Author Archives: Robkeene

A brutal day.

Friday 13th was a bad day to choose a long leg. Another hot day was forecast, so we aimed to start early. That didn’t happen!

We tried enjoying breakfast on the balcony, but as we sat down, a neighbour decided it was time to cut their hedge, directly below us, with a very noisy machine 😡

We finally packed up and left soon after 10am.

The first 20 kms went well, again travelling along dykes along water channels. A very fertile part of Italy,

We decided to go into a village to rest, and get some more water, as supplies were getting low. We arrived at a little Café and 13:55, but as it closed at 14:00 the lady had already locked up and refused to let us in🥵

Fortunately, the next village had an open bar, so we refreshed ourselves there, and loaded up with H2O.

The track became very difficult and we wondered why it hadn’t been mown??

Our answer came when we arrived at a major new motorway construction. We’d seen no previous signs to say the route was closed😡😡. No provision had been made for bikers at all.

It was a long way to bypass this, so we had to unload the bikes. take down a fence and scramble down banks with empty bikes.

All this happened at the hottest time of day, about 34 c🥵

After 95 kms we arrived at this unusual old building, our home for the night. It was now 19:00 and I then had to cycle 2 kms to the sister hotel, to collect the keys, whilst Sue sat on a bench being eaten by mosquitos😡😡😤

Finally we were in, but the air con was not working 😡🥵

The manager arrived after 8pm and gave us another cool room. We had the whole place to ourselves, so the bikes enjoyed a very fancy room to get charged!!

The manager offered us a ride and kindly took us to a huge local brewery with a party going on😁🥂There must have been 1000 outdoor covers, but it was really well organised,

It was a good night, with some great oldies being played by the DJ.

Gloria Gaynor’s « I Will Survive » started to play. So appropriate!! We were about to get up and dance, but within minutes of each other suffered really painful leg cramp😲; so enjoyed the music through gritted teeth.

Definitely a Friday 13th; thankfully it was the 14 th after we’d walked the 1 km home.

After another great breakfast at our hotel in Lido, we headed along the island to catch our first ferry, 10 kms away.

We only waited 10 minutes and were onboard, heading for the long very, narrow island of Pellestrina. We were charged €9 each for a 500 metre crossing😤. It’s a strange system in the lagoon, but all tickets for any crossing are the same price, no matter how long; however, if you’re a local it’s €1:50🥴

Pellestrina was very quiet, and a pleasant ride.

Whilst sipping our refreshments, the kind waitress said that the ferry boat won’t take bikes from this stop😡. No idea why??

Anyway, we had to return 3 kms along the path on the sea defence to get to the village where the boat allowed bikes to board it🥴

We just arrived as the ferry was pulling away, so had to endure another beer before the next one arrived in half an hour.

Having been fleeced for another €20 we headed for Chioggia, and were finally away from being boat dependant.

The town was larger than we expected and a bit of a dump. It took a while to get to open countryside, but finally we were « flying » along cycle paths with the wind behind us, along dykes and canals.

After 50 kms in the heat, we were both tiring.

I had never been to Venice and it was on our bucket list. This bike ride gave us the opportunity to visit, as we are only 15 minutes by water taxi to the heart of the fascinating little city.

The bike route is following the narrow strip of land that separates the Adriatic Sea from the Venetian Lagoon, so our break from cycling has been at Lido

I’d seen pictures and heard how crowded Venice can be, so was unsure how fun it would be.

The very busy places by the palaces and tourist attractions are just as bad as I’d thought. Thousands of people stumbling around, looking at their phones to find their way through the tiny streets and occasionally looking up to point their phones at gondolas, bridges and pretty buildings. Total chaos.

Fortunately as soon as you move away from these areas of mayhem, it’s much more tranquil. Venice has a lovely charm in the hundreds of very narrow back streets.

We spent the first day looking around the main city then we took a boat trip to see 3 other lovely islands in the lagoon.

2 days in Venice and islands nearby. A few pics to share:

A great island to finish with.

More biking in the tomorrow.

We’ve had a more gentle 2 days, not only to give our bums time to recover but we are planning to visit Venice , and really didn’t want to go there at the weekend.

Our ride from Caorle to Jesolo was flat and less interesting than the previous day, however we took a less used trail and ended up cycling through a paddy field!

The following day we left for another short ride to Lido, which is an island close to Venice.

After our 25km short ride, we approached the ferry terminal that would take us to Lido. It was heaving with bikes waiting to cross. 😡.

Unfortunately we had chosen a day when there was some strike action taking place and therefore only small boats were operating, meaning only 4 bikes could get on every ferry, which was otherwise full of foot passengers. One boat left every 30 minutes😡😡 . There were about 30 bikes ahead of us,😡😡😡.

Fortunately there was a restaurant and bar nearby whilst we waited. 🥴

After 2 hours, one of the quay operators suddenly had a great idea: «Let’s call for a big boat to come and clear the backlog of bikes »😁👏🏼 A huge cheer went up

In 20 minutes one arrived and we were all aboard for Lido.

After a 25 minute ferry ride, we were happily across and only 100 metres from our accommodation for the next 3 nights. We could see the towers of Venice which were only a 10 minute boat ride away.

We needed to stay somewhere to keep the bikes safe as bikes are banned in Venice. It’s not just bikes, but anything with wheels are not allowed.

However if you need a wheelchair or a pushchair you can just about manage but it’s not easy.

Hôtel Acapulco was our chosen stay in Lignano, and was also a favourite for students. All the cars in the car park belonged to Austrians. As Austria is landlocked, this was the closest place to come for the seaside experience; as it’s only about 100 kms to their border. We assumed that they had just finished the term and were all celebrating by the sea.

We decided we’d look a bit out of place on the beach so we set off, after a hearty breakfast, at about 10:30.

The cycle trails were excellent taking us out of this touristy town. We then arrived at this swing bridge, which was stuck open. After a 10 minute wait, we gave up and used the busy road bridge nearby, which was less fun.

The trail soon entered a vast Fenland like area, following lots of water courses, and on dykes. The soil was superb all the way, so lots of interesting crops. We went through the first orchard of Pomegranates I’d seen.

This boat service was lacking a captain to take us across. An apologetic sign said he was closed until « next summer »!!

It unfortunately, didn’t state which summer.

28 degrees C felt pretty summery to us, but maybe not quite warm enough for summer to have started for the operator; or maybe he was referring to next summer🥴😡.

Another very touristy town, with a huge windswept beach, so a good place to get properly burnt and sandblasted… joy!

We did find a shoe shop for Sue to get some sandals and also, next door, was a barber. 😁 💈

I spent 10 mins getting a trim whilst listening to my female hairdresser jabbering away to her mate in fast dramatic Italian, without a single pause!

After another delightful plateful of fish we we were ready to retire to our apartment .

Grado had a typically quirky Italian ambiance with tiny and walkways, with small bars and restaurants spilling onto the already busy streets.

We therefore decided to have a wander around before we straddled our bikes and set off.

Not so pretty, especially when we arrived at Key West!

A canal full of fishing boats, leading into the centre of town. This one scoops up a small type of clam with a long tongue!

We didn’t leave this town until nearly midday, which was probably a mistake as we were still pedalling at 19:00 in the evening.

The first leg took us along a narrow 6 km causeway back to the mainland.

Aquileia was an important Roman port. We were intrigued by the path through this very old ruin, and so we pushed our bikes along it, to admire this ancient 2000 year old relic.

We then travelled about 10 km ,seeing no one else, along a narrow gravel dyke, with the view of Lignano, our destination, in the distance across the water.

We finally arrived at our hotel at 19:00, very tired, and saddle sore, after a longer than expected second day in the saddle.

A big plateful of fresh sea creatures on top of some homemade spaghetti, soon put things right, especially when washed down with some Weis beer!

After 8 months of leaving our bikes in a basement in Slovenia, we finally returned to relieve them from their cell.

The bikes needed a good wash and service, as well as to replace the front brake pads.

It was a warm muggy day to start and showers were passing through, so it was good to have a terrace to get all sorted and pack the panniers.

After a mile of cycling through a couple of kms of burnt our forest, we were into Italy

It was then a fast downhill to the coast. Fortunately we found a track that avoided the busy road into the shipbuilding town of Montfalcone.

After the damp morning, the weather brightened up and the rest of the day was warm and pleasant.

We descended into the town and were greeted, to our surprise, by a superb cycle route passing through the centre.

We were then on the Euro vélo 8 on which we will be cycling for much of our journey back to France.

Cycling out of the town, the trail passed along the coast then inland along flat fertile lands then over inland water courses.

Sue spotted this little turtle who was balanced on a log in a ditch. Afterwards we saw many others who slid into the water as we passed by. Hence their name, “Pond Slider“ according to Google.

As we crossed a long bridge we were now on the Grado peninsula, and it became very touristy. Lots of resorts en route to the pretty town.

We had planned a day off by the seaside, and fortunately, on the day we needed it, the sun shone all day.☀️😁

We had a morning stroll around the pretty Ankaran peninsular, through the vineyards.

Final Day, (20.) Our last day pedalling this year .

Within 3 km of setting off, we’d entered our 8th country on our trip; Italy.

The route was busy along the coast, with as many bikes as cars but it was scenic

When looking at a map I was surprised to see that we were travelling along a 35 km sliver of Italian territory which is only about 5 km wide after which you reach Slovenia again.

Another 3 kms up the road we found another place, with a car park full of Porches! It looked more promising. We parked the bikes looking down onto the fancy cars, and joined the terrace full of Porche owners and their dolled up wives, having their lunch meeting, overlooking the sea.

Unfortunately, as it was mid afternoon, the kitchen was closed but the staff kindly put together a plate of tasty mozzarella, tomatoes and prosciutto ham, which was fine. A bit pricey, but the view was worth it

Our hosts have agreed to keep them safe until we return

The intention is to carry on our journey through Italy and back to Borde Neuve in France during 2025.

Overall we’ve had a great trip through countryside that we haven’t seen before. It wasn’t our original plan, which was to traverse Europe on our bikes. However we’ve turned it into a tour of Central Europe around the Alps.

After the third leg of our bike tour we’ve now travelled 3767 km since we left, just over a year ago. It will be approximately 1600 km to get back to Borde Neuve next year🤞🤞

Having carried our 6 bags and 2 batteries back down the 84 steps, it was good to feel some warm dry air again. After a couple of days in the mountains, the change was noticeable.

It was also good to leave the busy city streets and head north along the coast on smaller roads. I was expecting to see more of the coastline, but it was obscured by industrial buildings and docks.

We left the coast and started to climb steeply, allowing us much better views.

After 15 minutes of steep climbing on a busy road, we stopped for a rest and a delicious piece of home made cake for breakfast. We then picked a route along smaller roads and passed many houses with similar views to this.

We soon climbed away from civilisation on really pretty lanes into rural Croatia.

At 2000 ft we needed a rest and stopped for a beer in a canvas covered stall next to a remote village, on the roadside. There were about 10 locals, mostly blokes, all drinking beer and smoking. Two of them had arrived on their old open red tractor.

I think it was the place where they all met for their lunchtime break, as all of a sudden after their pint they all left and went their separate ways.

We we’ve had a day enjoying the local area and the beach so not much cycling.

It was fresh and foggy at 2200ft as I went out to find a bakery for some doughnuts for breakfast. We also needed some milk for our morning pint of tea. Fortunately my walk took me through a farmers’ market and a lady was selling some from the back of her van. Proper unadulterated cow juice for a change.

Once again we loaded up the recharged bikes.

The cloud was lifting so we set off along the quiet main road and decided to take another small route through the trees, suggested by our mapping app. as a “popular route“!

We passed lots of empty concrete sheds, which might have been barracks, but after this tree and another gravel mound, we decided we’d had enough of this trail.

As we stood here admiring the view we both thought a café would have been appreciated. Our prayers were answered and just around the corner, one appeared.

We were in need of energy, as we had a big climb ahead, so we shared a big plateful of fried squid and chips. 👍🏼

From now on, the next 20 km was almost all downhill to the Adriatic coast and our destination of Rijeka

The scenery had changed dramatically. No more pine trees, but replaced by arid scrubby vegetation and no grass.

We decided to take a more scenic route instead of following a main road into a big city. Another one of Bike Map’s silly ideas!

It seemed, on the map that we’d be following a small tarmac road but is was mostly downhill gravel for 10 kms🥵

After an hour of slow descent through this scenery, with not another sign of habitation, we came upon this railway at 1500 ft above sea level! The other side of the raised track was a tarmac road; at last. Relief all around!

We were hugely relief to find our accommodation, except when we discovered we had to lug all our gear and heavy batteries up 84 stairs to get to it🥵

Fortunately the cycle shop next door was kind and let us park our bikes it his shop overnight.

After a shower and a relax for an hour we felt better. We then found a close by restaurant in which to refuel and mull over our tiring day, but dry day.