November 5, 2007
Day 29: Onomichi to Hiroshima: A rather long haul, with a bit too much traffic
From Onomichi we had a long haul to Hiroshima, on what was probably our least favorite day of the tour. As it was, we seriously considered not ride it - Rachael had been wrestling with a cold, and the weather forecast for the day was dismal. In the end though we couldn't come up with any sensible alternatives to cycling, and the weather cooperated for us once again - the threatened heavy rains didn't arrive until nightfall. The ride itself was at times unpleasant, with long stretches of busy highway along the coast; and at times unsafe, when we left the coast to go inland over a minor, narrow, busy, shoulderless two lane highway through the hills, often rimmed with open channelways. It was the only significant stretch of the tour in which we felt like we'd gotten ourselves onto a road where bikes didn't really belong.
We didn't spend a great deal of time in Hiroshima, arriving late in the day and leaving in midmorning once the rains had passed. We of course walked through its major tourist attraction, the sobering but attractive peace park, and we spent a fair amount of time wandering through its large covered mall safely out of the rain. In addition to images from the peace park, my strongest mental picture of Hiroshima is of bicyclists carrying umbrellas, coasting into the covered mall, smoothly furling and stowing their umbrellas as they glided to a stop.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 1,202 miles (1,934 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |