Day 13: a wrap

My friend Woody managed to turn a short downhill ride that had miles of bustling beachfront into a delightful country ride with hills and noisy frogs.

We started slowly, because we had some extra hills, but settled in and managed to arrive in the village of Tavoletto for coffee. We knew we were on a good route because we kept seeing groups of cyclists along the road! At coffee, we saw a large group of Danish guys, oldsters like us, on fancy bikes (rented! The latest Bianchis, etc) and we chatted before they headed out.

The scenic spot for our coffee since the Danes had taken over the indoors of the cafe, was a bench next to the fish merchant’s truck.

The fish didn’t smell much and the backdrop was this:

Along the road, we passed a small shrine with this heraldric sign. A reminder that this area was often invaded by the French.

We rode past tended fields and wild valleys. I was often in the rear to take photos. Once, I rode up to the group who had stopped in the middle of nowhere. They gestured at me, but I didn’t understand. Oh, they wanted me to be very quiet. I stopped and got off my bike. Then I got it: a small pond next to the road had the loudest frogs I’ve ever heard in my life! I have a couple videos with the sound, but I haven’t uploaded them to YT yet. Stay tuned…

As we approached the sea, the fields became white with onion plants. I was fascinated by their round white tops.

We stopped for a delightful lunch (of course!) and then only had to ride about 10km to the hotel. The signs and decorations for the Giro stage that started here a week ago are still up.

Our destination was The Beach and the best way to get there was along the Lungomare beachfront pathway with a single-speed hotel bike. Here I am dressed for the beach on the ONLY sunny day of the two-week trip!

The beach here is just like all the others: full of buildings, umbrellas, restaurants. They are private spaces you have to pay to enter. But at the end of the main passeggiata boulevard my friend Julie and I found a great ice cream place and a free beach, so we went into the Adriatic and got our feet wet. Made us both happy.

My next bike trip is in the Central Massif in France, in mid- to late-September. Look for more road shots then…

Love you all!!