{"id":25908,"date":"2019-03-10T13:28:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T13:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=25908"},"modified":"2019-03-10T13:28:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T13:28:26","slug":"day-454-vassali-to-varazze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=25908","title":{"rendered":"Day 454 – Vassali to Varazze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dat 454                                                  17th October
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48 miles (Vassali to Varazze) Average speed 10.9 mph Top speed 35 mph
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A good day back on the bike. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I got up at 5.30 to say goodbye to Andy, went back to bed and got up again at 8.30. I had brekkie of steak, fried egg and fried potatoes and onions with tea. Then I packed, locked up and turned off the water and boiler. As Andy had driven the route yesterday I knew what to expect, which was 40 minutes of climbing 3 miles until I reached the church at Todocco where I used the public facilities and got rid of the rubbish before setting off on the downward run. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Church in Todocco<\/p><\/div>\n

I stopped to admire the views and have a drink at the driveway to a house where a lady was sweeping leaves. She said hi and then a Moroccan van arrived with a roof rack which didn’t quite fit under the bridge to the house. I didn’t take any photos as I felt they had enough problems with the van stuck without me taking the Michael!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then it was a great run down through the changing valleys as the rock formations changed to a grey colour of almost shingle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Changing landscape<\/p><\/div>\n

I stopped just after Cairo Montenotte to get some Coke at a Lidl, then went through a long tunnel and needed my rear light on. There was broken glass on the side of the road for about 5 miles. I’m not sure how it came about, but it was as if a lorry had been pouring glass onto the hard shoulder. I stopped in a side road to turn off the light and a woman came out of her house to moan at me in Italian. I waved the miserable cow Caio and carried on but there was another tunnel around the corner. I didn’t turn on the light as there was too much glass on the road but it wasn’t very long and bright enough to see me. I was looking for a good luncheon spot but there weren’t any good places so I carried on and then hit the main downslope all the way to the coast. It was a brilliant road and I was going as fast as the cars ahead and even had to brake to avoid going into the back of them at times. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Road down to the coast<\/p><\/div>\n

As I arrived in Savona it was exciting to see the sea again and I was surprised to see so many people on the beaches. I am sure most were holiday makers as most Italians have been dressed in coats and scarves lately.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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By the beach in Savona<\/p><\/div>\n

I found a good spot for lunch which went out into the sea and enjoyed a ham and cheese sarnie, and a steak and mustard one too, with crisps, all of which were leftovers from the weekend. I do like leftovers! I found a campsite but it was closed, the second one wanted 15\u20ac and expected me to climb up about a hundred steps, it was also full of British travellers so I swerved that one and carried on till I found Sole Camping half way up a hill. I was pleased to find it by chance, as I’d just tried to get down to the cycle path by the sea and was faced with either taking the bike down a 100 steps or going back up the hill I’d just gone down. I chose the hill and was rewarded by this campsite. I checked in, had a beer and went into town for supplies, before returning for more leftovers of veal stew cooked by Andy with potatoes. I tried to follow Orient’s progress in the FA cup, but no websites had up to date scores, so I had to rely on texts from the game. I was in bed by 10 and enjoyed a good nights sleep.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Veal stew for dinner<\/p><\/div>\n

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I would just like to say a big thank you to Andy Groom for a wonderful weekend in his fabulous house in the Italian Hills! He made me so welcome and drove me everywhere to give my legs a rest.  I forgot to mention the fact he supplied me with copious amounts of beer and wine and even turned out to be a great cook. I’m still enjoying his culinary skills tonight as I enjoy the sunset with veal stew!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m now camping in Varazze and it’s good to be back by the sea even if the prices reflect seaside resorts. Only 20 miles to Genova where I get the ferry to Morocco on Saturday so I can take it easy for a few days. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Camping Sole 15\u20ac.<\/p>\n

Good showers and wifi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dat 454                                                  17th October 48 miles (Vassali to Varazze) Average speed 10.9 mph Top speed 35 mph A good day back on the bike. I got up at 5.30 to say goodbye to Andy, went back to bed and got up again at 8.30. I had brekkie of steak, fried egg and fried potatoes and … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[1420,1421,1404],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25908"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25952,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25908\/revisions\/25952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}