April 30, 2025
In Sanremo
As promised, let's begin with our interesting arrival at our apartment. First off, we had some difficulty finding it because it's slightly mismarked on Booking's map and looks like it's hidden up a narrow, dark alley lined with trash cans and little else. Once we finally bothered looking up the street address we realized we'd been staring right at our place ten minutes earlier.
Our host was waiting for us when we arrived and showed us to our first floor unit - which, since this is Europe, means it's up one level, sixth about thirty stairs in between. Fortunately there's an elevator, but unfortunately it's one of those old, teeny, slow ones that fits only one bike at a time - and barely that. Rachael wheels hers in first, and then we throw her panniers in behind. She inhales so there's room for the door to close behind her, and then she gets up at the top and waits.
My bike is just a horse's nose longer than hers - and long enough so that I gave to stand mine up on its rear wheel. I fit in behind it but just barely, along with my panniers and helmet on rhe floor behind me. The door closes, our host walks up to the stairs to join us, but when I arrive the door won't open completely because the strap of my helmet somehow got pinned beneath it when it closed.
An extended, fruitless effort ensues to free the helmet, and I'm about to the point of thinking we'll need to cut the strap off and finally get a new helmet ( something I've really needed since last spring with Suzanne and Janos in Spain when the liner broke free). But then I think it might help to get the panniers and my bike out so we'd have more space to work with. And then finally Rachael has the final inspiration. She hops inside, requests a different floor, and when the door closes the helmet pops free.
So that was fun.
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Today begins with a trip to a testing lab just around the block from us. I'd confirmed that they can test me for my two conditions and that they'll be open today from 7:00 to 11:30. I eat breakfast in the room early and get over there at about 7:15, where I find a completely full waiting room. I pull a number and wait my turn, noting that I'm about twentieth in line.
Finally my number is called so I can get checked in. I'm new to this experience still and apprehensive about whether it will go well and I'll be accepted for testing. Fortunately I've come well prepared and have everything I need: the referrals, my passport, money, my phone, and for the first time I also need the Italian translation of the referrals that I saved off to the iPad in case no one speaks or reads English here.
Testing goes smoothly, and I'm sent off with instructions on how to access my results - download the Synlab app and access them using my user name and password printed off on the instructions. Results should be available the day after tomorrow.
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Sundown is late here, so we decide it will work best to have lunch first and take our ride and walk afterwards. Rachael found a terrific spot for us, Nando's Trattoria, where we sit at an outdoor table on a quiet, nearly pedestrianized street and enjoy a shared Niçoise salad and plates of grilled chicken. And an NA beer! When we leave we make a reservation for lunch there tomorrow too. It's May 1, another national holiday, and we want to be sure of getting a meal. There will still be plenty of time to bike west along the coast to Menton afterwards.
And then we walk back to the room, and around 2:30 Rachael leaves for the walk I drew up for her - an out and back up a marked hiking route into the foothills of the Maritime Alps. Once she leaves town it's a steady, steep climb most of the way - but she's done steep before, and the steep trail itself looks fine on the Google view.
She's about two miles into the climb when she calls me to let me know her plans are changing. It isn't steep - it's very steep, and she's going to cut it short at some point. Also, she's at the point where the route leaves the pavement for a rocky trail - and it looks steeper still, so she comes up with an alternate idea that keeps her on the pavement and eventually she comes to an easier grade where she can look around, admire the stunning views down into the deep ravine she's climbed up from, and shoot some footage for a walking video.
My experience is a little different, and really needs a page of its own.
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Warning: The video is long but after all the effort to get up there and the fact that Scott was waiting for me to get back it was better for me to take a walking video with instead of photos.
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