August 16, 2019
Alassio
A day on busy roads
We started early, now it is about traffic not the extreme heat although it is nearing 30 degrees by the time we get to our destination. Your day at the beach starts fairly early but to start with the road was not too crowded. Parking near your favourite beach is the real challenge and this was at first was our main problem. No we weren’t trying to park. What happens is that the drivers drive along with just one thing on their mind parking. If they find gold they whip in and all doors are flung open to disgorge all the vital paraphernalia it would be very easy to just plough into one of these open doors and I had a coupe of relatively near misses. If this doesn’t work what happens is the car stops suddenly in the middle of the road and a vaste number of people and gear all jump out in an instant. I am pleased to say we avoided running even one person over.
At 20km the parking mele had largely subsided we had ridden over a couple of stunning headlands and drew up at a charming beach side cafe to people watch and enjoy our coffees We were to remain on the road all day but I must stress that although it was very busy and at times very slow it never felt hazardous and we were really enjoying the ride The small towns were the main problem, if there were no lights controlling pedestrian crossings, as the beach goers were crossing the crossings in a continuous stream leading to traffic jams even worse than those on the Auckland Southern Motorway. We got good at worming our way past cars and I in particular felt proud of myself.
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This is such a beautiful coast I read somewhere that it is overhyped and overpriced. I certainly agree with the second but not the first it is beautiful with such stunning views And full of happy people. At the moment it should be called the Oleanda Coast. They are everywhere and in full gorgeous bloom in a huge variety of colours. I never realised Oleandas could be so beautiful.
Unfortunately our accommodation tonight is a bit away from the coast so therefore up a steep hill. Eventually we found it, it is a Band B, hard to find the owners. The room is nice but I think wildly overpriced at 200E a night. The number of keys we have to carry around make us feel like jailers. Breakfast tomorrow isn’t until 8.30 so we have said we will skip it to make the most of the ride to San Remo which includes as part of it a bike track
Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,066 km (662 miles)
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