We Ride

Our bikes arrived at the hotel as we slept last night.  All four, which is great.  Unfortunately, none of our suitcases made it.  Fortunately we could get bike clothing from Thomson.  I borrowed shoes from Ed Black (size 46 vs. my usual 44.5) and got pedals from Thomson, so I was good to go.

This country is spectacularly beautiful.  We had a great ride, the weather was delightful and it was only too bad that I couldn't get out of my mind the awfulness of being on Day 3 without luggage.  On a 8 day trip, that's a sizable portion.

But the setting here is very pastoral and the mountains frame just a picture perfect setting.  The roads were good and, although narrow, we didn't encounter any problems with motorists.  It worked. The climbs today were terrific - not too steep to be simply crazy, but challenging enough to have us working hard.

I will post a couple of pictures, although I didn't carry my camera on the bike, so I didn't shoot all the terrific scenery.  I will remember it.  And I will do better as we go along.

The other thing that is incredible is how clean the country is.  We basically saw no litter.  Very impressive.

Still not luggage, except that Ed's arrived.  We are told that 2 bags are coming in tonight from Zurich and one from Frankfurt.  But we've been told things before.  I will believe it when I see it.  But I have washed out my bike clothes from today and plan to ride tomorrow whatever may happen.  I still am wearing the clothes that I had on my back Friday when I left Boston.  But I can't let it ruin this incredible biking and scenery.

I did want to note that there are tons of churches in the country and little shrine-like structures (small) in very town we went through.  It made me wonder what the religious like of the country was like when it was under Communist rule.  Very interesting.