easy cruise you might think, it was chaos, particularly on the bike path. joggers, walkers, slow cyclists, prams, cars pulling out, kids cycling with their friend sat on the frame, a towel under the bum for comfort! Dads with kids standing on the pannier rack (hands on dad's shoulders) whilst dad is on the phone and cycling!!! All these people seemed to want to try and cause us to crash, so we sensibly just stayed on the road with the crazy drivers, at one point an old couple crossed the road with walking sticks holding up the traffic, I've never seen people walk that slowly, they then stopped to have an argument with each other in the middle of the road, it was hilarious.

( yes Mario! )

Campsite was found, we are 12 miles from Pisa, A meal was eaten after a long walk into town and dessert came in the form of a massive ice cream from Mario's Gelatteria, awesome!! 

John had 2 glasses of sparkling wine  with dinner and this loosened him up enough for him to explain how much of a 'teacher' I am all the time, rather than being annoyed by this I appreciated his candour and agreed with him to be honest, Maybe I'll come home a changed man*

A good day today, Pisa tomorrow.

*don't get your hopes up Hayley! 

Day 19 Salso Maggoire to Berceto 45.06miles

Distance 45.07 miles

Av speed 10.97mph

Ride time 4hr6mins

Altitude up 3302 ft

Today was a big day for me. I was awaiting news, hopefully good news.

The morning was dark, grey and pretty cold considering we are in Italy, it had all the look of a day in which it was going to quite frankly; p**s it down!! So about an hour in, it duely bloomin p**sed it down. 

It was horrible and we got very cold, we stopped for a pizza lunch in Fornovo Di Taro, I was jealous of johns Calzone as it was full of steam and I wanted the warm steam!! I was so cold I was shaking, it's fair to say I wasn't expecting this in Italy and had come ill prepared for it.

I was glad when we spotted some hills as I wanted a work out to warm up. 

Despite the weather I spotted some great birds 3 small herons flew over the road and I'm pretty sure they were bitterns, and I also spotted a beautiful red-footed falcon.

(Red footed falcon- not my photo)

The news came in mid afternoon during the rain, Hayley's had a 12 week scan, everything is as it should be, due date 12th of feb so I'm saying it will be late because it's a genders and will be born on valentines day I hope!! I'm mega pleased anyway.

With the good news the rain stopped and we made our way to the town of Bercetto via a Bloomin massive 8 mile hill we climbed around 1000metres up it's winding hairpins. Got into town, enjoyed an ice cream; as we were now warm, then found the campsite.

As our tent is soaked through we asked it they had any cabins. The didn't, then they did, and after a lot of arguing in italian (between themselves we can't argue in italian!) they gave us a cabin, it seems like it's someone's holiday cabin though and has all their stuff in, we think the campsite owners just want the extra money and so have been naughty and we shouldn't be in there. The cabin's owners are clearly devote Catholics, and may well be 7 foot tall too as the bench and table outside made us feel 7 years old. Anyway I'm waiting for a 7ft italian monk to turn up and turf us out at 2am. 

(A spooky tunnel we passed through, it was the fastest I've seen john move)

(Big hills)

(Steep drops - I didn't take this while cycling Hayley don't worry ;) )

(Ice cream at the top of the hill: ideal)

I cooked, overdid it on the pesto though, john stole my flip flops to go to the washrooms, in doing so I feel he crossed a barrier, you know; broke an unwritten rule, so I'm shaming him on here. In fairness though he did flex them with socks and his shoes are soaked through.

As I write this there are two annoying italian teenagers making wierd noises and flirting! Makes me miss work! NOT.

Much love! Good day despite the weather!

Day 18 Pavia to Salso Maggoire. 73miles

Dist 73.00 miles.  ride time 6hr14mins.  Avg speed 11.70mph.  Max spd 29.01mph.  Altitude up 2375ft.

Today we woke sluggishly after a good nights sleep in or little cabin. This was interrupted only by a mega-storm. The thunder shook the cabin, it was a the kind of storm I've experienced before in Canada; on a continental scale, I'm just glad we weren't in the tent! 

We cycled through Pavia, found a cheap supermarket and sat on a curb in a pretty rundown street eating chocolate brioche.

The vast majority of the ride today was forgettable: flat but into a punishingly strong headwind we criss-crossed the giant river Po and made very, very slow progress, it threatened to rain and we had a spell on a track that was full of potholes. 

(Lunch in Piachenza a classic italian city) 

The last 20 miles got interesting though, we could see the hills looming up from the vast flood plain of the Po and then we hit them, it wasn't windy any more but the hills were a good test, the roads wound up and over them in sharp hairpins and all around us were vines and orchards mixed with wildflowers and trees. 

(Orchards and vineyards and the Po floodplain in the distance)

As we topped one hill I heard lots of birds but didn't recognise the calls, I got some in the binocs and found they were Bee-eaters!! amazing!!!! With them was also a female golden Oriole although it took me until a while afterwards to work that out. 

(Yes bee-eaters!!  Not my photo!) 

(Golden Oriole [female] not my photo)

I also saw a pair of lesser kestrels today, that's 3 firsts in one day!

( lesser Kestrel -n.m.p) 

The hills kept coming and the descents were great fun, we reached Salso Maggoire, a very picturesque town geared up for tourists with lots of bars and hotels, we headed through town, up one last big hill and found our campsite, Camping Arizona! A great campsite, with lots of stuff to do although John bottled taking me on at table tennis knowing he would just choke again I guess. 

(Salso M)

We ate a massive pizza each in the restaurant and now it's off to bed.

(Yes Pizza)

Day 17 Sesto Calende to Pavia 59.57 miles

Dist 59.57miles Ride time 4hr53mins  av speed12.18mph. Max spd. 32.16mph altitude up 593ft

John passed out after an ice cream today, it was very hot last night so sleep wasn't great.

It was a very flat day with nice canal paths, the canal seemed very clean so I jumped in to wake up after lunch.

We were getting chased by storms this afternoon and one finally caught us just a mile from the campsite, so we took shelter under a shops porch.

(Waiting it out)

Went for a great meal in Pavia, and secured a cabin at the campsite, so no putting tent up!! It was a good job as there were mega thunderstorms in the night.

Day 16 Bellinzona to Sesto Calende 57.52 miles

Trip distance 57.52 miles ride time 4 hr19mins  av speed 13.29mph max spd 30.62mph altitude up 1620ft

(Lago Maggoire)

After a good night sleep in our hotel we set off for Lake Maggoire.

Traffic was bad to start with but got less heavy as we passed into Italy. 

Italy has instantly endeared itself to me, we stopped for lunch in a lakeside restaurant that was full of locals, always a good sign! I had smelt fish cooking a few hundred metres down the road and so I went for a sea bass in basil sauce with olives and potatoes sprinkled over it! YES ITALY, best meal I've had and very reasonable, john kept it safe with a calzone that was also good, and we washed it down with a dirt cheap glass of red wine that wasn't bad, Yes Italy!!

(Uuuuuummmmm bass)

( yes Italy)

We had a little pudding, then stopped in the next village and found an awesome gelato shop, again rammed full of locals, brilliant ice cream, and again it was at a reasonable price, YES ITALY!!

The same place also had a little 2nd hand book tent on the edge of the lake, to my supprise it had a small English section and I picked up Micheal Moore's bio and a novel by Yann Martell. I've started the bio,it's brilliant to be reading I've really missed it after 'Kindle gate'. 

I had a swim in Lake Maggiore while John went ahead to find the campsite, it was brilliant, little swim then read a bit, then little swim the read a bit more. It was almost like being on holiday. 

I caught john up at the campsite and we decided to move sight as it was a bit shabby and Sesto Calende has about 25campsites. We found a better one and I've set the hammock and tent up, cooked dinner and am now swinging in the hammock.

Only down side is it's all kicking off on the other side of the lake, which is annoyingly rather narrow here. Sesto seems to be a big party town and there is some serious box stacking trance being pumped out. Might be a headphones in kind of night. 

Peace and love. Viva Italia. 

Day 15 Andermatt to Bellinzona.

Trip Dist 54.77miles ride time 3hr57mins

Av speed 13.82mph max speed 39.92mph  altitude up 2787ft 

Max altitude 6916.ft  2108metres 

Today we climbed over the Saint Gotthard pass at 2108m it's over twice the height of mount Snowdon in Wales.  It was about 8miles of climbing, that makes for some aching legs!!

(John makes slow and steady progress up towards Gotthard)

We were happy to find the old cobbled road about 2 miles from the top as few cars go on it. The main road was so busy you'd think you were in Central London, but for the hills!

I am sad we passed through in cloud but that couldn't be helped. It was very cold on top about 10 degrees Celsius and raining.

(The finger made it )

(So did I)

We stopped in the cafe on top and I had my first cup of tea of the trip, it was great, also a slab of cake. The lingo was italian on top of the pass, a sign of things to come.

As we rode down in the rain we used the new road as the old cobbles might wreck our bikes, I was so cold I was shivering and it was hard to control the heavy bike, it was a bit hairy for my liking, John went off ahead, discs brakes are better in this situation! I took the old road for a bit to get out of the traffic, the views were incredible, it was like a rollercoaster with the road swinging back and forth .

(Over the edge)

Further down the valley it got gradually warmer, we descended for the rest of the day really that's over 40miles!! Into Bellinzona, we are now in a hotel to try and dry off and to use up out Swiss francs as it's Italy tomorrow!

(Giornico an incredibly picturesque village on the way down from St Gotthard to Bellinzona. )