Got up a bit late and had a measly breakfast of doughnut and double espresso. Lou eased some directions out of the waiter and we set off back to Luni where we got our passports stamped, but got no help in finding a new Pilgrim Passport for Lou. There were Roman ruins aplenty but we didn't stop to look around, we were keen to get going.
The roads were pretty with tomatoes, plums, olives and grapes growinmg everywhere. A mile down the road I realised I'd left my sunglasses back at Luni. Being too mean to buy a new pair we went back. I saw a lovely yellow-brown lizard warming himself on some unassigned Roman ruins piled outside the ticket office. Cool. He could have been a Roman lizard! This made me absurdly happy.
We set off again and at the ten mile point we arriverd at Marinella si Sarzana - 500 yards from where we'd come from an hour earlier. Arrrrghhhhh! I asked a chap "Dove Massa?" and pointed at both ends of the road. He pointed in the direction we'd just cycled from and said "Massa!" in a very authoritative voice. We cycled off through a very sea-sidey town with bingo halls, rides and ice cream stands heading for Avenza and then Massa.
We were in a higly industrialised area, deep in the heart of marble quarrying and processing territory. We carried on with mountains either side of us. Lorries thundered past but mostly they gave us enough room. Scooters seemed the biggest hazard, they're just so unpredictable. I recognised lots of places I'd seen from the train windows, which was fun, but reminded me of ur slow pace. It's interesting to see things other than cyclists with Fasso Bortolo written on them.
There's loads of cyclists of all ages, sizes, shapes and descriptions, and plenty of fairly sderious looking blokes in Lycra. Mostly they wave, laugh or shout "allez" at us. Other blokes, particularly Italian White Van Man, make other comments, which I'm choosing to believe mean "have a good holiday" rather than any body part related remarks.
We stopped at a bar by the road at Capezzano Pianore for lunch. Lou had a tuna focaccia which came with ham and I had a double decker sandwich with cheese on one layer and tomato and mayo on the other. It was OK. Lou nipped over the road for some cherries and peaches for later and we set off again.
We began a long steady climb, easiliy do-able in the biggest chain ring, but pretty unrelenting. Lycra boys were friendly and waving because they knew wwe were about to begin a giant climb. We stopped off to pump air into the tyres at a gas station, but it appeared to have no loos and no shop for water.
We carried on up the hill which had two double chevrons on the map to warn us of the giantness of our task. It was only about a 300m climb in altitude but it took us over an hour, including a peach stop at which my back tyre burst. I think it was over inflated. I replaced it using some foul language and my new plastic tyre lever which is much easier to use than a spoon. I made some fabulous gear impressions in oil on my legs and even my shoulder.
After setting off again a happy lycra boy who waved at us earlier came past on his way back down. He laughed and shouted something. I hoped it was 'nearly there'. We stopped to look down where we'd been. It was beautiful. The villages below looked like tourist brochure pictures. The olive trees were tied together with big nets, bunched upo ready to be unravelled for harvesting. The sky was blue but with enough cloud cover to stop me cooking.
We reached the summit and stopped for granita - ready made slush puppy frozen in a cup. Scrummy. I didn't even mind the brain freeze. Posters reminded us of our achievement as the hill is used for regular races. The downhill stretch was less steep and not bendy, which suited me. It seemed quite slow, but after Lou pointed out that my rear brake was locked on, and I sorted it out, we picked up pace.
The countryside was lush and green reminding me of the French side of the Pyrenees but without the cowbells. As we moved back into a built up area around Lucca the traffic became busier and more difficult to negotiate. I admitted defeat and got off to cross at crossings rather than trying to merge across lanes to turn left.
Just outside town we stopped to check the guides for accommodation. They both recommended the youth hostel San Frediano by the church. We went into town through a narrow arch on a cobbled road into the walled part of the city. The tourist office was dead ahead so Lou went in to get directions whilst I went next door to a bike hire place to get an inner tube - la camera d'aria - which I think translates as the 'room for air', which is cute. The bloke behind the counter took me through the shop, out the back and across the road to his repair place and introduced me to a Chinese guy who spoke some American English. Lucca has lots of bike hire places as you can cycle all around the city walls. We plan to do it in the morning.
Our hostel was just around the corner and for 62E we got a private double room with bathroom. It's actually on two floors with four beds. I'm sleeping downstairs and Lou upstairs.
We took a look around town but the churches were all closed. None of the eateries were really swinging and we were hungry. The walls of the town seemed to be put there to keep tourists in so it's easy to price gouge them. We ate in a square - seafood risotto and aubergine parmasan for me and seafood pasta and tuna salad for Lou. Chianti to share. It wasn't great. We played 100:1. I got 2 and Lou got 6. We started to notice that an unfeasibly high proportion of people were wearing orange trousers. I have no idea why.
The cathedral and St Frediano's looked beautiful but were closed so we mooched back, had a frozen yogurt and now it's time for bed.
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
Coventry - Luni
Coventry airport is functional - just - you can't get a hot snack and a hot drink at the same shop.We read guidebooks on the plane which did inspire me a little. When we got into the airport at Pisa it was hot.
Fools stood by the baggage carousel, letting their kids play at collecting luggage. It made getting ours off without maiming people difficult but the English fools liked to let their kids get close to the bikes. We unpacked them in the baggage hall, although much of the packing had already come off. Pumping up the tyres was too much effort for Lou so I did that whilst she screwed on the pedals and applied insulating tape to her saddle as it had punctured and the orange gel goo was in danger of oozing out.
We set off for Pisa and the tower. We took multiple wong turns in hideous traffic. People do not seem to pay any attention to road signs, laws or other road users - it's every man for himself.The square with the leaning tower is pretty grim. Gazillions of tourists, loads of fake watch hawkers, and I suspect more than a few dozen pickpockets crowded around. We took the obligatory photographs of us pushing up the tower, including one of Gulliver - Lou's school bear.
The tower itself looked fabulous, but we both felt vulnerable and didn't want to leave the bikes even double locked for a second so we admired from afar and left the church alone. We cycled back towards the railway station and stopped to have lunch at the 'Alle Antiche Navi Snack Bar'. It's on the bend of a fairly busy road in the university district. For no obvious reason a fully loaded hearse stopped outside for several minutes while its driver chatted with someone in the street.
I had scrummy pasta after some confusion about ordering. She offered us 'white or red' pasta which turned out to be cream or tomato sauce with salmon.
We made it back to the station, I even got directions from an old guy on his bike. Lou bought the tickets from a very nice woman who spoke excellent English. We had a 90 minute wait for the local train which would stop at Luni on the way to La Spezia. We sat outside on the grass and wrote postcards. I went for a stroll to get stamps and water. You can only get stamps from a tobacconist, and then only one with a black 'T' outside. The woman at the station kiosk nearly bit my head of when I asked her for stamps. The stamps I got were ugly utalitarian ones, but I really liked the word francobolle so I said it a lot.
We had to carry our bikes down the stairs through the subway to Platform 6 and back up the stairs. A muscly bloke helped Lou up the stairs with hers. Our train was delayed over an hour so we stood watching other people come and go. The was a curious gay American tour group, mostly with fabulous shaved, tanned legs which put mine to shame, although the group as a whole did disprove the 'all gay men are good-looking' theory. When our train finally arrived it came in on Platform 1. We didn't have time to struggle and having quickly got used to braking road laws we just pushed the bikes across the tracks, earning us a 'honk' from our train. I asked the guard if it was 'per Luni?', he checked his list, nodded and helped us get the bikes into the drivers area. Cool.
The trip was quick, despite a few station stops, the drivers and guards were friendly and helpful and the mountains on either side of us were terrifying. My guidebook had promised no mountains.
Luni station was called by the driver who laughed and waved. It was about 20' long with one small sign and some steps down to a dirt track. There did not appear to be a town. We cycled along the track with some houses on either side and every now and then what I guessed to be sangiovese growing as a hedge, but nothing resembling a bar or hotel and it was getting dark.We followed signs to the historic centre, but it was simply a gated community of Roman ruins
We began to panic a tad. We decided to head towards the coast as it seemed like our best chance to get a room. At the first bar we came to after crossing a bridge over the main road I asked a chap "dove un albergo?". He talked to me which really didn't help, but he also gestured and I established that just down the road on the left was a restaurant which was also a hotel. It looked fine so I went in. Reception wasn't manned which wasn't an encouraging sign. I rang the number next to the phone and I woman answered. I said "Inglese?", she said 'yes', but no to a room. We could only rent an apartment and then only for a full week. Boo.
We cycled on and after some confusion about where to go we plumped for the direction with the most signs offering accommodation. I attached a front light to my person, but as I was attracting too much attention I moved it to my shoulder strap.
After a worrying ride into town with ever decreasing accommodation adverts we found a sign and stuck with it. I asked an Italian woman "dove un albergo?". She said she couldn't understand me. Never mind. Then as we cycled on she shouted "Alberrrrrrrrgo!" laughed and pointed behind her.
So here I am at the Stella Del Magra at Fiumaretta di Ameglia near Sarzanna. We locked our bikes up in reception after shuffling some chairs around. Our room has a teeny TV, a reasonable bathroom and a great view of the bay/marina/mountain. This morning I found we had a balcony so that's where I'm writing this. Last night we walked up to O'Neill's Irish Bar, with the same branding you find at home, but it sold only Guinness and three types of Tennants Scotch Ale. At least it had wine. It also sold fabulous home made pizza. We ate and talked about the day and it felt good having packed a lot in and working well without much of a plan. I was a bit worried at Luni when it was getting dark and we didn't know where to go and Lou was texting Frank to talk about his indiscretions but it worked out fine and here I am chilling on the balcony whilst Lou gets ready.
Breakfast is included in our 110E room rate and I intend to eat my money's worth.
Fools stood by the baggage carousel, letting their kids play at collecting luggage. It made getting ours off without maiming people difficult but the English fools liked to let their kids get close to the bikes. We unpacked them in the baggage hall, although much of the packing had already come off. Pumping up the tyres was too much effort for Lou so I did that whilst she screwed on the pedals and applied insulating tape to her saddle as it had punctured and the orange gel goo was in danger of oozing out.
We set off for Pisa and the tower. We took multiple wong turns in hideous traffic. People do not seem to pay any attention to road signs, laws or other road users - it's every man for himself.The square with the leaning tower is pretty grim. Gazillions of tourists, loads of fake watch hawkers, and I suspect more than a few dozen pickpockets crowded around. We took the obligatory photographs of us pushing up the tower, including one of Gulliver - Lou's school bear.
The tower itself looked fabulous, but we both felt vulnerable and didn't want to leave the bikes even double locked for a second so we admired from afar and left the church alone. We cycled back towards the railway station and stopped to have lunch at the 'Alle Antiche Navi Snack Bar'. It's on the bend of a fairly busy road in the university district. For no obvious reason a fully loaded hearse stopped outside for several minutes while its driver chatted with someone in the street.
I had scrummy pasta after some confusion about ordering. She offered us 'white or red' pasta which turned out to be cream or tomato sauce with salmon.
We made it back to the station, I even got directions from an old guy on his bike. Lou bought the tickets from a very nice woman who spoke excellent English. We had a 90 minute wait for the local train which would stop at Luni on the way to La Spezia. We sat outside on the grass and wrote postcards. I went for a stroll to get stamps and water. You can only get stamps from a tobacconist, and then only one with a black 'T' outside. The woman at the station kiosk nearly bit my head of when I asked her for stamps. The stamps I got were ugly utalitarian ones, but I really liked the word francobolle so I said it a lot.
We had to carry our bikes down the stairs through the subway to Platform 6 and back up the stairs. A muscly bloke helped Lou up the stairs with hers. Our train was delayed over an hour so we stood watching other people come and go. The was a curious gay American tour group, mostly with fabulous shaved, tanned legs which put mine to shame, although the group as a whole did disprove the 'all gay men are good-looking' theory. When our train finally arrived it came in on Platform 1. We didn't have time to struggle and having quickly got used to braking road laws we just pushed the bikes across the tracks, earning us a 'honk' from our train. I asked the guard if it was 'per Luni?', he checked his list, nodded and helped us get the bikes into the drivers area. Cool.
The trip was quick, despite a few station stops, the drivers and guards were friendly and helpful and the mountains on either side of us were terrifying. My guidebook had promised no mountains.
Luni station was called by the driver who laughed and waved. It was about 20' long with one small sign and some steps down to a dirt track. There did not appear to be a town. We cycled along the track with some houses on either side and every now and then what I guessed to be sangiovese growing as a hedge, but nothing resembling a bar or hotel and it was getting dark.We followed signs to the historic centre, but it was simply a gated community of Roman ruins
We began to panic a tad. We decided to head towards the coast as it seemed like our best chance to get a room. At the first bar we came to after crossing a bridge over the main road I asked a chap "dove un albergo?". He talked to me which really didn't help, but he also gestured and I established that just down the road on the left was a restaurant which was also a hotel. It looked fine so I went in. Reception wasn't manned which wasn't an encouraging sign. I rang the number next to the phone and I woman answered. I said "Inglese?", she said 'yes', but no to a room. We could only rent an apartment and then only for a full week. Boo.
We cycled on and after some confusion about where to go we plumped for the direction with the most signs offering accommodation. I attached a front light to my person, but as I was attracting too much attention I moved it to my shoulder strap.
After a worrying ride into town with ever decreasing accommodation adverts we found a sign and stuck with it. I asked an Italian woman "dove un albergo?". She said she couldn't understand me. Never mind. Then as we cycled on she shouted "Alberrrrrrrrgo!" laughed and pointed behind her.
So here I am at the Stella Del Magra at Fiumaretta di Ameglia near Sarzanna. We locked our bikes up in reception after shuffling some chairs around. Our room has a teeny TV, a reasonable bathroom and a great view of the bay/marina/mountain. This morning I found we had a balcony so that's where I'm writing this. Last night we walked up to O'Neill's Irish Bar, with the same branding you find at home, but it sold only Guinness and three types of Tennants Scotch Ale. At least it had wine. It also sold fabulous home made pizza. We ate and talked about the day and it felt good having packed a lot in and working well without much of a plan. I was a bit worried at Luni when it was getting dark and we didn't know where to go and Lou was texting Frank to talk about his indiscretions but it worked out fine and here I am chilling on the balcony whilst Lou gets ready.
Breakfast is included in our 110E room rate and I intend to eat my money's worth.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Packing list for cycling the road to Rome
This was our proposed packing list for cycling to Rome.
Medical
Tweezers
Scissors
Plasters
Dioralyte
Vitamins
Sports nutrition stuff - I'll report back on whether it works
Medications
Imodium
Antiseptic wipes
Bite cream
Insect repellant
Compede - whilst I shouldn't get blisters while cycling I do when walking and was forced to cycle over the Pyrenees despite being totally unfit for it because I was too blistered to walk.
Tubi-grip - if I need this I'm not cycling any further than a pharmacy anyway, so I left it behind.
Painkillers
Personal
Contact lenses
Sun screen factor 40
Toothpaste/brush - will take mostly used up tube
Shampoo/shower gel - may go with just shampoo for hair, body and clothes
Moisturiser
Towel
Razor
Shower shoes - flip flop type things for communal living
Tissues - for use as emergency loo roll
Deodorant - futile, but makes me feel better
Make up - good suggestion, I took lipstick to make me feel human on the camino but it melted and got all over the place. Maybe I'll reintroduce lipgloss in a sealed tube
Earplugs - travelling with a snorer
Sleeping bag - duh! plus liner, which I'll sleep in on its own if it's hot
Bike
Cereal bars
Water bottles
Corkscrew
Tools
Allen key
Tape
Cable ties
Inner tubes
Spokes - not sure about these as I don't know how to fit them
Lights - small and light doubling as torch
Puncture kit
WD40
Spoon
Lock
Helmet
Clothes
Waterproof jacket
Sunglasses
PJ's - big t-shirt and big knickers for dormitories
Knickers - cheap Asda thongs, comfy, light, and cheap enough to be disposable
Socks - again, disposable, worth a little extra weight for feeling clean
Cycling shorts - 2 pairs, not padded for me
Bikini top - underwired to double as bra
Vest tops
T-shirt - need something with sleeves to stop burn and for churches
Sarong - for churches, doubles as all purpose large piece of light fabric
Cargo shorts - lots of pockets for off bike time
Shoes - not cleats, sturdy trainers for on/off bike use
Bra
Valuables
Credit/cash card
Cash
Pilgrim passport
Passport
Insurance/E111
Driving licence
Flight details
Camera/memory cardcharger/adaptor - cheaper and lighter than disposables I took to Spain
Phone/charger/adaptor - not certain I'll take this
Maps - with unnecssary areas cut off
Compass - will take cheap Tchibo watch with compass alitimeter thermometer. Fancy Lance Armstrong one got knackered on Camino trip. Boo to Tchibo, the watch hasn't arrived.
Guidebook and accommodation book
Phrasebook - I forgot to learn Italian
Journal
Pen
Medical
Tweezers
Scissors
Plasters
Dioralyte
Vitamins
Sports nutrition stuff - I'll report back on whether it works
Medications
Imodium
Antiseptic wipes
Bite cream
Insect repellant
Compede - whilst I shouldn't get blisters while cycling I do when walking and was forced to cycle over the Pyrenees despite being totally unfit for it because I was too blistered to walk.
Tubi-grip - if I need this I'm not cycling any further than a pharmacy anyway, so I left it behind.
Painkillers
Personal
Contact lenses
Sun screen factor 40
Toothpaste/brush - will take mostly used up tube
Shampoo/shower gel - may go with just shampoo for hair, body and clothes
Moisturiser
Towel
Razor
Shower shoes - flip flop type things for communal living
Tissues - for use as emergency loo roll
Deodorant - futile, but makes me feel better
Make up - good suggestion, I took lipstick to make me feel human on the camino but it melted and got all over the place. Maybe I'll reintroduce lipgloss in a sealed tube
Earplugs - travelling with a snorer
Sleeping bag - duh! plus liner, which I'll sleep in on its own if it's hot
Bike
Cereal bars
Water bottles
Corkscrew
Tools
Allen key
Tape
Cable ties
Inner tubes
Spokes - not sure about these as I don't know how to fit them
Lights - small and light doubling as torch
Puncture kit
WD40
Spoon
Lock
Helmet
Clothes
Waterproof jacket
Sunglasses
PJ's - big t-shirt and big knickers for dormitories
Knickers - cheap Asda thongs, comfy, light, and cheap enough to be disposable
Socks - again, disposable, worth a little extra weight for feeling clean
Cycling shorts - 2 pairs, not padded for me
Bikini top - underwired to double as bra
Vest tops
T-shirt - need something with sleeves to stop burn and for churches
Sarong - for churches, doubles as all purpose large piece of light fabric
Cargo shorts - lots of pockets for off bike time
Shoes - not cleats, sturdy trainers for on/off bike use
Bra
Valuables
Credit/cash card
Cash
Pilgrim passport
Passport
Insurance/E111
Driving licence
Flight details
Camera/memory cardcharger/adaptor - cheaper and lighter than disposables I took to Spain
Phone/charger/adaptor - not certain I'll take this
Maps - with unnecssary areas cut off
Compass - will take cheap Tchibo watch with compass alitimeter thermometer. Fancy Lance Armstrong one got knackered on Camino trip. Boo to Tchibo, the watch hasn't arrived.
Guidebook and accommodation book
Phrasebook - I forgot to learn Italian
Journal
Pen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)