Category: Travel (page 4 of 8)

Beautiful churches in Italy.

I start end my ride this morning from Latte and every part of the journey is simply beautiful and enchanting with each village / town I went thru. You could easily stop in each place and take photos. The road rises and falls as you go in and out of each village. The winding roads full of flowers and lush green plants fill the air with a freshness of mountain roads. There was one section that is purpose built for cyclist and walkers and must stretch 20 miles. They have even made tunnels for the path, its a cyclist dream. I think the path starts in San Remo, which it self is a stunning town.

I have a question if anyone can answer for me. If noticed that all the expensive boats / small ships are registered to George Town and I think carry its flag. It simply can not be that all these super rich people come from George Town. It must be some sort of tax thing. I would really like to know? 

So tonight I’m in a new camping ground somewhere on the Italian coast and I’m sitting at their little bar / restaurant and watching the locals dancing to old Italian song while drinking a JD and coke.. Goodnight xx

http://soundcloud.com/joe-bernardes/asalato-played-by-nobuma-at-la

So last night I purchased my ticket for Marseille. I didn’t realise that I had too change but when I looked at the ticket closely I realised that I did. The change point is Montpellier. So when I arrived at the station I had a 40 minute wait. Standing there a porter was walking up and down so I asked him if I was on the right platform. Yes he said but the but can not go on the train.. With a confused look on my face he told me that bikes are not allowed on the TGV. The long and short of it is that I should of been getting to Marseille at 2.33pm, now I have to go to Avignon and we will get there at 3.55pm and I still have to get to Marseille. Not a happy boy not to mention the cost because I bet the TGV cost a lot more than the local trains. When I get to Marseille I’ll be looking for so money back.

Yesterday I left Barcelona Spain and three hours later was in Cerbere France. Its a really a strange thing when you cross borders and the language changes, your brain is thinking in English but trying to speak a mix of Spanish and French all at the same time. 

Cerbere is a meca for backpackers, cyclist’s on tour and travellers in general and everyone was either getting on a connecting trains or booking their on would trip. After working out there was not an onward train for me that night and booked my on onward train to Marseille for the morning. 

Cerbere main centre has two hotels and it seemed that only one was open and it was full. Although the owner looked sad when he asked if I was a cyclist, I think he wished he could of helped. He pointed me to a b&b which was full as well. I carried on looking around and found a place that looked like a hotel. The strangest thing was there were a lot of people outside waiting for something. So I asked the best way I could. This was a hotel but it was full and the reason for all the people was that it doubles up as a cinema. Very strange but i did find out there that there was a camping site about 4 km away. When I arrived it was pitch black and setting up a tent in darkness is a skill I now process. At least it was free and had a washing area of sorts. I got up at 6am and started backing up my gear, there was no way I was staying there another night.

I got back in the main town at 7.30 am and looked for the bakers. Every town in France has a bakers and seeing people walking the street with French bread sticks confirmed it. It wasn’t hard to find the bakery and breakfast consisted of a mix of French pastry and a bottle of water.€5.50 if your wondering. My train didn’t leave until 9.39am, so I looked around the marina for a bit until a restaurant opened. A coffee please in English but with a French ascent i asked the waitress and I was a little surprised it worked and I got a coffee but it costs 2.50 euros. So after sitting there for a bit I made my way back to the station. I worked out that my train was on platform B. A little problem here. I had to go down a long flight of stairs and then up the other side of stairs with 50 kilo bike. In the end and taking breaks I managed.

Got into Barcelona late last night, about 11pm. As soon as I walked out of the station I went in search for a room. The first place I tried was a no go but the guy pointed me in the right direction and found what I call a bedsit. 45 Euros got me a room a hot shower and that was it. Had a shower and hit the streets to see what is what. The night life is alive and kicking and the bars were full. Lots of pretty people, couples of many kinds and tourists. After a little walk sleep was calling me to bed so I headed back for the night. After getting up later i searched for the main station for my exist plan.
After working out that my train was leaving at 5pm I made my way around the city. As always there is never enough time but I did manage to get a good look around.

Good bye Barcelona and good bye Spain

When I saw this part of Valencia I was a little frightened. These buildings are so imposing that I felt Aliens had landed and built their own city. The contrast of the beautiful classic architecture of Valencia with its pastel colours and impressive cathedral makes up gasp when you first see the Palau de las arts. In fact the Ciudad due las arts y las ciencuas takes a little adjustment as the bright sun reflects off of the white shiny buildings. Even the floor is white. I still could not get over the Palau de las arts. If I was a film director and wanted an alien city this would be it.