Leonardo was here….
I’m laying in bed writing this in the house previously owned by a Anna Magnani a famous Italian Film actress who coached Sophia Loren. It’s next door to the house Leonard De Vinci lived in and overlooks the Adda river from a high bank which is the last thing you want to see at the end of a cycle ride! The house itself looks like it hasn’t really changed since the films stars days and is full of dark wood furniture and paneling. Even the staircases have small steps to allow well dressed ladies not to trip over their skirts when using them. The day’s been full of...
Read MoreAnd we’re off…
Linda’s knee is now better and the summer holidays are over with the campsites thinning out and it’s time to head off again on Tilly for another short trip. This time the mountains are calling (at least the downhill bits anyway) and we’re off to Switzerland and heading south to the sun in Italy and Venice. The trip started in the most uninspiring fashion with the taxi to Scipol airport in Amsterdam not turning up at the 9:30 appointment and us finding out it had “touched a car” and would be late. It did turn up at 10 and the driver tried to go faster than the...
Read MoreA spoke In the works….
And on the third day the rain stopped, (well it had been biblical like). So we set off towards Basle. Our aim for the day was to reach a remote campsite on the Rhine, far from any town and we thought obviously going to be quiet. We’d stopped en route at the Rhine Falls for a quick walk around at the immense water fall and got to our campsite after a 65km cycle through some gorgeous villages and towns in Switzerland and Germany and were quite tired when we arrived at 6pm. The campsite was heaving and there was already a party in full swing with teenagers being teenagers, which is fine...
Read MoreIt’s raining again…
The camping had gone quite well and we set off in bright sunshine toward Lake Constance. The wind was behind us and we made good time, which was just as well as behind us clouds started to grow and soon we had our jackets on to keep us warm as the sun was overtaken by them. We crossed into Litchenstein, then into Austria – stopping off a cup of coffee and a cake that didn’t require a down payment and 5 monthly installments to follow, and then back into Switzerland, probably the most expensive country in the world. We saw a car get a parking ticket £360. Two coffees £10 and a camp...
Read MoreTilly Tilly Bang Bang…
After Ilanz the Rhine heads through a gorge along with the train but the bike route goes over the top of the mountain to meet back up with the river at Tamins. We decided we’d hop on the train for this short section and save our legs as some of these hills are 15% and are for the hardcore mountain bikers not us. Or maybe we’re wusses as Ben tells me. The train journey is well worth it, winding back and forth along the bank of the river giving spectacular views of the river a few feet away. The guards on the train were the usual helpful souls passing our panniers down to us and...
Read MoreScream if you want to go faster…
“Reed!” Shouted the lady in the hotel at Andermatt as we walked in the front door in a very German Kommandant like manner. “Jarvohl”. I should have replied but being a bit taken aback at being shouted at the moment you walk through the front door when you know Linda is still outside, I timidly replied ” yes”. “Follow me to your room” she continued curtly and we complied immediately. The room itself was very nice with a brand new bathroom (always a hit with Linda) and our hostess was actually very nice once she’d frog marched us to our...
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