More cycling pics!

Our last dinner at Hotel Dory was a bit of an event, since this is their 10th year.

Is it just me or do we all look slimmer than when we started?

This was an amazing view to reward us for our 5km ascent. Where the blurry background changes colour slightly in the photo is the horizon on the Adriatic sea... no that you can tell!

It's a tough life but someone's gotta do it!

Today's route was the most scenic of them all, with breathtaking views, although I have to say there were some much better ones than this! We were just going too fast to get my camera out...

See, I really was there, I did do it!

Mmmmm Vino Santo - so sweet and so good. I can't believe we all made the 20km back to the hotel! Dad bought 3 bottles...

New gear - my Hotel Cory cycling nicks and dad's kickass new jersey!

End of chapter on cycling in Italy

We had our last ride today, a cruisey 65km, and will be sorry to wave goodbye to our beautiful carbon Scott road bikes. Riding will never be the same again. However, having gradually killed off or broken every slow member of our group since the first day (except one, but he got allocated a guide all of his own) we managed to go out with a bang, at least. With a much stronger group we didn't have to wait so long at the tops of the hills, which was lucky because there were two stretches of around 5km each of steady climbing. Surprisingly a overtook most people on the way up - the advantage of young legs I guess, cos after 2 months of travelling I am NOT at my fittest! Then the descents... wow, it felt like flying! I cracked 60km/h at one point, and trust me in lycra, on a bike, that feels REALLY fast! So much fun! We also probably had the best views of all today - massive castles in the distance and the stopping near Gabicce Monte for coffeem 200m above the Adriatic coastline. We dined in the hotel restaurant with all our new friends (every English speaker we could scrape together, really! We were a bit thin on the ground really. Thin on the air... just generally quite slim hahahahahahaha) and got through several glasses of wine, then sat through 1 and a half hours of photos and presentations by the hotel owner and guides in a haphazard and fairly incomplete mix of Italian, French, German and English! Unfortunately the only language any of them speaks fluently is Italian, and there was not a single Italian cyclist among us. It would seem, however, that the French and German are right up there, along with the Belgians. We were certainly the minority.

Tomorrow the hard work begins - the long-awaited meeting of the real parents and the Italian host family! My brain will be very sore by the end of the weekend, but there should be some good laughs come out of it. Then there's Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Paris & Morocco!

The funny things is, I'm dying to just get back to Rome and get on with the study. As amazing as this has been, with the good food, luxury accomodation and amazing rides, I feeling strangely exhausted. Though being in only adult company (and playing translator for mum and dad and many others) could have something to do with it. It's not as fun as I might have thought!

I'll leave this here and chuck some photos in, but posting will be more difficult after today. Hopefully we'll get lucky with internet access at hotels!

A big hello to all those still sticking with these installments!

Kel xox

Photos from Venice!

Guest author

Mum may have omitted to mention that it was HER writing the below installment in the Adlam biking saga... just to clear up any confusion! Photos later!

Kel

A new different perspective on Italy

Dave and I have been in Italy for 5 days now and have loved every single moment. The weather could not have been more perfect, the people could not have been more charming - they even deal with my truly pathetic attempts at Italian, and the riding has been wonderful. Thankfully Kel's Italian and French skills have smoothed the way for us constantly and, as a result,
Kel and I were unepectedly able to join a group trip to Venice yesterday - something I thought I would have to earmark for our next trip. It was an amazing experience - almost beyond words. We had a four hour bus trip from Riccione to Venice then a ferry ride into the city proper. A step into a different world - a city of marble, incredible embellishment, great humour and picture post-card views in every direction. It is everything you've heard and more. The laneways and caffes were teeming with people, the little shops stuffed with beautiful glassworks, clothes etc. And the food outlets seemed to sell an incredible array of goodies - we bought Dave back some fab goodies so he didn't feel too left out. To top it all off Kel insisted I allow pigeons to sit on my head and arms for a photo - I can still feel their scratchy little claws on my scalp!
To top it all off, the central square, San Marco, had a number of little orchestras entertaining the diners and tourists. Sadly we had to leave before sunset - an extra hour to sit and drink a wine or two, listen to the music and just take in the whole place would have been lovely.
We're not done yet - Kel and I are off to Urbino today while Dave does yet another ride through the amazing countryside to see more castles.

Biking in Italy photos - 1

Here we are BEFORE we rode 70km on our first day... All smiles!

Check out the Italian countyside whizzing by!!

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