May 22, 2025
Here We Go
It's May and so we must be on our way.
It's mid-May so we must be on our way
Departure day is always an exciting day, filled with hope and good-wishes from neighbours and friends …and a whole lot of hurry up and wait. Of course, the wait is worth it for what’s to follow. And, it sure beats the stress of scurrying to make a flight or a taxi with little time to spare. Indeed, this is one of those times where sitting and doing nothing is the preferred option. Especially when it’s out in the sunshine, away from the hustle and bustle at YVR, with a light breeze at a pleasant 19 degrees C. We have only been here for under an hour, so ask me how it feels in another six hours. Yes, six hours!
We timed our arrival to miss the rush hour traffic between the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal and YVR yet have plenty of time before departure. Our besties, the Classens, kindly whisked us to the ferry after we said our goodbyes to our sweet four-legged, Tashi , who is now in the good care of our house-sitter.
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The Uber ride to YVR was efficient and quick (thanks to the HOV lanes at the George Massey Tunnel). Then, at the BA bag drop counter, we were notified the plane will be two hours late departing. The lovely agent handed us a 2 vouchers for the food court and a couple of passes for any lounge in the airport which we plan to use these as we while away the rest of the day.
You know there are some big hills there, right?
So, you know by the title of the journal we are headed to the Dolomites in northern Italy. A friend quipped that line to me when I told him where we were going cycling this year 😜. As a lover of summit riding, I nodded and grinned. This trip has been simmering away in my mind for a long time, ever since I visited the Sud Tirol when I was cycling there in my early 20's. I fell in love with the mountains and fresh air and I knew I’d be called back there one day. That day starts now, and I couldn’t be more excited. It actually feels a bit surreal to be honest. I’m containing my excitement as I sit here and wait.
I have followed several fellow Cycleblazer's over the past few years as they've met the challenge of cycling in the Dolomites and have loved reading every morsel of their journals. At this moment, I am enjoying following Lyle and Kirsten, but there are some great journals from Keith and Kathleen, Jacquie and Al, Patrick and Susannah, and the mighty duo, Scott and Rachel. There are probably even more of you! It’s like the universe has been dropping reminders to me to fit this in while we are still both capable, or at least we hope we are capable. Niggling doubts... be gone!
Seriously though, we both have athletic backgrounds so training and being physically prepared for cycle touring is just who we are. I set up a training schedule and plastered it to the fridge door so I couldn’t ignore it. The meat of it was three rides per week, with total weekly mileage gradually increasing over the 14 weeks.
Starting January 1, we took turns riding our smart trainer, me on Rouvy and David on Zwift. It might sound boring to some, but we both loved our hour-long indoor rides. Gym and yoga workouts filled in the non-cycling days throughout the training schedule.
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By the beginning of March, the roads were calling my name. David had had eye surgery in February and was banned from biking for six weeks, so I did several weeks of solo riding. He picked it up again in the second week of April and, using a heart rate monitor, he was able to pace himself back to full function in two or three weeks.
Spring begins in March in Victoria and it really is beautiful. But, we don’t get to enjoy all those beautiful flowers without the rain. I’m not typically a rainy day cyclist but this year I knew I had to steel myself to the inclement weather since we’d be riding in the mountains where it’s likely we will get wet. They say there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. With that in mind, I took advantage of online sales and picked up some Sugoi and 7-Mesh raingear so I could layer up and stay dry.
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The highlight of this cool damp riding was seeing nature spring to life, whether it was on the city boulevards or in the forests of Central Saanich and the Westshore. I really enjoyed these rides.
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“Your suitcase is locked and we need to unlock it”
As we headed to the food court to use our free vouchers, I receive a phone call from CATSA, telling me they were unable to open one of the cases and needed to know the combination for the lock. I told them we have never set the lock on the cases as we know they have to open them as they pass through Security. They didn’t want to break the lock so they planned to release the case, send it back through security and back to the check-in counter so we could open it. OK, if that’s what’s needed, then we will wait. They figured it would take about an hour to do that, so that’s when we headed to the WhiteSpot. By the time we finished our beers, we got another phone call. No worries, they got the case open. Sheesh! We can’t even imagine what the heck went on down there, but at least we were in the clear. And our beer was free.
Next up, security screening
The airport is almost empty today so we headed straight through security barely missing a step. Then, it was off to the lounge nearest our departure gate. By now it was 6pm and time for dinner. I inquired if the lounge was complementary because of the delay and was told, no, but if we had a Passport Visa, we’d be welcome. Why, yes, we do have that card! In the meantime, I took a second look at the email with the free lounge pass and realized it had come from our travel insurance company. Their offer was lounge passes or $80 cash. Things were looking up. Soon, we were noshing at the buffet and had a cool $80 deposited in our bank account. Sum total outlay for the day, $68 for an Uber. Total income, $100. Not bad, me thinks.
Let’s get this show on the road
Well, it’s now 10:00 pm and we have had our beer, eaten dinner, had coffee and dessert and we have watched the sun go down over the Straight of Georgia, all in the comfort of the very quiet YVR Premium Lounge. The mountains behind the city are just dark blue outlines against the dark grey sky. The latest update on the flight is another delay and it’s now scheduled for 00:15 on Friday morning. They are doing some maintenance on the plane as I write this so as far as I’m concerned they can take all the time they need! But, at some point I am going to turn into a zombie. David will get there before me as his bedtime hour is rapidly approaching. British Airways is confident they will be able to repair the plane. We will miss our connecting flight but there are two scheduled flights to Venice after ours. So, we’ve been warming the seats here at YVR for about six hours and if all goes well we will have another two to go.
The adventure continues. I hope the next update will come from Venice.
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Your timing for here might be good too. Cold and full on rain for the last 36 hrs, well rain below 2000m, full on snow above that! We’re in Bruneck and the mountain tops are pure white this morning, at least we can see them today!
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May the wind be at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your faces,
& safe rides always, until we have our next coffee meeting! Salut, bisous 😚 Ciao
2 weeks ago