October 3, 2010
Camping Village Alba D'Oro: Making up the distance
We had one more ride to do. I was keen that we do 3000km and we were 65km short. Today is Sunday so today was the day - buses into Venice are few and far between on a Sunday and would be crowded - we wanted to avoid being robbed as we were on a crowded bus in Rome last year.
We set off with unladen bikes. It was amazing how they speed along, any hills seem so easy and you feel the fittest person on the road. Having promised Graeme and Sue that we would not ride on 'the bridge' we went on the quietest routes we could find into the countryside towards Treveso. It is amazing how close the agriculture comes to the built up areas. Ken was able to delight in watching corn being headed and keep an eye out for the type of machinery he likes. As soon as you get even a little way from Venice the price of coffee falls like a stone and instead of paying 5 Euros for a cappacino as you do in St Mark's Square it costs 1.20 Euros - worth the ride! It was a meander through pleasant small towns and without a GPS we would probably still be there until our plane left on Thursday. With a couple of loops at the end we made it - 3001km.
Camping Village Alba D'Oro is a rather strange place. Buses like Bus About and Top Deck disgorge huge numbers of people who disappear into the cabins - they have 2 or 3 nights here, spend their days in Venice then on to the next stop. The actual cabins are good but some of the rest of the organization reminds me of Fawlty Towers. An amazing meal last night, we became invisible and spent over half an hour waiting for our order to be taken, my pizza was half raw and our before dinner drinks turned up after the meal. The pizza cook however was a free side show as he deftly spun the bases around with great pride and we had good company when Sue and Graeme arrived. They are from Christchurch on a trip all over Europe on Bus About - their travels make it seem as if we have been moving in tandem with snails
Being a tourist in Venice is proving fun, there are so many great things to see and I am enjoying doing my Christmas shopping - easy for the females in our life but much more difficult for the males. Three more days of tourism. The bike pack up will be a challenge but we have a cunning plan which I will reveal later
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 3,001 km (1,864 miles)
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