The Wandering Idiot

Cycling wise, today was a tough, tough day. It feels like winter has officially started…at departure it was 5c, but felt colder with the wind chill…later in the day as I hit the climbs…it got much colder.

It was a real luxury to stay with Paola for two day (thanks Pietro!). Nice house, great food, good company…plenty of time to find Couchsurfing hosts and plan the next leg of my trip.

She set me up brilliantly – I guess it’s the Italian mother in her – when I left the house for my days ride she had provided me with three focaccia, ham, bananas, and a bar of fantastic Italian nougat – which turned out to be a real life saver.

I left Genova at about 9am…aiming for a 100km ride. Well, I knew La Spezia was about 100km away…well at least I thought it was. And unusually, there was a time constraint today as I heading to a hostel in Riomaggiore which does not check people in after 5pm.

The ride was hilly…very hilly. It’s funny really, I spent so much of my time in France avoiding mountains and taking the flattest route possible…but in Italy…well you can’t avoid mountains…up and down, climb and descent, climb and descent. Thankfully the scenery was fantastic so that helped to deal with the pain.

At about 11.30am, as I neared Portofino, I saw a sign for La Spezia….it said ‘La Spezia 89km’. Ok lets do the math…if I were to aim for a very optimistic 20km per hour, that would mean that it would take me at least four hours to reach La Spezia…but given the mountains I was fighting…that wasn’t going to happen. If I could average at 12 or 13km that would be a massive result…but a long one. One thing that was very clear was that today there would be no time for a lunch break if I expected to get to Riomaggiore by 5pm. I’m not sure how far Riomaggiore is from La Spezia, but by looking at the map, and seeing all those hair pins turns in between La Spezia and Riomaggiore, I could pretty much be sure that it would be a tough cycle and I needed to make sure I had time for it.

With my mission at hand I laid into the pedals and went for it the best I could…first thing past Portofino was a massive climb from sea level up to 615m. Not sure how long it took me, but it was painful, unending, and nerve racking…watching my speedometer read 8 – 10km for two hours or so was not a pleasant experience knowing that I needed to be at the hostel in just a few hours.

It was brutal…I was very hungry but fully aware that stopping for lunch was not an option today…so down the hatch went the bananas, nougat, and some almonds and peanut M&M’s (the gift that my hosts in Toulouse gave me on my departure) – all while mashing the pedals as fast as possible. It snowed…it didn’t stick, but it was cold…my first snow of the journey.

Once I reached the top of the climb I got the camera out for the celebratory photo…got a pic of the sign, went to take a picture of the view…and the battery went dead…as if on command.

The great thing about every climb, is the reward of the descent…there were so many great photo ops on the way down…amazing mountains, villages tucked away in the most unsuspecting places, but with the dead battery on the camera, I was able to focus on enjoying the 40 -50km/hr descent…what a pleasure.

I reached La Spezia, unbelievably, at exactly 4pm. Ok – one hour to get to the hostel.

‘I can do it, I can do it’

Exiting La Spezia I entered another long and brutal climb to reach Cinque Terre. The climb took me 45 minutes…15 minutes to get to Riomaggiore, find the hostel and check in….I started bombing down the tight hair pin turns towards the city…the view was unbeleivable, but I had no time to enjoy…my one focus was to get to my bed, and rest my legs….

As I entered the city, the church bells rang out 5pm…I couldn’t believe my luck! After 8 hours in the saddle with minimal breaks I actually made it!

I asked a security guard where the hostel was,

‘At the bottom of the road and on the right’

Perfect…I was on my way…I embraced the steep roads through town as fast as I safely could.

Reached the hostel…and then…it was closed.

A trail of explicatives rolled out of my mouth in the most fluent and rehearsed manner.

Fuck, I was pissed off.

However, on closer inspection, a key and note were taped to the door – labelled for a Mr Vinko!

YES! That’s AWESOME! Thank you thank you thank you.

I followed the instructions, found my room, dumped my bike, gear, and body, and fell into a lazy, lazy rest. Thank god!

Shower, food, and I went to the only open pub in town…watched the FIFA draw for the SA world cup…came back to my room – and now I sit, with beer by my side, pesto pasta with pancetta – typing away my day….which I will wrap up here…

Finish my beer…and sleep…

Tomorrow my legs are back at it to hike the Cinque Terre area….

137km Bicycled Today

2801km to Date

I have had a very, very pleasant day. I feel like things have been falling into step…the world is a little clearer…my head is clearer. My journey isn’t exaclty what I had set out to do (I really had more intention of camping), but I am enjoying it none the less…even if I do feel like I’m cheating sometimes by Couchsurfing.

Today was spent drinking too many espressos, eating too much focaccia, and looking at fish…lots of them. I took my time wandering around the Genova aquarium…I like aquariums…although I always leave them hungry…keeping my eye open for the next open sushi restaurant…which I can’t afford…at least not right now.

In the Genova aquarium there is this constant soundtrack of waves…ambient, soft, gentle waves…constantly playing on a loop. It’s nice…soothing. And given that it isn’t exactly the season to be a tourist in Europe, I pretty much had all the fish to myself. Considering this venues hosts something like 1.2 million people a year it was pretty quiet…and pretty peaceful…and pretty nice. I took my time…wasting away the hours.

Then I went and ate more focaccia…had more espresso…and did a lot of nothing…

This evening a friend Paola’s (my host) cooked dinner and brought it over. It was nice…good conversation over a bottle of wine. We’ve been talking a lot about bicycle touring and what itàs like – I think Paola is quite concerned about Pietro and Ilsa’s coming adventure…perhaps Peitro sent me to stay with his mother so that I could try to put her mind at ease! If you are reading this Pietro I can see you hidden agenda! hehe!

All in all my time in Genova has been very very nice. I’m rested and ready for my ride to Cinque Terra tomorrow. I’ll be staying in a hostel there and will take a day to do some hiking before going on to Firenze, Siena, Perugia…and eventually to Ancona…where a ferry will take me to Split and the beginning of my Christmas holidays…

I do have some pictures that I will insert as soon as I have the opportunity so just hang tight for those.

Catch you all soon.

The morning started off slowly, sunny, and chilly. I went into the main square in Finale and had a quick espresso…the further into my trip I get the better the coffee is getting!

I left Hotel Nino – actually great value for 30 euros…nice double room, great water pressure in the shower, and the owner was super nice…very enthusiastic to help me with places to visit on my journey. He took a genuine interest in my project and was super helpful…I actually learned a lot about the local history through him!

I only had a short ride today, half the distance of yesterdays…but for some reason it felt so difficult…I think it was a combination of the scenery being less impressive and miles and miles of towns…fighting traffic. It was’t so bad, but I have gotten so used to effortless bike paths and light traffic roads that when I started hitting the town through Italy, the traffic felt overwhelming…and incredibly frustrating. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. In a car all you need to do is brake, and accelerate…but on a bike, that is a lot of effort. I hate having to give up my intertia to stop for traffic.

The final miles into Genova were awful. Terrible roads…huge industrial areas…I felt lost, disoriented, and hated every minute of it…but once I reached the old centre all that changed. The mother of my friend Pietro (who will be cycling to Japan from Brighton next year – check out his blog here) is hosting me in Genova. As soon as I met up with her, she showed me around her home, and gave me some fococcia (the best I’ve ever had), the miserable cycle on the way in was behind me.

I spent the evening wandering around the streets of the old town before settling in. I think I will be spending two days here as my next stop will be Cinque Terra and it is forecast to rain there tomorrow and the day after. I want to do some hiking there so will stay in Genova until the rain passes…would be great to have blue skies on a day of hiking.

Not sure what I will do tomorrow, but I am told the aquarium is worth visiting so I imagine I will check that out and drink copious amounts of coffee!

78km Bicycled Today

2674km to Date

Nice is nice. I’ve had a great 3 days off here…exploring the city, planning the next stages of my trip, eating, drinking..

Something unbelievable happened on the 1st day. Just through random coincidences, one of my old clients, Charles, happened to be in Nice at the same time and he spotted me walking through town with my fully loaded touring bike! Needless to say, we spent a day being tourists together, went to Monaco to look at all the things we can’t afford…although we did find a bar on the beach that was selling half a bottle of wine for 4 euros! And it was drinkable too!

I stayed with two different hosts in Nice. Sandie, a student and Nicolas, a touring cyclist that has recently completed a years traveling in South America. Was great to stay with two different hosts in the same city – you get two very different flavours of the place.

There is not too much to report here…I spend much of my time just wandering about, enjoying the energy and atmosphere…drinking too much coffee, and thinking about the future….

Here are some of my pics from my time here.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that one of the reasons I chose to couchsurf over at Adrian’s place is that he is also a cycle tourist. In August he just completed 12 days of touring across Slovenia….meeting more cycle tourers really wets my appetite to get back on the bike again and again.

After thanking Adrian for his hospitality (great cooking) I made my way to the harbour area of La Seyne sur Mer – found a cafe – Rudy’s, and had a coffee…but this was the best value coffee of the trip so far. For 1.40euro I got an espresso, a small pain au chocolat, and an orange juice! All I ordered was an espresso, so I thought for sure they were just trying to rip off the tourist, but no….1euro40….nice and sweet.

Todays ride continued along the coast. It was hot today! Unbelievable… I started riding in long trousers, a morino wool top, t-shirt, and a fleece and by the end of the day all I was wearing was bike shorts and a light weight wicking shirt! Awesome. I feels so good to ride in the sun and not have to wear gloves.

The landscape is beautiful…again, I will draw comparisons to Croatia…although there seems to be more vegatation here…and one thing that is very different is the bike paths. Something Croatia has yet to discover. There are bike paths everywhere here…so even though the roads may be hairy, often you can find a tarmacked path dedicated to cyclists.

aaahhh yes, speaking of cyclists…there were tons of them out today….I mean tons…flying by on their lightweight racers – groups of old men on bikes….sometimes in 2’s, 3’s, or 4’s, but often in groups of 8 or more. Old men on bikes….everywhere.

For lunch I found what I thought was a suitable place….

And had a picnic…

I brought a tiny camera tripod with me, so I will start using it…no need to bore you with pictures of my bike all the time…I can now bore you with pictures of me!

During the trip I went through St-Tropez…nice village, but one look at the prices on the restaurants the shops around town was enough to convince me that I don’t belong there.

I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time in Nice…maybe a 4 or 5 day stop. Have a look around, but a tourist, and plan then next part of my trip – once I leave Nice I will be entering Italy….and I’m told that couchsurfing there is a little more challenging…but who knows, if the weather holds I may start camping finally!

Tonight I am being hosted by Erik near Sainte-Maxime. It is quite a treat to be here and very generous of him as his brother, sister-in-law and nephew are visiting from Peru. For dinner we had roasted red pepper soup and stuffed courgettes, washed down a two bottles of wine. The house is fantastic and boasts one of the best views of all the couchsurfers I’ve stayed with. Nestled high above the Mediterranean the view takes in miles of sea and the surrounding community. Absolutely sublime.

116km Bicycle Today

2352km to Date