...Somewhere just South of Venice..

Managed to get a early 8.30 start today once I had found the lost bike keys.... I try to wear them around my neck but can't remember to... Made good time on this leg as it was meant to be a long ride.... so I took 10 euros worth of Auto Strada to get my well away from Milan and the morning traffic. Then took a route south to Alessandria, then left to Piacenza, Cremona and Mantova, and then onto the smaller roads. The scenery in this part of Italy is just not as good at that in France (sorry Italians but someone had to tell you).. and there driving is crap too. I am not sure that they understand that mirrors are for seeing behind you and not showing you how cool you look whilst driving...

I meet a Swiss couple at the last camp site and they were pedal cycling from Switzerland to Rome and off-roading to boot... bugger that they hope to get there for June !! Hand a nice beer at the reception and watched the sun go down as I hopped onto their Internet connection the wireless on this net book has gone so I will need to re-instal the driver or recover the system from the last restore point. Will need to have a mains connection for that....

Back to today ride started off slightly overcast (had some rain over night) but the further I got east the hotter it got... The camel-back ran out and I was gasping for a drink saved by a Lidl store with a very nice English speaking assistant.... drank 1 litre and filled up the camel-back.... off again the roads here are either featureless or they look like you driving through an industrial estate... on and on..... arrived at the campsite just south of Venice.... you can actually see the new Venice Barrier being built in the distance.. My pitch is right next to the gate to the beach... alas a little way from the WC's so a quick morning dash will be required..... (I know too much information).. They have some extremely posh Toilets and Showers here it's even got a large flower bed in the middle...


The site well if you ever wondered where all the old Dutch and Germans go to get very brown and wrinkly well it here.... the place if full on them or wandering around in ill fitting kit or very small budgie smugglers (speedos)...... some even peddling around on upright bikes at low low speeds.... have not see and children here yet... maybe they are banned !!!!

I will have to wait for the sun to go down a bit before cooking some pasta.... and turning in for the night just thinking of the joys of packing it all back onto the bike again in the morning and riding to the next site near Triste....

Nite nite