112km of 3393km so far…
Today was a very good cycling day indeed. It started by a 5km pleasant downhill from the hostel to Ganova’s center. I bought a couple of focaccias and a few fruits and started making my way to the north.
I bet the residents can park their cars on the roof.
The first part of today’s ride was over mountains and I am really happy that my knee didn’t hurt at all. It’s not perfect yet and I am still looking after it, but it doesn’t bother as it did a few days ago. That really made my day and I was in a very good mood all day. I was also in good mood, because once again I was ridding within nice country side and small villages. I had really missed that after spending 10 days cycling by the coast which is full of towns almost connected to one each other. The slope of the mountain was not very steep, with a col at 472 meters and the road running parallel to the river Scrivia
.
Back to the small villages
On the mountain tops again
The river along the road
In the afternoon I stopped at Novi Ligure to look for the tourist information, as I didn’t know at the time where I will sleep at the night. The office was closed until 3:30pm, so I had to take a nap on a bench and eat an Italian ice cream to kill some time.
For just €2 I am definitely a winner
Small roads, small cars
The streets of Novi Ligure
I love my pillow
It seems that there are not many camp sites in the area. The lady at the office was very helpful and called the tourist office of the next city to ask for more information. The only option was a hostel at Allesandria, which I didn’t mind at all, as the weather forecast was predicting rain.
I cycled another 25km and got to Allesandria, where I had to wait until 8pm for the hostel reception to open. I wondered around its nice center and I wanted to approach the big citadel that I could see on the map. It was a little strange, because the bridge over the river that leads to it, was knocked down and I couldn’t see anything from the other side of the river. The hostel it self is in a nice old building in a church’s courtyard and for €17 he put me in a two beds room and nobody else turned up, which is a very good deal. If only the guy shared his wifi password with me…
A bridge is missing here
This is the Great Wall of Cheese