August 6, 2019
Lido de Venizia
A day off the bikes
Last night we had made a decision The cycle route from Aquilea to Lido is not good. It is very flat with many drainage ditches crossing it and the main things of interest are the beaches along the way. This is prime holiday time, the traffic is horrendous and we would have to have spent time sharing the roads with cars and when we did the route last time we remembered lots of big trucks.
The alternative was to ride back to Cervignano, catch a train from there to Venice and then get the ferry to Lido and that is what we did.
The ride was just a spin back along the cycle tracks. At the station we negotiated the sottopassagio and sat waiting for our train. Along came came two German cyclists who were later to be a big help to us. Then a long train arrived and we all began to head for the front but the guard yelled the bike car was at the end. Along we rushed to find it was one of those high up carriages and we all had to unload the bikes to get them up. With combined brute strength we were all aboard, nothing was left on the platform and we could compose ourselves.
Venezia San Lucia is an end station so unloading was a much more relaxed process. It was hot in Venice and crowded. We stood rather shell shocked beside the Grand Canal looking at the steps of the bridge we needed to get over to cross it. But everything can be done for a price and a porter carried my heavily laden bike over. The car ferry on which you take bikes leaves from Trochetta Port. We had used this ferry before so it wasn’t much of a problem finding the ferry. Much to my horror I saw two huge Cruise liners tied up - they are doing so much damage to this fragile island - I thought berthing them here had been prohibited.
This ferry ride is magical. You sail right along the Canal Della Guidica seeing St Mark’s Square and the ionic Venician skyline. Looking over it seemed that the ground was covered in ants there were so many people.
We docked at St Nicolo and it was just a short ride from there to our hotel in the centre of Lido. It was still very hot and even though there were lots of people in the street it didn’t seem nearly as hectic as it had around the station in Venice. There was a happy relaxed feeling as people sat around under shady umbrellas eat, drinking and laughing.
Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 608 km (378 miles)
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