Pisa to Catania (1,346km distance, 9,680m climb)

Route Map and Elevation Profile

 

Canberra - Sydney - Singapore

Saturday, April 27th

Prue dropped me and Celeste (the bike) at Canberra airport for a 10:30am flight to Sydney. There was more than enough time for a latte and to read the paper. There wasn’t as much time to spare in Sydney, so no duty free shopping or G&T in the Qantas Club.

The flight to Singapore was delayed because some poor (stupid?) guy attempted to leave the country with an expire passport. An hour later his (carry on sized luggage) was off loaded and we finally got away.   

Fortunately, I had pre-booked, and paid for, a reserved seat at the front of economy and next to the emergency exit.  In fact, I also go the adjacent seat to myself for no extra charge – perhaps it originally belonged to Mr Offload?! As a result, the flight was more comfortable that the usual Premium Economy (fuzzy photo - too much vibration?).

Arrival in Singapore was uneventful, even if a 45 minutes late, and Celeste was safely stored in Left Luggage – I’ll find out just how safely when I go to collect her tomorrow evening. I took a taxi to the hotel and Robert called just as I walked into the room. It turns out he’d been monitoring my progress on the Internet (the flight part at least).

He has booked a table for dinner at Jumbo’s on Dempsey Hill. Even though it was now after 9:00pm we decided to go ahead – after all, Chili Crab waits for no-one. 

Dempsey Hill is a former British military compound which has been converted into shops, restaurants and just about anything else that ex-pats (and well healed locals) might be missing. My first impression was that Singapore was much richer, greener, spacious (!), and “western” than Hong Kong. We never found Chili Crab in Hong Kong.

Taxis seem to be the best way around, and they’re cheap. So, after another taxi ride home I didn’t get to bed until well after midnight (that’s after 2:00am Australian time).

Singapore

Sunday, April 28th

After a reasonable night’s sleep, I met with Carla, Robert and Jean for brunch back on Dempsey Hill. 

This time we ate at Jones the Grocer, an Australian franchise/chain specializing in up-market delicatessen, and where “eat in” is more popular than take-away. The place was full of ex-pats, many of whom had been playing tennis, or participating in similar Sunday morning activities.  Although I’d done nothing of the kind to earn my breakfast, I had the full English breakfast nevertheless, washed down with two of the best lattes I’ve ever had in the tropics. Lunch will not be necessary.

Of course, there was another person with us at breakfast - grandchild number 1 who is just days away from entering the world:

At the moment we’re all at Robert and Carla’s apartment relaxing – me to write this, everyone else to watch DVDs. Outside a storm is building up, so it’s not as hot as it could be.

The apartment is quite spacious by Asian standards, and is set in a compound with quite an array or recreational areas:

It makes you want to live in Singapore.

After afternoon tea, eaten around lunch time, I went back to my hotel via the Singapore MRT (underground railway), but not by the most direct route. We agreed to meet at 5:30pm at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel for some (in)famous Singapore Slings to celebrate Jean's birthday:

Now, these are not the cheapest cocktails in the world, but apparently you have to have one whenever you're in Singapore. Mine looked more like a Tequila Sunrise (it's your eyes that are blurred, not mine):

And Robert's like Vesuvius:

After the Slings we went to the port area where there is a very large area full of outdoor restaurants. We found nothing like this in Hong Kong:

But...rather than eat seafood, we ate Iranian - Carla because she's pregnant (!) and Jean because she'd eaten there before and loved it. Robert and I just had another meat extravaganza. We left for home once the belly dancer started (no picture!)

Singapore - London

Monday, April 29th

A late start, breakfast next to the hotel, an 11:30am check-out and then another (cheap) taxi ride to Dover Rise (where Robert and Carla live).

Today is hotter than yesterday, mainly because the sun is shining, so walking anywhere becomes uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Robert had to collect some things from INSEAD, so we walked there, cooled off in the A/C and then had lunch in one of the local air-conditioned food halls - lots of good, cheap Asian food to select from. Asians don't do good coffee, so it was off to Aussie owned Jimmy Monkey for a "proper" coffee.

Now we're all just passing the time indoors, keeping cool, and playing with our laptops, iPads and iPhones. At least the TV isn't on...

The taxi trip to the airport encountered a bit of a Singapore bottleneck, mainly due to a motorcycle accident on the freeway. The bike was collected without problems, and checked in to Pisa, also without too much difficulty.

Had dinner and a shower in the Qantas Club, and then managed to speak briefly with Tony when his flight arrived in transit just before mine departed ahead of his. The flight was long (over 13 hours), and not as comfortable as the one to Singapore.

London - Pisa

Tuesday, April 30th

Arrived slightly late into Heathrow at 5:30am, found the BA Club and then went looking for Tony W whose flight was delayed a bit more than mine. It turns out, I arrived in Terminal 5 Building B, the BA Club was also in Building B, Tony arrived in Building C and our flight to Pisa also departed from Building C. 

To get from B to C one uses an underground shuttle train, so I collected Tony from Building C and we returned to Building B in the train. However, either we forgot to get off, or we couldn't get off, and we ended up in Building A - the main arrival, departure and security checking part of Terminal 5. Effectively, we left the secure transit area accidentally and ended up back in the "real world". This meant going through passport and security checks all over again - not a trivial exercise at Heathrow. Tony D turned up at Building C, on schedule, and we all got on the two hour flight to Pisa.

Once in Pisa, we got two taxis to split our luggage and personal and found the hotel easily. We were too early to check in, so left the luggage there and went to get a beer.

As one does, we ended up near the Leaning Tower:

Then we walked back to the hotel, checked in, cleaned up, and put our bikes together. Unfortunately, they had all suffered some minor damage due to reckless baggage handlers somewhere along the way.

We're not happy, but we test rode the bikes and at least they all seem to be OK.

Pisa - Lucca - Pisa

Wednesday, May 1st

The day started with a nice breakfast at the hotel, followed by a ride to the Torre Pendente for a few photographs with bikes.

We then headed off on the lovely 20km ride to Lucca, a fantastic walled city on the other side of the hills from Pisa.

In Lucca we looked for the two bike shops we had researched - Tony W for some cable work and me for a derailleur "hanger". The first bike shop was too busy hiring bikes to tourists, but the second seemed more interested in our problem.

But something was wrong - there were too many people out and about. Then we realised it was May Day holiday!

In bike shop number 2 we met Paladino, the owner, who suggested we go for a ride in the hills. This turned out to be a great experience - we went for a 20 or 30 km ride up into the wine country hills to the north of Lucca, and we felt very privileged to have met Paladino.

He dropped us back in Lucca, and we took a different route back to Pisa than the one we departed on. On the way back it started to rain, and by the time we arrived in Pisa the roads were quite wet, and slippery it turned out. Almost near home, and turning onto the bridge, Tony W went down on the wet and slippery cobble stones - the white ones are actually made from local Carrara marble:

Fortunately, the bike survived, and more importantly, so did the body - only pride was damaged.

We "celebrated" the day with a few beers, a lovely meal, and a few grappas in one of the many squares. Hopefully, every day from here will be similar (except for the crash).

Here is the Garmin ride profile for the day:

Pisa to Lucca - Tour of Tuscany Ride Profile

Pisa - Cinque Terre - Pisa

Thursday, May 2nd

After getting Tony D some new reading glasses, and me a Pocket WiFi, we head the Pisa Centrale railway station for the one hour trip north to La Spezia and then the nearby Cinque Terre:

The most northerly of the five fishing villages is called ed Monterosso, and we has a coffee and foccacia just near the railway station:

 

From there we walked south over the fairly steep peninsulas that separate the villages. This is probably the longest and hardest of the walks, but nevertheless there were quite a large number of people doing the same thing as us - and it's only early May!

The second, and I think the prettiest, of the villages is Vernazza:

As you get closer, you can see why:

Like all of the villages, there are plenty of places to have a beer, eat lunch, or just pass the time. Tony W and I had a beer, while Tony D had a pizza - his body clock seems to be on a different schedule to ours:

Tony D was keen to do some more walking, and he convinced Tony W to go with him to the next village - Corniglia. I preferred to take the train down to the last of the villages, Riomaggiore, which I thought looked very pretty from the train window earlier in the day.

By now I was starting to think the villages had lost their innocence, and the thing which made them popular in the first place - their remoteness, tranquility and charm. I had to wonder what they would look like at the height of the tourist season.

But for now, it was bearable, especially with a G&T, some peanuts, and views like this to contemplate:

I took the 5:49pm train to La Spezia, and was coincidentally reunited with my cycling companions - they enjoyed their walk, and I enjoyed my drink.

Back in Pisa, we had another beer at Bruno's, our favourite pub, a nice dinner at the nearby Bagus restaurant, and then to bed.