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. )

Day 14 (Friday 25/7/14) Lucerne to Andermatt

Distance 54.77 miles  ride time 4hr56mins, av speed 11.07mph, max speed 27.47mph. Altitude up 4431 feet. 

We got up early to clear blue skies. The mood was of quiet excitement as we were mentally preparing ourselves for some big hills, I had a breakfast of 2 poached eggs, I made a bit of a hash of them on the camping stove but they were ok.

The morning riding round the lakes was brilliant! We caught a ferry from Buochs to Gersau, this just put us on the correct side of the lake,  the roads started to go up and down a big then and the scenery was breathtaking. 

(Waiting for the ferry)

(On board)

We made our way to Altdorf on roads that must have taking quite some building, the Swiss have engineered them over, through and round the sides of cliffs that surround the lake. 

At Altdorf we had lunch, we tucked into 2 very promising pieces of pie that actually turned out to be a bit naff! I had a look up the old tower in the square and we had a good chat to a couple of Swiss dads who were taking the kids mountain hiking up to The pass. 

( the pie looked good but failed to deliver a bit like me then really) 

 (A top the old tower in Altdorf)

After Altdorf the hills got real big on us! I think they are called the Alps, the road just keeps climbing up the valley and it weaves in and out with the train line and motorway. 

Incredible engineering! It was steep going but never quite as steep as the big hill when we get hot Switzerland so we managed ok. It was however a lot bigger than those hills from 2 days ago; over about 7 miles it just kept climbing and then a big hairpin section before topping out at Andermatt.

(I mis-timed my smile) 

I'm now lying in our tent in Andermatt looking at incredible views out of the tent doorway. We have just been for a nice cream and a drink in town, and its cold! First time since England! Lots of layers tonight !

(Beautiful! Thanks John) 

(Tent view)

More climbing to the Gotthard pass tomorrow and the forecast is rain.

I Andermatt a resturant had a tank of live trout on the street waiting to be eaten!! The looked delicious but I also felt sorry for the little blighters! 

Day 13 rest day Lucerne 4 unofficial miles!!

It pains me to start sentences with the word 'so'. Let alone paragraphs hence this babble.......... So it turns out johns cut was worse than doctor T Genders first thought, or so the proper Swiss doctor we saw today said. 

After a deserved lie in, a bacon and egg bap cooked poorly on the camp stove by me and some boring 'must do' jobs, I was depressed because it was raining and then John wanted to take the bandages off and see how his finger was. It was not great; still bleeding and taking the bandage off clearly made it very uncomfortable, it's fair to say john nearly got a 2nd look at his bacon bap. 

He held it in though, I enquired about doctors at reception and off we went round the lake to find the surgery. Thankfully the rain had stopped. After a 2nd enquiry at Tourist info we found the place and john joined the queue.  He gave me permission to go off for a look around. The sun was now out and things warming up.

(An extremely nice looking hotel, I imagine you would need to remortgage to go for breakfast there though, so I went to Swiss Coop) 

Walking round Lucerne was fun, there were loads of tourists and I walked across the medieval bridge first, I saw some photos of it burning down in 1993 I think so it had been restored brilliantly.

(Lucerne's famous footbridge) 

(One of the many ferries)

John text me a couple of hours later and I went to meet him, it was 3 o'clock so a good part of his day off had been taken up and he was now £75 ($111 Swiss francs) worse off. The doc had put iodine on the cut and butterfly stitches, and it is now in a splint as it must be kept straight, this may be difficult for cycling tomorrow, but there are a lot of options with trains if things go wrong. 

I will now just show you some photos of Lucerne:

(Interesting overhang! Great for a bit of shade)

(An amazingly clean Swiss public toilet so swanky I thought it deserved a photo, it cost $2 to get in though! That pretty much sums up Switzerland)

(Mural)

(Cooling my feet in lake Lucerne I went for a proper swim in the evening)

(#sunset#Alps#dench#nthat)

(Wistful and nursing injured paw)

The campsite vending machine which alongside the fruit juice and cola sells: pregnancy tests, condoms and Swiss canabis ice tea.

I cooked john a heart shaped burger* for dinner for being brave and he even had ketchup on it, good times.

Big day in the alps tomorrow, pray for us :) xx
 

* I could only find heart shaped ones in Coop so Hayley and Nickey need not worry any more than they already do.