Day 6: Strasbourg to Milan via Como

Door Yael Zekaria · Reis: alla Toscana in bicicletta

I was wined and dined on short notice yesterday by amazing Warm Showers hosts in Strasbourg. This morning we had fresh pastries before heading to the bus station.

Bekijk het op de interactieve kaart

Bonjour Strasbourg

· Duitsland

In an old maids quarters

Bonjour Strasbourg, Duitsland

Not this time my mountainous friends

· Zwitserland

Some shoddy photos out the bus window but driving through the Alps actually made me sad to not be cycling through them even though I'm a lazy boy who doesn't like cycling up hills.

Not this time my mountainous friends, ZwitserlandNot this time my mountainous friends, ZwitserlandNot this time my mountainous friends, Zwitserland

Finally.

· Italië

Arrived in Milan after getting drenched sideways in the second thunderstorm of the trip. I thought the first was biblical but this one was the mother of all storms. As the bus chugged along further into the Alps, we entered further into a dense cloud that hid the scale of the montañas. Then the rain come. Then the lightening and thunderclaps. And on the sixth day, god gave Yael a sign/spanner in the works.

I was looking forward to camping tonight near lake Como and I don't know, going for a little dip and then waking up and making a coffee outside the tent with a nice view. Instead, the bus dropped us off on the side of the road as the sky offered torrential sideways and upsidedown rain buckets. The driver was so kind to leave my bike not under the shelter that wasn't really sheltering because of the sideways rain, where I tried to reattach my wheel that really didn't need to come off but he insisted when we stowed it. So I'm faffing with my wheel, my shoes are collecting puddles in them and I'm giving my goretex jacket the test of its lifetime. Wheel attached, bike bags back on, I try to get up the route to the campsite as the sky flashes with lightening. I have a more sensible idea to seek a proper shelter first and find my way to the train station. At which point I realise that I don't need to camp. I can get a train to Milan.

Finally., Italië

Soggy.

· Italië

Hair drying my wet garb and shoes for the best part of half an hour in the hostel I finally arrive at.
Spirits are low today but tomorrow looks sunny and looking forward to doing more pedalling, less bus/train riding.