October 7, 2018
Vicenza - Great Rail Trail and a Fantastic City
Treviso to Vicenza
Today was fantastic. We left the B and B Treviso fully fuelled and ready to ride. The goal was Vicenza. The CN had been wondering for a few days about the dead straight line on his Galileo app, and now that we were looking at riding it he did a little further research. It turns out that straight line is a discontinued railway line that is now a bike path. What a great surprise. After many days of road biking we spent 95% of today traffic free. We have loved our secondary roads for the most part, but today was a reminder of just how great Europe can be for bikes.
We left Treviso with a non functioning camera (damn) and on dedicated bike paths right until we picked up the route. Treviso is a very bike friendly city. Evidently the bike path we were going to ride is only three years old. We knew from Keith’s research that the first bit was a natural surface, but when we turned into it I was more than a little worried. It was awful. The CN carried on with me frozen in his tracks thinking natural surface? It was really, really natural. Alarmingly natural. Then the CN himself hit some mud and a puddle and it was a heart stopping moment. It was brute strength that kept him from landing in that puddle. His bike was at 45 degrees and how he got unclipped, his foot down and kept from going splat is beyond me. It wouldn’t have been an injurious fall, just a really messy one. While I was recovering from my shock I looked right, and just above us, under a canopy of trees was the beautiful, well maintained bike path. We had turned 10 m too soon. Did we ever laugh.
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After we moved ourselves onto the bike path it was smooth riding. It was a fantastic natural surface for about the first 20 km. We just spun along. Then suddenly it was paved and stayed that way until it was time for us to turn towards Vicenza.
The weather forecast was absolutely accurate. Clouds in the morning followed by brilliant sunshine in the afternoon. It was humid too. We kept peeling off clothes. We started at 18 degrees and cloudy and it topped out at 24 degrees and sunny. The forecast is for sun now right through until we get on that darn plane.
Then, almost before we were ready, we were in Vicenza. We have been absolutely stunned by the beauty of this place. We have also been stunned by the number of people! Most seemed to be local, enjoying a sunny Sunday in their city. The vibe was fantastic. We stopped for a drink at a cafe and found a hotel.
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We are in the Hotel Campo Marzio. They have upgraded us 👍 and the room is so lovely we weren’t sure we wanted to leave, but exploring we went. We should be spending another day in this amazing spot, but we really, truly can’t. So we must come back. We are right in the heart of the old town and we walked and took it all in until 7:15 PM when we went for dinner.
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We have had a wonderful dinner, made even better by meeting Jim and Barb from Red Deer. We had such a great visit and swapped travel stories. I have many more pictures but have reached the end of my broadcasting day. Time for bed. More adventures await tomorrow.
Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 1,910 km (1,186 miles)
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I’m sorry to see your tour draw to a close, K2! I’ve really enjoyed following along. Come back next year!
6 years ago
Keith
6 years ago