July 17, 2018

 A good nights sleep in our hotel room with air conditioning – lovely.

We had a good breakfast at the hotel and headed out at 8:15. We had to stop at the post office because Ralf had forgotten to leave the key at the hotel in Malborghetto, and we had told them we would send it back.

I went into the post office when it opened at 8:20. In the summer the post office is only open until 1:50.  What odd times – 8:20 to 1:50, not 8:30 to 2:00! I was third in line – three service people at the counter. I went to a lady at the counter – she pointed me in the direction of  a machine where I would state what service I needed. Fortunately, there was another lady assisting people with this technology! It printed out a number – #3 and I went back to the first lady I spoke to, who was waiting to assist me! Did I want priority post or regular post – what is the difference in price? Priority post 2.80 – regular post 2.70. Whaaat?

Ralf took a final picture of the square and we headed out. I thought we were going to continue following the Alpe di Adria south for a while and then head inland towards Venice. No, Ralf had planned the route to head inland and south-west from Palmanova.

The first 20 kms was along a busy road and then we took a lovely quiet road for the next 40 kms. Trees planted along the road to keep hot cyclists cool.

We stopped at a closed gas station in the shade (for a wild wee) and to cool down. Ralf spotted this vending machine. Fill-up with gas and get some toys for the road trip!

It was a head down and go kind of day. We were on a nice road, but we still had to concentrate on traffic. While we were on the country roads the traffic was not too bad. When we were on the busy SS14 road the traffic was heavy with transports and cars whizzing by at speed. Although I must say they did give us room when they passed.

We were passed by a roadie, who slowed down long enough to ask where we were going and where we had come from.

Ralf seems to have a built in “lunch” clock. Around 11:30 – 12:30 he will be looking out for somewhere to stop. We spotted a little restaurant with several road bikes outside, seemed like a good place to stop. The roadie we had spoken to earlier was there. All of these roadies were on a Berlin to Rome trip – 16 days, supported ride, maximum mileage of 150 kms per day. We had a little chat with them and they clipped in and headed of after only having an espresso to keep them going. Ralf and I sat down to a good lunch – I had a pasta salad and Ralf had a pannini.

We made one wrong turn towards the end of the ride – that bought us back on to the busy SS14. I really didn’t want to have to deal with the transports after having a lovely ride up until that point. Ralf re-routed us and bought us into the City along a river and back roads. It added an extra 8 kms, but for me it was worth not having to deal with the traffic.

After dinner (which we ate in the hotel room) Ralf went to take some photos of the downtown area. The light wasn’t very good earlier on and it was really hot. Temperatures today were once again above 35 degrees.

Photos of San Dona

July 16, 2018

 The weather rolled in again and we were listening to rain pounding on the tent for a couple of hours (another reason not to camp).

At 6:30 we were awake, surprisingly to a dry tent. We packed the tent, and as we were unable to get juice or milk for our cereal headed into Town to find the elusive Spar. The camp restaurant/bar was open but only serving Espresso coffee for breakfast! We never did find the Spar store, but we did find a supermarket which opened at 8:30. I bought some bread, cheese and meat and a couple of bananas and a cappuccino drink and we ate outside the supermarket.

After a breakfast fit for cyclists, we tried to find our way back to the Alpe di Adria cycle route. We couldn’t find it and decided to follow the road towards Udine. By some amazing coincidence we reconnected with the Alpe Di Adria and were able to follow it for the rest of the day to Pamplanova.

We are now away from the South Tirol and the Dolomites, and are heading down towards Venice. We have dropped over 1000 metres in three days and are in the flat lands again.

The route today was very nice, we had some little climbs, usually when the route took us through small villages and we had a tail wind. However, the weather was really hot – at noon it was over 34 degrees. Even the sunflowers were drooping.  We should start earlier and finish by noon or 2:00 at the latest.

Grossest thing happened today, slug juice on my leg. Due to all the rain over the past few days there was hundreds of slugs on the route, I squished a big one and it got stuck on my tire, as the tire got to my fender the slug landed on my leg – yuck.

We often see the oddest things on our trips.  We had been routed through this small village and came across an old theme park.  At first view it looked like a miniature village – then when we stopped most of the exhibits were of religious buildings, mosques, the stable where Jesus was born, synagogues, and other churches.  I don\’t think they get many visitors.

We stopped in Udine to go to the bank and were really surprised to find a lovely historic City. The route had outskirted us through the boring part of the City and bought us straight into the older city.

We could have spent more time here but it was getting hot by lunchtime and we wanted to get to Palmanova as I knew it was going to be a Town worth spending some time wandering around.

We arrived in Palmanova at about 2:00 and cycled into the centre. As we were about to enter the Venetian walled city Ralf looked at his garmin. He took a photo of the route to the hotel! Amazing.

The city is based on a grid system, it has grass mounds protecting the outer walls, then a moat, then fortified buildings, then the city which eventually leads to a large central piazza. Around the piazza there are restaurants, ice-cream stores and bars.

Our new routine on getting to our destination is plug everything in – garmins, computers, iPad, wash cycle gear and shower and then go and investigate the city/town. After eating we then head back to the hotel to find our next port of call, plan the route and update the blog.

July 15, 2018

After a very restless night waking up every hour with the church clock clanging each hour and my dearly, beloved husband snoring gently beside me, I managed to get a few hours sleep between 3:30 and 7:30.

The breakfast served at the hotel was really good. A variety of bread, cheeses, meats, cereal, cakes and muffins, fruit and yogurts. We definitely had a good start to the day.  There was another group of touring cyclists staying at the hotel.  We think they were from Austria (by the accent) and riding e-bikes.  We met up with them a couple of times during the day.

The route today was fabulous. I knew it was going to be a good route and that is another reason I wanted to stop yesterday when we did. Yesterday with the weather and our moods we would have blown by all the great sites.  We would have missed seeing this very large snail, it would have fed a family of four 🙂

The scenery was stunning and we lost count of the amount of tunnels and bridges we crossed.  On one section we came out of tunnel onto a steel bridge and then into another tunnel – we did this three or four times – tunnel, bridge, tunnel, bridge. My two sisters Wendy and Nikki would have hated that section, but I loved it and so did Ralf – the bridges were amazing.

Most of the tunnels had lights on as we went through. 

One tunnel the lights were activated as you cycled through.  However, there was one tunnel the motion sensor was really slow and at one point we were in pitch dark.  That would be the time that my front light decided to stop working.  We had to cycle really slowly so the sensors would activate the lights.

The longest tunnel we went through was 950 metres long and the temperature dropped by 3 degrees inside the tunnel.  It was very foggy inside and quite eerie.

The route for the most part was gently downhill, a few pedal strokes and you were coasting for the next 500 metres.

Of course, we had earned this downhill from all the climbing we have done over the past few days.

This section of the Alpe di Adria Route is the only section that is on an old rail-line and is very easy to follow and very kid friendly.  There were a few areas where you could get off and go into a Town. However, this old train station had been converted into a cafe and rest stop – it even had a small work-station.

As we cycled through and above towns we could see the difference a by-pass makes on a Town.  We have noticed this phenomenon many times around the world.  The Town-folk want to detour all the trucks. However, by putting in a by-pass you also detour the cars and the town slowly dies.

Past this derelict train station is a multi-highway intersection.

There were a few little hiccups to the day. One set of stairs we had to climb and push the bikes up the gutter and an umleitung (detour) at the end of the route. This took us on gravel paths and back up hill. Oh well you cannot have everything.

We arrived in the Village of Venzone at about 12:30, time for lunch. We stopped at a small bar and I managed to order two panini’s with formaggio and proscuittio (cheese and ham) in Italian. Of course she had to throw a wrench in it and asked if I wanted it cooked. I asked for one cooked and one not cooked. It turns out she was asking if I wanted baked ham or prosciuttio ham. I got what I wanted, Ralf wanted Prosciuttio and I wanted baked ham.  I knew that Fanta and cola were ridiculously expensive and I asked if she had non-alcoholic beer. She looked at me dumb-founded. I laughed and said “yes what is the point” we both laughed.

We then cycled over a small bridge and entered the wonderful historic Town of Venzone. It is the only medieval walled city in the Friuli-Venezia Region. The Town dates back to the Celts 500 BC and the Romans who came after them. In 1976 the Town was devastated by an earthquake. The rebuild took many years, any remaining structures were reinforced and restored using anti-seismic consolidation methods. The ruins were rebuilt – putting the surviving stones together like one giant jigsaw puzzle.

The square is made up of marble stones – it would have been dreadful to cycle over that yesterday in the rain. It is nice to find these wonderful little towns along the route.

We are camping tonight in Gemona, a small camp site that is about E20, free hot showers. Internet is only available at the bar near reception. At the moment there is thunder rolling around the mountain and the clouds are very grey. We prepared our pasta and as were getting ready to eat it, the rains came. We rushed to the tent and ate in the tent, the first (and last) time for everything.

The storm passed and we tidied up and went down to the bar for a drink.

A decision has been made!

We have given up on the camping – the rest of this trip is going to be hotels or warmshowers – the budget has already been shot to pieces, if we are going to continue on this trip without taking the train, we need to be comfortable at night.

There are a million different reasons not to continue camping and only a couple to continue camping.

Reasons not to camp –

• it makes us miserable,
• showers – after having a shower you are then in a tiny cubicle trying to get your clothes on.
• you have a nice shower and then you get hot and sticky again because you have to sit outside in the heat
• you have to eat outside
• sleeping on an air mattress in a tent is not comfortable, no matter how hard you try to get comfy.
• I can go on…

Reasons to camp –

• It is cheaper than staying in a hotel
• In the other places that we have been to everyone talks to each other especially other cyclists, this hasn’t been the case so far in Europe.

Despite sleeping on a slope, with the decision that we have made tonight, I think I might get a good nights sleep.

July 14, 2018

What a day! Our plan was to get south of Venzone (Italy) to a small campsite – a distance of about 100 kms.

But, the day started bad from the get go. We were up early, as usual, and were about to leave as there was no sign of Angelina. However, she appeared and proceeded to make us breakfast. Breakfast was called “mish-mash” a Bulgarian dish she told us. The base recipe is peppers, tomatoes, eggs and feta cheese, but you can add whatever left-overs you may have.

First disaster – Angelina, was cutting up a pepper (jalapeno) and rubbed her eyes – crying, we managed to rinse her eyes and made sure her hands were well-washed. When the dish was almost ready, she asked me to keep my eye on it while she quickly got all her climbing gear ready. I had a taste, it was good.

However, unbeknownst to me she had added some shrimp – I am allergic to shellfish – not deadly allergic, just enough to make me sick. As we ate the “mish-mash” I had a strange tingling in my mouth, then I chomped into a shrimp! I stopped eating immediately and told her I was allergic to shellfish – it is on my profile on the website- but not everyone reads the profiles. Angelina didn’t read my profile. “OMG I am trying to kill my guests” she said.

I threw up after breakfast, but Angelina was in a hurry to get going and Ralf and I headed out to follow the Cyclio de Alpe Adria Radweg (CAAR). I felt dreadful, sweating like a pig and ready to throw up. I told Ralf I was fine, as I knew we had a long day ahead of us.

Then the signs for the CAAR route disappeared and we didn’t know which route to follow.

We got totally turned around and eventually headed back towards Villach and found the route again.

The signs for CAAR were non-existent in Austria – we followed the R3C route instead.

The route was a steady climb for 15 kilometres, nothing too strenuous, constantly upwards.

Eventually we came to the Italian border crossing, although there are no official crossings, this one could very easily be reopened or closed if necessary.

We stayed on the road after crossing into Italy towards Tarvisio, we didn\’t want to get turned around and head into Slovenia! We stopped for lunch at a little café in Tarvisio and then joined the real CAAR route. This route used to be an old railway, which has been paved.

We are in Italy, time to carry toilet paper in my jersey pocket. I had read that no washroom or campsite has toilet paper,  My first visit to a washroom – no toilet paper, glad I have my little stash in my jersey pocket again just like in France.

Then to cap the day off the weather turned nasty and started to rain.  We had only cycled 50 kms. The mountains were covered with angry grey clouds and it started to rain, lightly at first then very heavily, the wind was picking up and a few thunder claps were thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately along this route all of the B&B’s, hotels etc advertise along the route. We stopped at the next advertising sign, spotted the village and headed towards the hotel. Bugger the budget, neither Ralf or I were having a good day and we needed to stop.

The hotel is lovely but a little expensive E87 per night including breakfast. We were told by Angelina that English is not widely spoken in Italy, that’s o.k. it is part of the adventure. However, in this area German is widely spoken and we were able to reserve a room.

By the time we had showered and washed our cycling gear the grey clouds had disappeared and the sun came out.

Sods law, we could have cycled on, but we were not feeling very happy I think it was a good idea to stop and recharge the batteries.

We had a lovely walk around the small Town. Which has several things going for it.

An old fort at the top of the hill which is part of a longer walk and a fun animal walk through the Town. The Town has placed wooden carvings of animals throughout a walking path. These animals can be seen through the seasons in this area.

Tomorrow with recharged batteries and feeling better we will continue on the CAAR. We actually get a lie-in tomorrow as breakfast is not served until 8:00 a.m.

Finalizing the blog tonight, the thunder is rolling around the valley and the rain is pouring down.  A good end to the day to stay in a nice room instead of the tent.