Day 50: Cremona to Crema:

September 9, 2015

We got up before dawn to get an early start on our new routing. The camping gate does not open until seven, but we were there for that big event. With a lot of the car drivers not on the road yet, the ride back into Cremona was really pleasant. We also got onto a broad bike path, making the whole experience an enjoyable one.

We had forgotten that today is a market day, and were pleased to run into it, in front of the Duomo. The only thing, most of the vendors were selling dry goods - low quality imported clothes and miscellaneous stuff. There were some food vendors, but most of these had fruit, not necessarily local.

There was one cheese vendor,with big piles of Parmesan, that was fun to look at, and a chicken BBQ, like in France. We bought some hash browns from the chicken people, and I really liked them. They had been fried in olive oil, and were suitably greasy, in the manner of Quebec frites. This also meant that I had 4 euros of them mostly to myself, because Dodie is not fond of greasy stuff.

A market had sprung up by the Duomo, but most vendrs had junk.

Clearly these are not good bike wheel choices, for they seem to fall to pieces.

Dodie threw caution to the wind and sent me in to a bakery (yesterday's boycott has faded) and I came out with 6 euros of apricot croissants and nutella pastries. I also bought one more experimental bread bun, but I have little confidence that it will be edible. The bakery lady did explain to me that this one was soft, while all others were hard, but the one I got seems hard and tasteless as well.

Our big thing for today was a parting of the ways (for a while) with Bikeline and the Po route. Bikeline follows the Po, which is fair enough, since they call their thing the Po Radweg. But we have seen that bridges on the Po are dangerous. So for example if we would follow Bikeline along the Po to Piacenza, we would arrive on the north (left) bank and have to cross into the town for a place to stay, and then back again. We would then proceed to Pavia, with the same routine. Bikeline would finally take us south and west of Milan, in order to hook us into a bike way into the city.

With the help of Elena at Cremona Tourist Information, we were outfitted with maps and .gpx to take us straight to Crema and then to Treviglio (approximately). The trick is, there is no safe way in to Milan from that angle. So the plan is to train in, somehow reaching the Camping on the West side of the city.

Everyone says we should check out the Milan Expo 2015, which is on now. So if it works out, starting tomorrow our previously lonely dike-top existence will turn into a wild urban scene.

If you have a look at the map, you can see our former route, wandering around in the south and going west of Milan. Then there is our present plan, which heads straight for Milan, but stops short where the train comes in.

Our new, more northerly and direct route to Milan.

Even though we did receive the gpx for the new route, things could break down without signage at the intersections. No worries, There turned out to be quite good signage all the way to Crema.

Migliaro is the first little place along the way. Good signage like this continued for the whole path.

Along the path for the first while were clumps of soldiers. We asked this one whether we were being invaded, or something, but he assured us it was just exercises. All the soldiers, young men, look very earnest and innocent.

Oh, oh, path is blockaded. There has been (Italian) warnings about this 2 km earlier, but our policy is we'll believe it when we see it.

On the route to Crema there was only one town of note: Casalbuttano. Whether in a town or not, we found we were warmly greeted by the rural people. But it was in Casalbuttano that a lady called out to us, and came alog for a chat, with her seven year old granddaughter. It was Carla, 74 years old, and out to do some shopping with Anna, 7. Perhaps unlike many small town residents, Carla was interested in travel, and because she could speak some French, she told us of a wonderful trip she had made to Paris with her family. She said that before she dies she would fondly like to return there once with them.

But more than travel or Paris, Carla's great love was for her family, and specifically for her grand children. You could see her pleasure in being out shopping on the bikes with Anna. "She is my treasure", said Carla. It did not take long before (like all grannies) she pulled out the many photos she carried of the rest of the family. Dodie gave Anna a Canada sticker, which was well received and found a place on her bike.

We much enjoyed talking to Carla, seeing the photos, and thinking about grandchildren, and Paris. We also think she was brave to bring out rudimentary school French and to talk to two strange foreigners out in the street. Thanks Carla, and Ciao, Anna!

In town, many buildings were decorated with ribbons. It was a religious holiday, we gathered. Perhaps it was to welcome a new priest. Not sure.

Photos of the grandkids are carried by all grannies.

Although the bike route was named, and well signed, it did have the weakness of being gravel for at least half its length. This of course is hard on loaded Bike Fridays, and makes the whole enterprise long and tiring. Still, we felt less tired overall, because it is more relaxing to dodge gravel in the path than cars on the road.

Tomba Morta is where many canals intersected. We are not sure about why the name. It seems you would need to eat tiramisu there to countereact any ill effects.

We have seen no cows in fields in Italy. None. All cows are kept inside all the time. Cruel!

The way into Crema was quite easy, but our first issue was to find the Tourist Information, for help about a place to stay. Tourist Information is hard to find in a general computer search, because it may have many different sorts of names. Even after we found it by noodling about and I was standing outside (looking at the way the door was signed) I could not devise a search on either Google Maps or Osmond that would have reliably turned up the location. Dodie, however, has worked out a super reliable search method that works in Italy: Find the tower of the Duomo - the Information is then across the square from that.

While standing outside waiting for Dodie, I checked Booking.com and quickly determined that the Palace Hotel was the only option for us - €85, with breakfast. Dodie came out after 20 minutes and reported that the Palace Hotel was the thing - €80. The difference was that the Palace had one time submitted 80 to the Tourist Info, so now that that had been quoted to Dodie, they were stuck with it. The Palace is a three star, and has everything - marble steps, large room, working plumbing. What more could we want? Ahh, the water and juice in the minibar is free!

Crema is a 16 church, 27 palace operation. But 8 of these are clustered around the Duomo. So our plan for tomorrow is to hit just those (don't worry - we won't write up even 8 churches and palaces here). After that, we're on the track to Trevilio!

...

The Duomo (as viewed from the Tourist Information)

The view from our Three Star. Not so great, but the stairs are marble and the plumbing works.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,416 km (1,500 miles)

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