Parma

Yesterdays train trip,(15 minuets away) was wonderful. Well worth getting out of town.
Parma is large and loaded with history. It is a major stop on the pilgrimage, but not part of our route, so making the extra leg of our adventure was important.
It took us 4 tries to find the stamp for our pilgrim passports. Located at the "Baptisery", we got there just in time for them to close in a half hour. We thought that it wouldn't be enough time to see it all, so we planned to return after lunch.
The Cathedral across the plaza was the simplest we have seen on the outside and the most elaborate we have seen this trip,inside. 

 Lunch of local food and beer, Barbara had a glass of local wine.
Parma, as I'm sure you can figure is the home of what we know as Parmasan cheese. I learned this trip the the cheese is known as Reggiano from Parma. " Reggiano" I had always thought that "Reggiano" was a grade, but Parmigiano means from Parma.
We were back on the train an heading back to Fidenza by 4:30. Back to the room to regroup an get ready for the evening stroll, or what's known as Passeggiata.
Two more notes: The freight trains run all day long, about 3 an hour, on the same tracks as the commuter rail. They pass through the station while you're waiting at about 100 mph. The dust goes everywhere and the winced can cause you to loose your ballance.
We dropped my little computer off at a repair shop to see if the fellow can help it get on line. We will go back at 10:00 am this morning

Fidenza

Fidenza, Italy. Half off road, 20 miles. We were in by 1:00pm.
Getting in early gave us time for a great lunch, walk around town, nap, and last nights episode of "Breaking Bad". Wow! Things are changing quickly with that show!

We headed out for the evening walk and found the stamp for our passports. Good day, all in all. Tomorrow we have the day off the bike when we will take the train to Parma.

Out from the Plains and into the Hills

We reviewed the rest of route last night and it's about to get hillier. No complaints here, but thing should get interesting.
We missed yesterday's rain. We had arrived before our bags and waited in the plaza for a light lunch of beer and hot pressed ham and cheese sandwiches. As predicted it started pouring at five past one. We moved under the umbrellas, paid and went back to the hotel. It rained in buckets for about 3 hours.

We in a large city, Piacendria. Quite beautiful with exclusive shops of all types. All the winter fashions are out. We are close to Milan so the high fashion influence is seen everywhere.
We love this town. As we were waiting over lunch, there was a wedding just getting out. The bride and groom looked happy. I was surprised to see them drive off with their parents. Oh well!
The sky is criss crossed with what look like com trails. Sunny and dry, today looks like the perfect day for a tandem ride!

Onward

Our riding over the past couple of days has been mostly flat. Sandy and gravel, we have switched to the fatter tires for more control. The 28mm tires with all the weight of the bike and us was a little difficult on the sandy road. The fatter tires ski over the loose stuff and make the riding more fun.
We still are in the rice farming country. Rice paddys on both sides of the trail for most of the day. We see all white herons fishing in the irrigation trenches along side of the rice. The go to wing when we pass. It's always a sight. They about the size of seagulls but much slighter. Beautiful birds.
Lunch yesterday was along side of the trail at a great little restaurant. Right on the river, they served pilgrims, boaters, motorists and cyclists. Dining was mostly outdoors, but they had seating inside for a few. It was fun to see pilgrims pass as we ate Saturdays lunch.

Our riding is not all on dirt. The trail takes us through large city's along the way. It's sometimes hard to get back on track so we sometimes get on the road and follow the gps for sometimes as much as 15 miles to get to our destanation. As we get close, we then pick up the trail with signage along the way.
We are in good spirits. We are actually getting along most of the time. There was a moment yesterday when Barb thought it would be funny to put a tree worm down by back. Not funny. I had to explain why.
We are at a B&B now with the place to our selfs. It has a large kitchen and tons of space.
The weather over the past week has been perfect. 75-80 degrees, sunny and dry. We are expecting rain today later in the afternoon, so hope to be on the trail soon and get the ride finished before the first drop.
The IPad I'm now using will not allow photographs with this program. Barb found a "Blogger" app. That will, but it only takes 3 at a time and text is difficult.
We are looking forward to tonight's "Breaking Bad" and have been following if anybody was wondering.

I will now try to install photos.

Out of the Piedmont and into Lombardy

Truffles

We have arived.

Smooth flights, we arrived at the Hotel Du Marche at 4:00 pm. Just in time for lunch.
The tandem shipped well. The box had been opened by the TSA, but everything packed was still in the box.

I am having problems with getting onto the internet so our photos, that I have been taking, will have to wait for now.
The weather here is perfect. Blue shy and around 74 degrees. I have just finished the building the Tandem including replacing the rear dérailleur cable and housing. The whole process took one hour.
Our hotel is nice, away from things, but close enough to the old section of town with all the antique shops and historical sights.

The Cathedrale Lausanne is near by. It is the largest in Switzerland and quite beautiful. Built
in the 13th century, it's Gothic structure is massive and has all what one might expect for this beautiful part of the worl

We are fine and looking forward to our adventure on the bike and trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with my computer.(kidding)
Check back later for updates, we wish you all were here!

d.

Here We Go Again!

Two weeks to blast off! Our trip will start on the 3rd of September this year and will have us on the road for 33 days. We will be flying to Geneva Switzerland and taking a cab back to Lausanne to start the ride South to Rome.
The first week will be the hardest, up and over the Alps through "St. Bernards Pass" and then south onward.
Join us as we finish this trip of a lifetime as we report along the way with photographs and stories of the road.