Snacking through the Alps

Today dawned warm again. We didn't have the rainflies on our tent and slept through most of the night in just our sleep sheets. Ruby got a chance to linger a little longer than normal as she prefers, and after another blah breakfast of muesli with water, we set out. The sea was gorgeous and the riding was downhill, although we are past the lands of separate bike lanes. Trieste was a little challenging to negotiate, as any ancient tourist resort would be, but our two erstwhile navigators delivered us safely to our air b&b without problem. Liv had negotiated for us to drop the bikes and gear early which then allowed us to tackle lunch. Lyle picked the spot, and we made it just before the rush. It was a spaghetteria, with 5 choices of pasta, and 10 different choices of appropriate sauces for each. Honest food, served to a working clientele. None of the options were the standard arabiata or carbonera, and the closest noodles to standa...

This morning we got up with the 6 am Sunday church bells in order to get on the road in the cool of the day. The forecast was for the mid-90s and we had about 40 miles to cover.  The first 7 miles were exciting. We crossed the Lagoon of Grado and navigated through the island beach resort town to the Adriatic! This marked the official end of the Alpe-Adria route.  We breakfasted on a bench on the Grado promenade. The same old -- long shelf-life milk, muesli, granola, and peaches. Food helped lift spirits. Leaving early is tiring. Lyle was our main navigator today (as Ruby was yesterday), and he managed to shave at least 6 miles off the route, shortening the ride to 33 miles. Yay! This was a triumph, considering the predicted heat. We were all hanging in there fairly well and making fantastic progress until Ruby caught a tire in a railroad track and went down hard in the middle of the road. (When she fell a ...

The barn that we spent the night in was amazing most especially because it had operable shutters over the windows and the heat pump. That meant that we were in Pitch Darkness and comfortable temperatures. On a bed. We slept amazingly well. The breakfast was bike traveler's perfection- anything but muesli. Jam filled croissants, rolls, chrese, prosciutto, gurt, coffee, the works. After which the proprietor demanded to take a family portrait for us, and we were off into the heat. The day's pattern is different than home, in that the temperature here rises with the sun, and then stays at its peak from late morning until sunset almost. Doesn't leave a lot of space for riding, but we do our best. We rode through beautiful farmland and finally arrived at a fascinating fortress town called palmanova.  An amazing town with an equally amazing town center. Sadly it had NO water features, and so we were forced to dock them to...

A big thunderstorm whipped through the Gemona del Friuli campground last night on its way northeast from Venice. Big wind, exciting thunder and lightning, and major rain. The kids sat outside watching lightning streak across the sky for quite a while before dashing for the safety of their tent. Both tents weathered the storm without problems and were surprisingly dry in the morning. This morning the light was beautiful and the humidity was down, at least until the sun rose from behind the Alps.  A tough day of riding, with a handful of mishaps and challenges. Ruby wiped out and landed hard on a patch of gravel. As we were bandaging her scrapes and skinned elbow, a tour group of 30+ cyclists passed by, oohing and ahhing with concern and empathy. I honestly think this helped more than the bandaids, so thank you, tour group.  Some of the riding was really gorgeous and it's sinking in that we're in Italy. By lunchtime we were feeling...

After a wonderful night in our perfectly adequate 1 star hotel, and a nice breakfast of fresh rolls with prosciutto or jam (and Ruby's requisite cappuccino) we launched off on a beautiful day of riding.  When the rail route was upgraded to allow for modern double decker trains, the old route was decommissioned and paved and became a truly beautiful cycling path. Sure, we have things like this back home,  but not as long, and not as scenic.  With the heat, one of the best features were the long tunnels, filled with chilly air. Another would be the conversion of the old stations into cycling way points with cafés or other services literally right on the route. We were forced to endure almost 40 miles of downhill riding on smooth paths. For variety, we did have a routing discrepancy that allowed me to ride back a couple miles to make sure we hadn't lost the kids. Of course it all worked out, but I didn't want to give the impression that we no longer were actively parenting.....