Where’s Alex?

This time 3 years ago: June 9th, 2007 Saturday 10:05pm.
Cycle Europe Day 25: Urbana - Pisa, 31.85 miles.

2nd day of cycling still feel OK. Almost no after effects except maybe the wrist and neck. Another cycling day tomorrow. This is where the fun begins.

Breakfast at that alternate albergo in Urbana was (nick) disappointing: cappuccino and croissant. Thought there would be more but sigh… Never stop at Urbana again!

It was another flat day so I could cycle fast enough. It was mostly wheat, peach trees and other plant, leafy, almost like corn/maize but there were no fruits yet so I couldn’t tell. It was still a bit boring come to think of it but the navigation and speed kept me entertained so I got to Verona before 1pm. Checked in early but could only get to the rooms at 5pm so I went to explore town with the half day I had left.

Verona is a smaller city than Bologna which was a university place so it would naturally be bigger and for some reason redder (it’s because of the bricks, they had no other type of material). I think it’s famous for 2 things only: Romeo & Juliet and a Roman Colosseum of its own (smaller than the one in Rome but much better preserved). 3rd largest in the world, the Colosseum was €4 to get it but it could be free on the 1st Sunday of every month (not tomorrow!!!). Spent the afternoon lazying around waiting for dinner to arrive. Internet cafe (1st was closed down, shoe shop there now) in the Lonely Planet guide was super expensive and slow. Windows 2000 version and Google Maps and Documents couldn’t really work so I didn’t really update. Since I spent so much on it, the internet rate, I decided to get my second salame sandwich of the day to lower my daily average after yesterday’s costly stop at Urbana. MTV worth €10.

I’ve been studying some maps today and I think I’ll take the scenic lakeside route to Riva del Garda tomorrow and leave the the riverside route for the trip to Bolzano since the preview that I saw today of that cycle path next to River Adige isn’t that impressive. And then I considered cycling to Gries Am Brenner up the 1374m Brenner Pass but I don’t want to be climbing all day since it would be my 5th cycling day already so I’ll cheat and take a train to Brenner Pass, take a profile of the board (huh?), and then go downhill into Innsbruck rather than training all the way. Inspiration from a train timetable at the notice board here in Verona’s youth hostel, arguably Italy’s best HI hostel. Cool place. Wall’s are like the ones in Finale Ligure but the Villa has a bit of Bois Luzy Marseille and showers like Edinburgh/Frejus. Cool garden and some neat staircases round the back. Family rooms on separate buildings. Nice, man. Great base to travel Milan and Venice, I think. And Bologna if you don’t want to stay out of town there. I think the train station isn’t as far from here as well. Walk seemed like slightly 1/2 an hour. Cool! Come back again to use this as a base.

Met Nick (or Nico) from Montreal (and knows Cafe Santropol where Garth is somebody). From Ottawa, dad from Ecuador, so he’s chatting with this other Ecuadorian in their local language. Seemed really fluent. Sleep!!! Check out is 9am!!!

Day 25 Accounts
Lunch/Groceries €5.02
Internet (slow) €3.20 < - could have had lowest expense total if it wasn't for this! Argh!!!
Dinner €1.81
Hostel €16.00 @ Best hostel in Italy, Verona!
Total €26.03

This time 3 years ago: June 8th, 2007 Friday 8:00pm.
Cycle Europe Day 24: Bologna - Urbana, 64 miles.

After 5 days off the road on a bike (off the bike, I meant), it felt good getting on it again. Didn’t start off too good because of some showers this morning. The chocolate spread on bread help pushed me on and it became better in about 15-30 minutes as the sun shone through. Roads early on had little traffic cutting through plain fields and farm land, pretty flat overall. Almost don’t remember much from the day. It was pleasant enough, more so than Marina di Massa to Pisa but there was much more tourist places.

Lunch was made by Italian woman at Supermercato, salame picanto sandwich, spicier than the usual. There was a break of rain some time before 2pm for about 15-30 minutes. God provided shelter at some defunct computer barn shop. Also found Ferrara very pleasant to cycle around because there were cycle lanes to almost every part of the city and there were plenty of old people using them.

Arrived at Urbana 1/2 hour before hostel opens at 4pm, about 6.5 hours ride. A guy from an albergo in town centre came and said it was the same price to stay in town compared to the hostel. I said it should be less and he said how much. I thought it was not justified to have people stationed at the hostel for just one “youth” so I said OK to the higher fee. Cycled back to town, not a bad place, probably worth every penny at the end of the day. Got MTV to watch. Own room. Looking forward to hopefully buffet breakfast. Could have gone to Montagnana. Probably should have as well because it would have saved me some €10.00. More salame sandwich for dinner to save some more pennies.

Going to watch MTV Movie Awards 2007, sleep, travel to Verona, short ride tomorrow.

Day 24 Accounts
Albergo €25.00 @ Urbana instead of hostel closed. Should have done Montagnana.
Lunch €4.24
Dinner €2.50
Total €31.74