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<p>We had a wet day in front of us - the cloud was thick outside the hotel window, and showed no signs of wanting to go away. We went downstairs for breakfast after taking advantage of the lovely shower (we didn't need showers but they were free...), and sat in seats that were meant to have a lovely view of the valley below. They had a lovely view of the trees just outside, and we could just about make out the road markings of the next section of road down, but mostly the view was just cloud. Breakfast was delicious, and very filling (since we had so much... we wanted to get our money's worth!) - there were croissants, baguettes, crazy sweet bread, cereal, yoghurts, the works. We paid up (€100ish for the room, dinner (also yummy) and breakfast) and were on our way by 10am.</p> <p><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/EuropeTrip/photo#5152422910483381442"><img src="http://lh6.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/R4EVVp_yPMI/AAAAAAAAAVU/wmGlIp46YQ8/s144/100_0378.JPG" class="alignright" /></a>It turns out it wasn't long before a major town, which was annoying since we could have paid much less there! Still, it's a bit late now. Anyway, we carried on, the roads got straighter and the bikes got faster, and it wasn't long before we were at the tunnel to get back into Italy (another €48, and an oversight in our plan...). By this time the rain had stopped, though it was still very cloudy.</p> <p>On the other side of the tunnel we had our second encounter with Italian roads. They were still absolutely rubbish, it seemed! Roadworks were absolutely everywhere. At least they were doing something to improve the roads, I suppose. Also, they have an awful lot of speed limit changes, but no signs to tell you the restriction has ended, so you have no idea when you can speed up after roadworks or when they have ended. Very annoying! The next gripe I have it that they seem to force toll roads on you. In France, it's very easy to avoid tolls, as they sign alternate routes very well. In Italy, tolls spring up by surprise and with no warning (like ninjas), and no way to avoid them once you know they're coming. As such, we spent a good deal on toll roads to Torino, before we were able to get onto the ‘SS' (B) roads.</p> <p>Not long after we hit the bad roads the clouds parted and we were basking in glorious sunshine. This then turned to baking in furious sunshine, which we weren't happy with either!</p> <p>We carried on through North-West Italy for quite some time, which took us most of the afternoon since the roads are generally very poor and the towns are difficult to get through due to the crazy Italian drivers.</p> <p>The scenery was very sparse. Most of it was very flat, and the buildings quite run-down and damaged. I can only assume this is the poor part of Italy. I took a photo of the extravagantly-named “Car Palace” to illustrate my point!<a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/EuropeTrip/photo#5152422936253185234"><img src="http://lh4.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/R4EVXJ_yPNI/AAAAAAAAAVc/5PfYsclEPaI/s144/100_0383.JPG" class="alignleft" /></a></p> <p>When the roads ahead started looking wiggly and the hour started getting late, we hit the autostrada (toll motorway) again - we needed to get to a campsite so had no other choice but to pay, really! This was very wiggly indeed - lots of fast corners, chicanes, helixes and so on through nice-looking hills and mountains. Again, lots of roadworks, and very odd speed limits (90kph round tight bends, 30kph on long, wide, straight roads?!). Then comes my next gripe - we took a ticket at the beginning of this stretch and paid at the end, but I ended up paying €7 to Helen's €3! It must have detected me as a car or something I guess - pretty ridiculous.</p> <p>Anyway, we arrived at the coast in Savona, and immediately got lost in some odd shipyard - again, no signs! Then comes my final gripe of the day - the blind, unmarked high-speed crossroad with no working traffic lights! A moped emerged as I was crossing (neither of us aware that it was even a crossroad), and narrowly avoided hitting me. If he hadn't been looking or was in a lorry, I guess I wouldn't be writing this now. It turns out there were people working on the lights, but they hadn't bothered to put any warning signs anywhere. Great!</p> <p>Anyway enough of the dramatics - once out of ugly Savona things changed quite drastically. We were riding along good roads next to a beautifully clear sea on a sunny day, which cheered us up quite a lot.</p> <p><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/EuropeTrip/photo#5152422987792792802"><img src="http://lh4.google.co.uk/B.Hymers/R4EVaJ_yPOI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vzzVBBZ5sg0/s144/100_0384.JPG" class="alignright" /></a>We stopped at the first campsite we found - Camping Leo - which was... average. Very pricy for what it was, really, but we couldn't go any further - we'd already travelled over 300 miles (our longest ride ever!) and it was getting quite late. We set up camp in a slapdash fashion due to the impossibly tough ground, and went straight to bed, after a delicious pasta/cheese/lardon dinner.</p>
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