geeteetravels

The final few days of our holiday were spent in London, UK taking in Erika’s final recital at Guildhall and helping her get moved out of her flat. We flew from Pisa to Gatwick airport where we were able to store our bicycle and equipment bag for 8£/bag/day, found our train into Victoria station, and then found the Dockside Hotel, our last booking.com reservation. Tara’s father Morley and his partner Sharon were already there, also at the end of their European holiday, so we met them and Erika for a London pub meal that evening.
The following day Morley and Sharon flew home to Vancouver and we explored London a bit. We visited the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House which is an outstanding collection of art and not so big to be overwhelming. It was once a private collection and had been donated. Our favorite was the collection of impressionist and late impressionist paintings, especially Manet’s barmaid. There happened to be some school groups visiting at the time so we were able to eavesdrop on some of the discussions about this and other works.
Later that day we wandered around the Southbank area and then over to Hyde Park to see the Princess Diana Memorial and enjoy a cup of tea on the shore of the Serpentine Lake. Again we found a pub meal of traditional British fare before meeting Erika at the Phoenix Theatre for a performance of “Once”, a musical theatre production she had chosen.
The next day was Erika’s recital so we made our way to the Guildhall
music hall and (anxiously) listened to her 50 min. performance of Debussy, Busoni, and Chopin. It went very well, even she was pleased, and we were able to meet some of her peers, instructors and benefactors.
We helped her pack up the remainder of her things, move some to a friend’s flat and then met George’s cousin Poul for a visit and an Indian meal. His flat is located close to the hotel so that was convenient.
The next day we were up early for our morning flight home to Calgary. All went smoothly except for Erika’s bag being overweight, to be expected when you are moving over the Atlantic.
Now we are home again to work some more to save money for our next European cycling adventure, although we are hoping for a little less adventure next year and have developed some new strategies to keep our valuables and documents safe.

Final day on the road for this edition and I planned a very light run of 21km into Pisa. Our B&B was just a block from the piazza antifeatro and exactly the kind of accommodation that works best for us. Our genial host Giuseppe had a secure place for bike storage a few blocks away. He recommended a few good restaurants, what sights to see, supplied a typical breakfast and charged a reasonable price for the room.
We negotiated the cobblestones of the empty Sunday morning streets, picked up some lunch groceries, and rode south. The weather had cooled to very comfortable temperatures the last couple of days, much better for cycling.
The ride to Pisa was quite gentle, only about 20 kms and very little uphill. The excitement of the day was a tunnel which turned out to be straight forward as it was well lit, only 600 meters or so and 2 lanes wide. We rode to the leaning tower to take a photo of it with the bikes and then made our way back to the hotel where we began our tour. The afternoon was spent disassembling the bikes and packing up for our flights out the next day. We enjoyed a final meal of pizza in one of the piazzas and celebrated a successful tour with wonderful friends.

Half the team on the cobbly wobblies leaving our nice B&B and Lucca

The excitement of the day was doing 45km/hr downhill in the dark through this km long tunnel

The Giro di Tuscany 2013 comes to a close with the triumphant ride back to the Hotel le Torre

Note still more checklist revisions, some involving care and spares of passports, sunglasses, wallets, and phones

So it turns out there's a lot of stuff happening in Pisa tonight

... like a parade

... and a vintage car rally (seriously beautiful Alfa Giuletta Special Sprint shown here)

Up the Arno where Galeons were racing but we missed it

An A for ingenuity as the chicken clog dances to the music of the banjo

Last trip to the Tower.

We reluctantly left the Villa Sonnino by San Miniato for our ride to Lucca. It was a quiet and somewhat hidden refuge in a forest, so peaceful after the boisterous party in Poggibonsi the previous night. We had a bit of trouble getting on the correct roads again today and had to do a few u turns to get back on track. The GPS likes to change the route on us so we have to keep an eye on it. We were also delayed by another flat tire on our friend’s bike, the fourth for them this trip.
The route today was relatively flat and easy, also shorter than all the other days. However the traffic was a bit heavy as it was a Saturday. We arrived a bit early to check in at the B&B so headed to the main piazza for a gelato and a look around. European piazzas are a great place to people watch, we often do this. Later we were able to get into the accommodations and put the bikes in a secure location. After a quick cleanup we ventured out again to explore. We climbed up the tower with the trees growing up top and got a great view of Lucca and the surrounding area. Then we just wandered around, looking at cathedrals, statues, more piazzas and the wall/walkway that surrounds Lucca. We had supper in a great ristorante recommended to us that was right beside a large gathering of some type, wedding, reunion or something so that was interesting to watch also. We will miss the warm evenings and outdoor dining we enjoy most days.

Getting ready to leave the luxury of Villa Sonnino, a 4 star hotel for 70€

The piazza antifeatro in Lucca, another fascinating people watching spot/gelato stop

We climbed the Torre Guinigi, which has had 7 oak trees growing on it since the 16th century

A wizened italian gentleman with pipe and more modern accessories

We ate supper next to a huge outdoor banquet

We left Poggibonsi after a not at all restful sleep. The electronnica beat went on until 2:30 am, and we only had a fan, but no air conditioning.
Onwards we went on a relatively easy day as the trip winds down, with the planned highlight being to one of the most heavily visited places in Italy, San Gimignano. I have mixed feelings about these sort of places. They have every kind of touristic inducement to spend money, tons of people and noise, but on the other hand, all that started for a reason, which is usually still intact.
We climbed out of Poggibonsi, rode about 15km and went for coffee and did some shopping in San Gimignano. It is spectacular because of the setting and the sheer number of towers in the town. There was a manageable number of tourists there on this day but it another month and it will be crazy.
The rest of the ride north to San Miniato was supposed to be straight forward but we did get surprised a couple of times by short sharp rises unaccounted for by Mr. Garmin.
At the end of the day we also ran into some trouble finding our Villa despite being all over it by GPS. Finally we realized it was on top of the heavily forested hill right beside us, and we found a gravel trail up and onto the grounds. That turned out to be the service entrance but no matter. Soon one of the staff saw us and welcomed us warmly as though they had been waiting all day for our arrival. A couple of young guys even hauled our luggage up to our rooms for us. What luxury, and what fun!

Pushing it up a street in San Gimignano

Heading north to San Miniato but looking back at San Gimignano. Yes those are clouds but they mostly burned off soon after.

It's all about grapes and olives in the fields here.

Creativity in finding a place to dry the laundry is usually needed