We were up late after yesterday’s long ride then packed up and left the nice pesione where we stayed.
It was pretty flat on the way out of town on some secondary roads and the day quickly formed a pattern that would be repeated all the way to our destination – vineyards, wildflowers, crops, small village, vineyards, etc …
It was great riding on flat roads under sunny skies. The best conditions so far.
We stopped for second breakfast / first lunch in a cafe in Brugnera and for lunch, we made cheese, tomato and prosciutto rolls and sat in a shady spot at the edge of a paddock next to a small creek. It was quintessentially Italian, but you had to ignore the factories on the other side of the creek. And the trucks.
In the afternoon we stopped at a fruit shop and munched on apples and bananas and later we had some cokes at a bar in Sesto al Reghena.
We arrived in Portogruaro on the opposite side of the tracks to the town, and couldn’t see a way across except for a busy bridge with no shoulder. A lady out walking her dog, offered to show us the underpass which we had obliviously ridden past. She couldn’t believe that we’d come from Australia and visited Portogruaro. She said that this wasn’t Venice, and that there were nicer places to go. As it turns out, Portogruaro is beautiful.
We found a reasonable hotel that was very nice and they let us lock our bikes in the laundry. My green machine had sat outside under cover the previous night in Cortina, albeit with the back wheel sitting safely in the hotel room.
Dinner was a bit more difficult. The first place we sat down, seemed to have prawns in every dish – I’m allergic, so we left and found a bustling restaurant/ wine bar that looked great but the arrogance of the staff was off the charts. Left there as well and finally found a restaurant not far away.
All I wanted was a big bowl of pasta and that’s what I got along with a board of do it yourself bruschetta that was superb. The gelato on the way back to the hotel topped off a great day.
Both of us are looking forward to a rest day in Ljubljana.
