Fusina to Jesolo Lido, 80 km.
We woke up to a light rain and got a later start than hoped. We had planned to take a ferry from Venice to a sandy point north of the city, where we could bypass the industrial area of the mainland around the lagoon. As we turned onto the Venice causeway the traffic intensified with shuttle buses, tour buses, city buses, trucks, cars, whew. After a bit we found a cycle path which went a bit then abruptly stopped. A man directed us around through an industrial park and several turns, leaving us in an area of parking lots and buses disgorging tourists. We ended up back on the causeway, and at one point stopped and decided we should just cycle around Venice on the mainland. But no going back, as that would have meant riding against all that traffic and there is about a four inch shoulder on the road. After a bit a bike path appeared along the causeway, with a rusty guard rail between traffic and us. There were quite a few places where the guard rail was pushed in, from accidents I think...not reassuring. It was fun to see Venice from a different angle, though. Once across the causeway we managed to get turned around and started back on the causeway with the traffic, a bike path appeared and then after a bit just stopped and dumped us out in the road again where we found two Dutch cycletourists by the side of the road trying to figure out how to get across all the traffic and south. (We had seen other cycletourists headed on both sides and both ways and all looked confused. Venice needs to figure out a better system for cyclists.) We took a busy offramp right, over some bumps and down a ramp to a highway, again lots of traffic but we proceeded north, some fun. Past the airport the traffic lessened but the sign said no bicycles so we detoured away from the coast, through farmland and swampland, we each got a flat tire and it was pretty but we had not much idea where we were. Finally we saw some road signs and figured out a direction. At the end of the day we are in a campground in resort community, Erich is playing with a Dutch boy, Tom is writing in his journal, and I am nursing some sort of bottled Bacardi lime drink.
Jesolo Lido to Bibione, 65 km
Bibione to Acquilea, 65 km
We are planning our route to end up in a campground each night. Most of the campgrounds on the Italian coast are huge places with stores and shops, restaurants,sometimes hotels, and zillions of people packed on top of each other. They often have private beaches for the campers, and at one point Tom estimated 10,000 beach chairs in one area. You have to rent the beach chairs and umbrellas to sit on the beach, and it is not cheap. Anyway, this was two days of mostly nice cycling, Although sometimes we were on the fairly busy highway that follows the coast. The area is very flat and has numerous rivers draining across, so we had to make numerous jigs and jogs arund canals and rivers, each requiring a stop to check the map, as the road signs often just list the name of one of the towns down that road - not necessarily a big town or a close town, but just someplace out that way, or at least in that general direction. Which makes navigation interesting... Ah, here comes the campground train, which is playing the Macarena and taking the kids on a ride around the campsites. Erich is smiling as he rides around... He looks embarassed, too, but any diversion is better than another hour on the bike today!
Aquilea to Sistiana, 33 km
Aquilea is a small town inland and just about at the nrthernmost point of the Adriatic. The town was a large Roman city once, with an estimated 100,000 people and a major port. Now it is a sleepy little town except for the main road which is congested with cars full of holiday-makers on their way to the beaches just south. The basilica there is famous for its "PaleoChristian" mosaic floors which were done about 400 AD. The floors were very interesting, with many early Christian motifs and other designs. There were also a few remnants of the old Roman harbor. We stayed in a small and very quiet campground right in town.
Sistiana to Trieste (and now Muggia), a short 22 km
The terrain on the eastern side of the Adriatic abrubtly becomes hilly and covered with pine and hardwood forest. In fact, the campground in Sistiana, another huge resort place, is called Mar Pineta, or Piney Sea. We had our usual lunch break of cheese sandwiches in a park, and then climbed along the hills. On Sunday morning there is a marathon, apparently a big Italian race attracting international runners, and we are told on Saturday night that the road to Trieste will be closed all morning. We get out to the campground gate the next morning around 10:30, and the runners are going by, but they let us cycle along the side of the road, so there we were cyling to Trieste in the middle of thousands of runners. It makes for great cycling though, as the road runs along the pine-clad hills just above the sea, and there is no car traffic. It was even more crazy when we reach Trieste, as there is a family walkathon and various levels of running competitions and the whole place is mobbed. We walked around a little bit, and saw the architecture which is a combination of Italian and Balkan and Austro-Hungarian, because the town has been conquered by various rulers over time, each adding their architectural and cultural influence. Mid-afternoon we take a small ferry across the bay to the small port town of Muggia, thus avoiding the ugly industrial area of southern Trieste. That puts us in a campground right on the Slovenian border. The owner is an affable fellow who let us put up the tent right near the beach, where all of the other campers can walk by and stare at us. Most people seem to think we are German and completely daft at that. Oh, well...I tend to agree with the "daft" label at this point.
Tomorrow it is on to Slovenia.
More from on down the road!
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