Cycing in the Adriatic

Two days in, and some very sore legs and bums in this hotel room of ours! Mum and I are very grateful of a day off tomorrow - we are getting on a bus with a bunch of French speakers (will be a very confusing morning...) to Venice!! What an opportunity for mum! Dad, on the other hand, who ahs already been to Venice, is ploughing ahead with the Tuesday challenge - a 115km "grand tour" through the hills (although after looking at the ride profile I should say mountains) of Emilia Romagna. They have a 20km long climb to do in the middle of it. Mum and I have to leave at 6 and won't get back until 11. SO I imagine we will all be absolutely shattered by tomorrow night!

Meanwhile, we have been having an absolute blast. The hotel package we are on is pretty much all-inclusive, so we get breakfast, a packed lunch, rider's buffet/3 course dinner with wine and beer, non-alcoholic drinks at the bar, daily massages, washing service, sauna, terkish steam room, spa complete with waterfall and pool! And we're right near the beach and a whole lot of AMAZING shopping! We've done 130km over two days (not bad considering it's only my 2nd time on a road bike ever...) and come up against some pretty serious hills! My legs were burning after some of them! But the bikes we're riding are the latest technolog carbon fibre - you could pick them up with one finger and they are soooooo smooth! Stark contrast to the clunky old mountain bike! And the guides are real characters too, all of them european (Swiss, Italian..) and all well aged, clearly very, very elite cyclists in their time, and all with a wicked sense of humour. Today we had a massive bbq lunch out in the country at the hotel owner's vineyard, which was a very jolly time - about 200 sweaty but satisfied riders chowing down on good food and wine. Then we has to ride home!!

Oh, a news flash, just when I thought my travelling was almost over - I'm going to Barcelona and San Sebastion in November with Ilaria for a few days!!! Well, hopefully. There are some really cheap flights and we both really want to go! Then I need to STOP travelling and STUDY. It's so hard with everything just at my fingertips and so many budget airlines!!! Argh! Somebody stop me!

Kel