What's that old maxim, .... 'Work expands to fill the time available"
That is in full force now. We are entering the wind down period of our the trip with fairly relaxing days ahead of us. A good counter to the 'forced march' we subjected ourselves to in the Teutonic sections of this trip.
However, much to K's consternation this relaxation is resulting in my phaff/ride ratio now firmly exceeding 1. Case in point ... easy ride today done by 2 ... even with an unplanned detour ... pictures uploaded with captions before dinner ... and it is now 8:45 the next morning as I'm sitting down to write the pithy comments that summarize the day.
K has just left to wash the bikes (the very nice B&B has a garden and a hose) to leave me to it!
We got a taste of the Aegean coast in Monopoli and today it's the Ionian coast. Porto Cesaero is on the gulf of Taranto (the gulf separating the toe from the heel of Italy) and seems to be more of a beach resort town than a fishing town. Lovely easy ride today from Ostuni ... flat but not featureless. The same basic ingredients as the last few days, olive groves, vineyards, cultivated fields, ancient towns ringed in by the 20th century. However, each day and region seems to be able to take these basic ingredients and construct something unique. That was today.
The ride itself was along a mix of 'provincial highways - SP roads' and undesignated rural roads. Both had a mix of good to uneven pavement ... and even better, both were more or less devoid of any car traffic.
Although we did have a bit of a headwind, we made really good time (could have spent the morning exploring Ostuni ... oh well, next time!) and took the time to check out a few things along the way. We had a mid morning break at Oria with a coffee & cornetto in the square combined with very entertaining people watching. It's interesting to see how different cultures go about their ways ... in Italy getting yourself all dressed up and going for a family stroll ... at 5 in the evening during the week ... and then Sunday morning at 11 ... is the thing to do! Unless you are a middle aged guy ... then you squeeze yourself into a vibrant multi coloured spandex cycling suit that should probably be one size bigger, and head out with your mates for a ride.
We're going to miss this place!
As you'll see from the pic's, and the map below, we did make a small detour today to check out another historical site ... one of interest only if you have a Y chromosome. I won't give away the surprise now.
The next few days will be very relaxed biking (we hope). We are going to circumnavigate the bottom of the Salento peninsula (the heel) to our finish at Lecce, taking 7 days to ride what we could do in 2 (if really necessary) or 3 if we were on the forced march schedule. One of the reasons for the 7 days is that the forecast for the next three days is ... good today ... then heavy rain and 40 - 50 km/hr winds from the south ... for the next two days! We are travelling south for the two cycle days! So today's plan is an easy 30 km ride to Gallipoli ... not the Turkish one ... and then hole up there while the nasty weather works its way through. We are well past 'cycling in rain and wind now' ... we've had enough of that!
Ok, check out time approaching, time to wrap up this work ... and the bikes are clean now too!
Song of the Day, Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin ... 'A song of great social importance...' and a great group sing along with a table full of beer in front of you! And it's a little dig on the Porsche people.
The other cyclists at our hotel in Ostuni - unfortunately we did not get their names - they were on an 8 day supported trip with Puglia Bike Tours. The gent was from up-state NY, the dark haired lady was from Thunder Bay and the 'other blond' we didn't catch a locale for. Photo's a bit blurry too ... I thought I had had enough coffee to focus properly.
Glenna Jefferies....under the cars to get away from the weather instead of curled up on the engine block to get the warmth. Furface & Tickles look alikes! Reply to this comment 4 years ago
We were riding through the small town of Oria around 11 and were making good time. The Center seemed interesting so we decided to stop for a morning coffee
The local 'gang' - I'm sure these guys will still be hanging out together, pretty much talking about the same things in the same place, 35 years from now. I say this based on the number of groups of 70 -80 year old guys we regularly see doing this. Kirsten made the comment that they have probably already been doing this for ~35 years, starting when they were 5
We were concerned about riding our bikes in the square ... there were signs indicating it was a pedestrian only area ... this guy was was going too fast to read it!
As was his buddy ... love the strategic positioning of his helmet ... I'm sure he practices removing it from his handlebars and putting it on his head as he is doing a header over the bars! It does allow for 'flowing hair' shots though!
... just love these guys ... the dude on the right is a doppelganger for the lead in Gangster au Pair ... the video for Lee by Sporto Kanto ... a SOTD from our 2017 EV6 ride ... Kirsten looooves that one! There were lots of other interesting folks here too ... just didn't want to be to blatant about taking their pic's, mostly young women, dressed to the 9's ... at 11 on a Sunday!
Very different country again today ... very flat with tilled fields interspersed with the olive groves and vineyards ... and it was the weekend so we saw quite a few roadies too!
... not the most scenic picture, but I took this because we saw some very young olive trees that sparked a conversation about the long term multigenerational nature of farming, particularly around here. It will be 30 - 40 years before these trees will be producing regular harvests. Whoever planted these was doing it for their grandchildren, as the planters ancestors did for them.
Although the olives are in full harvest now, the grapes have long been picked from these vines and are sitting in tanks turning into alcoholic juicy goodness!. These were near Salice Salentino so they are likely Negroamaro - we had a bottle of this from here at dinner last night - wonderful
Came across this huge ring road (the cement above, not the big mud puddle below) connected to nothing else on the map. Tried to get closer to find out more ... could not see much of anything
Our route, the green line, came upon this isolated major road about 7 km from Porto Cesareo. What is this? Alien crop circle? Some particle physics accelerator? Or is it something much more important?
... caught a glimpse of a bit of highway and a very small piece of guardrail in this shot (small crop of a telephoto shot). We could hear cars going past very very fast
... until finally .... honest K, I did not know that our route was taking us directly to the main Porsche testing grounds! ... well not until yesterday when spotted it on the map ... after we had made our route!
No big deal, we could not get past the security gate - the guards were firm, but friendly. As I was reading the big long list of rules by the entrance gate (they are German after all) I was told that I could not even take a picture of the big long list of rules! No chance of seeing anything anyway ... everything is behind big solid walls and fences
