Gunnar Rundgren på resa / on tour

Enligt planerna kommer jag hem till Valborgsfirandet i kväll. Some 135 km to go from where I am, so it will be a long day.

Enligt planerna så skall jag komma hem ikväll. Cirka 135 km att trampa, varav stora delar på klarälvsbanan, den gamla järnvägen som de gjort om till cykelbana.

I left Korsica and arrived at Toulon,
Spent a bit of time looking at Toulon, then I took a train from Toulon to Lyon and in Lyon I rode around on my bicycle to find some place to print out my book, which now has reached 350 pages without illustrations. After that train to Valence, from which I went a shorter distance towards Grenoble. Next day I continued, passed Grenoble and cheated with some train and landed in Faverges.


View from my hotel in Faverges.

From there I went to Annecy. It is really beatiful in this area. I went a bit of a detour in an adjacent valley.


Close to Thones



View from Talloires



View of the lake from central Annecy.

This morning I rode from Annecy to Geneva to by a train ticket, and then I continued into Divonne which is back in France. The thing is that my medical insurance is not valid in Switzerland and the USA so I'd better stay out of them as much as possible


Lake Geneva.

Tomorrow  midday I will take a train with the bicycle all the way to Fredrikshavn and from there take the ferry to Gothenburg. From there some 3-4 days on the road in Sweden and then I am home - and I am longing home.

Today I took the train from Batia to Ajaccio. It was very beautiful. I also got confirmed that it was good I didn’t bike. The road goes up to 1000 meteters and such a toughh road would have taken me two or three days one way, and there is no other way back. I can strongly recommend that train ride. The train was also very good with panoramic windows. Still hard to take photos through the windows in full speed.






Ajaccio

I arrived Bastia yesterday and ended up in one of the worst hotels so far. For 50 Euros you would expect a toilet wouldn’t you? For 50 Euros the room shouldn’t stink? For 50 Euros there should be a towel in the room, shouldn’t there. When I complained about the smell the consierge told me it was my boots that smelled! They guy walked around with his urine bag dangling on his hip…..I did check three other hotels but they were all above 75 Euros and I had just spent two nights in such a lovely (80 Euro per night) place so I guess it was time for some flaggelation. In the end I woke up at five and just had to leave the place…Could better have gone to a bar and spend the money on liqour and then sleep a few hours on a park bench.


Hazelnut grove
Hasselnötter


Bastia



Anyway, this train ride made me in a good mood.. Tonight i will take the ferry to Toulon. Korsica seems to have more Pizzerias than Italy! I have actually not eaten in restaurants so many times here, tried to save some money by bying food in shops….

Ja det är där jag är, på Korsicas östkust vid en trevlig strand på ett för dyrt hotell.


Torget i Porto Vecchio, the central square in Porto Vechhio


Yes that is were I am. I rode yesterday from Porto Vecchio and it I had perfect flow of cycling and felt strong.

The first stretch there was plenty of hills and mountains and you rode som 4-5 km and then there was a lovely beach, than another 2 and a new loely beach etc. After a while the landscape got flatter and more agricultural and most of the shore was just one long beach.


One of many beaches I passed.


But the mountains are never far. Corsica has 70 peaks above 2000 meter.




At 100 km the weather turned sour, I sought some shelter under a roof, and when it got a bit better I continued another 21 km until I found this nice hotel. www.levollemarine.com.

It is really very well done and is located at the beach just opposite the island Monte Christo and Elba is also visible. I am the only guest I believe and the staff seem to be three generations of the same family. I am busy writing here and they also have wireless internet which means I can do a bit of research for my writing.


View from my room.

Tomorrow I will progress to Bastia. I will not stay long there, perhaps a night and then take the ferry to Toulon. I am now a bit on my way back home I would say. So far France has been OK, but also here I find it a bit too expensive (poor Swedes).

I have moved quite a lot the last two days. Writing a bit in the morning for a few hours, then rolling 42 km to Palau, mainly downhill, payback for the climb the day before.



In Palau I took the ferry to La Maddalena, and there I rode for some 5 km until a reached a coastline with nice rocks, where I stayed for a while. Maddalena is quite special, look at
http://www.lamaddalena.com/





Then back to Palau where I booked a little hut in a Camping. I could not find any hotel for less than 70 Euro, and they were not even nice, so in order to save some money I tried the camping. The hut was small and very basic, with no toilet or water or heating (but there were blankets enough and hey – it’s no winter anymore. They charge 20 Euro for that (the charge is actually 14 per night and 6 for the cleaning when you leave, so if you stay several nights it is cheaper.



Next morning I went early to Santa Teresa de Gallura which is the ferry port for Corse, and at 10 I left Sardegna.


Italy has been nice, Sardinia is very beautiful. People have been friendly the food good, accommodation ok, Costa are in my opinion high, I would say double the costs in Turkey and at least 20 percent more expensive than Greece. I guess the Euro is not exactly helping the Italians in that sense. Before they could – and did - do like Swedes, see their currency drop, get poorer in an international perspective but keeping costs under control. Basically, it is hard to get any decent meal for less than 15 Euro and that doesn’t include the drinks, and I am nit speaking about anything extra. Even a pizza ends up in 10 Euros because they charge this “coperto” of around 2 Euro (they do the same in Greece). Anyway, I should not complain too much as it has been really nice. Road traffic is ok. In the towns and cities it can get quite hectic and the roads are often in cobble stones and alike which is hard for cycling. Signs are great in Italy. Not only to places but also to shops, hotels and restaurants there are official road signs. So they do a lot to help travelers and small business.






 I arrived in Bonifacio which is spectacularly located on steep rocks on Southern tip of Corse. I had lunch there and proceeded to Porto Vecchio. I plan to stay here for two days. Found a hotel, did some laundry. Will now try to find internet and then look around and get used to France and French (I do know some, but I am very much out of practice).

Happy Easter - this is how I celebrated Easter Day, the rain was pouring.


I staid at the Agriturismo da Pina up to the 13 April. I took the opportunity to sit and write a lot on the nice porch outside my room. I had two sweet dogs encouraging me all the time.




view from the my room.




As the place was a bit away from restaurants etc. I made my own cooking for most day. The day before I left I found a restaurant/bar just 4 km away, which had nice food and staff, but an awfully noisy clientele, loud music a too much drunk people. I also got a through wash of most of my clothes. Most days I made shorter tours in the surroundings. Twice I went to Alghero which is a popular tourist destination, which I can understand. It has a nice old town with small shops and restaurants, it has a very nice long beach and in general good services – BUT THEY HAVE NOT REALLY ANY INTERNET PLACE.



 One beach I visited was Porto Ferro, see picture. It was a really nice sand beach.

I saw a lot of cyclists in this part of Sardinia, even some serious teams both from France and Italy. Perhaps there was some competition or perhaps it is a favoured training spot.

The 13th I wrote up to lunch and took of for Porto Torres on the North Coast. I had a very nice flow in the cycling and did the 40 km in less than two hours. Porto Torres is quite a big town and it was completely DEAD. I guess it has a bit more action normally but all people were out picnicking or something, as the roads were very busy. I noted that in Porto Torres had ferry connections to Barcelona, and for a short while I considered to go there – I do like ships a lot. I have never been in Spain despite having been in 80 countries. Anyway that is for next time.




I continued along the North Coast which was very nice. Sometimes there are dramatic cliffs and sometime very nice sandy beaches with beautiful dunes. The coast is also exploited in a fairly nice way, with hotels etc. being low, not at the beachfront and with a lot of pine forest around. It seems like the area closest to the sea must be protected from construction. Great! When I reached Castelsardo I had made 76 km and considering that I started after 12, that was quite OK, so I found a very nice Albergo where I now sit and wait for the restaurant to open.




You can note my nice tan! This is outside my hotel in front of Castelsardo at sunset.

I will eat fish and seafood today as a change. Considering that I have had a rather frugal diet the last five days when I have been cooking, I will treat myself to the best tonight. Castelsardo is a really beautiful old town and the town was completely packed on this last night of Easter. Now the streets are full of cars leaving, have no idea where they are going. My plans for the coming days look something like this: 14 Apr Castelsardo Terme de CastelDoria-Isola Rossa 15 Apr Isola Rossa - Vignola - Santa Terese 16 Apr Ferry Santa Teresa - Bonifacio (Korsica) 10:00 But plans might change……. Have now done 4000 km on the bicycle in total, but most of it was on the trip before Christmas. I have been more lazy this time. I spend more time writing as I brought the laptop. Saturday and Sunday were rainy and a bit cold. Today the weather was brilliant, and the right temperature for cycling.

OK, now I am in Tempio one day later.....I sit on a bench in the PIazza d'Italia and use sombodies internet connection.
I went by bike from Castelsardo to the hotsprings in Casteldoria. They were OK, but not very well organised. The water was something like 70 degress, so it needed to be mixed with cold water and it was hard to get the right mix in the river.....They are constructing a spa there.... From there I decided to go inland, so I targeted Tempio. It was uphil almost constantly for 2 hours and I was pretty exhausted on arrival. The city was extremely "dead", but as I sat on a café I soon realised why. there came a funeral procession of perhaps 500 people. Somebody loved or important (can those two be combined?) must have been in the coffin....

On the way to Tempio I saw some really beautiful landscapes. Most fascinating was the Valle della Luna (moon valley)




The moon valley




The cork oaks. Not only do they make good wines here they also make the cork to seal the bottles.
Salut.

Tomorrow I will roll towards the Nothern tip of Sardinia, and then cross over to Corsica the day after - or one more day later. Ciao for now.

Den friska luften fyller mina lungor när jag kommer hem. Jag stannar ute en stund för att ta några djupa andetag, driva ut det främmande och släppa in det hemtama. Solen går just ned bakom Skymnäsklätten.

Hea med lukt av tallbarr, lingonris och lavar, älvmarkerna med al, björkris, den skarpa lukten av häggens bark, liljekonvaljernas berusande hav. Åkerns lukt av mylla, lite svamp, lite gödsel, lite sand – luktar sand?, morotsfröets pinkanta doft som kittlar min näsa så jag nyser, Kålfältets långsamma kompostering efter skörd Trädgårdens hundratals blommor, kaprifolens plötsliga doftattack när jag går passerar den efter en sen kväll på kontoret, häggens kattpissartade stank Vedrök, mänsklighetens följeslagare sen hon blev människa, får oss att känna oss hemma.

Den totala tystnadens oväsen en vinterkväll. Knarrandet från skosulorna på väg till denna tystnad Tranans skrik som talar om att våren är på väg – och att det kanske finns något att äta i Skymnäs Lärkorna som väcker mig med terrordrillande då klockan säger att det är mitt i natten men solen säger att det är dags att gå upp. Vinden som tar tag i husknuten, på andra sidan väggen där jag ligger och inte kan sova

Moroten som jag drar upp ur jorden, slarvigt rengjord på skjortärmen och byxan. Hur den spricker mellan mina tänder och skickar smakimpulser runt om. De späda björkbladens och granskottens sensationer som känns längst in på tungan. Vinbärsknopparnas berusande överväldigande smak är nästan som en doft, Det får en att undra på vad som är lukt och vad som är smak. det är kanske därför de går bra till parfym? Kaffet, gemenskapens kultdryck, strävt, sammandragande, hett och löftesrikt

Kylan som biter i kinden när jag går ut en tidig Novembermorgon, fortfarande inte van vid det som komma skall. Hettan under mina fotsulor när jag går på åkervägen i Juli Yxskaftets lenhet, slipat av tusentals handgrepp Våra hus och som målas röda, röda av en färg som kladdar ner mig när jag stryker den på det sträva träet. sommarvindens smekning mot min kind, låt värmen hålla i sig några veckor till Regnet som tar vägen via mitt hår ned till halsen, innanför skjortan och nedför min rygg, kittlande Jordklumpens förgänglighet när den smulas sönder i min hand. Så lite som håller den ihop!

Glittret i Klarälvens mörka vatten när det färdas från fjäll till slätt De behagliga böjarna när den tillsynes lättjefullt, men med uppbådande av naturens raseri, söker sin väg Fält, skog och beten, omväxlande, var och en med sina färger och mönster sina liv. Rådjuren som betar alla tre olika tider på året, traktorerna som far fram och tillbaka på fälten. Hästen som plötsligt blev rädd – var det för mig? och skenar iväg frustande och pruttande. Fåglarna som snabbt flyger in på gården plockar upp en mask, snappar en fluga och sen fort, fort tillbaks till sitt bo där inne bland träden. Korna som tuggar och tuggar – ja de finns väl inte mer, men jag ser dem ändå, de hör liksom till Människorna som plockar svamp och grillar flintastek, tar en bärs, skrattar, grälar och gråter

Skymnäsklätten tittar lite högfärdigt ned på det hela, på oss små kryp på jordens hud Det är nog dags att åka hem

Bicycle in trains and internet The regional trains in Italy do take bicycles. The draw back is that if you want to go longer distances you will have to change train often as the long-distance trains are not regional trains. Another problem is the loading and off-loading of the bicycles. There are special rooms for the bicycle, the doors are locked and you have to chase up the train attendants, and then the locks are jammed or the doors are jammed. When you finally have the door open you have delayed the train. Then the opening is very high and it is very difficult to get your bicycle inside without damaging it, and the same applies when you want to offload it.

It has been surprisingly difficult to get internet access in Italy so far. Surprisingly it was much easier both in Turkey and Greece. At this very moment I sit in an internet café. They have wireless, but they refused to give me the password as they had to reset the whole system afterwards they said! They have two computers with cable which means I have to sit and wait. Most hotels don’t have and those that have seem to charge for it. I can access internet via my cell phone – Italians are advanced when it comes to mobile phones, but my experiences regarding the costs have been bad in other countries and it is virtually impossible to get to know the costs.

Today is Kolbjörns (my sons) birthday.

I am celebrating it in Torre di Porticciolo in Sardinia. I stay in a small Agroturismo which has 1000 meter to this fantastic beach and another 1000 meter in another direction to a more normal beach.






 I left Napoli the 5ht in the afternoon. I thought I could find a ferry to Sardinia in Napoli, but I couldn’t so I had to proceed to Rome. I took my bicycle on the train, but there were no trains until the afternoon, so I spend half a day in Napoli, cycling around, taking pictures and looking at people. Napoli was a great city, and I can think of spending more time there in the future and in its surroundings, Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri just to mention a few things. Obviously I also had a pizza. Napoli is the Pizza capital in the world. The pizza held average Swedish pizzeria standard…..


This lady was actually begging! You can't see her little basket...


The classic Napoli view. Don't know why Napoli is famous for how they hang our laundry in front of the house and not towards the backyard. Strange habit, but it looks nice, more homey and cosy.


In the end I couldn’t reach Civitavecchia, where the ferries to Sardinia are, that day but stayed over night in Rome. Next day went to the shore of the sea just some 25 km outside Rome. They are fortunate in having such beeches just outside the city. From there I proceeded to the ferry which left at ten at night the 6th. The ferry was eight hours and I regretted not having a cabin after a while. I spend a sleepless night on the boat trying to find some place to rest that wasn’t too noisy, too light or too cold. Arriving in Olbia, I had to decide what to do and ended up taking a train with my bike across the island to Sassari. In Sassari I tried to find internet in vain (this is a big town) and then proceeded by bike to Torre di Porticciolo. In total I made 88 km that day.



The trees are cork oaks. Träden är korkekar.


 Now the plan is to stay here over Easter, as I am a bit afraid that it will be busy – or closed – everywhere during the Easter days. The major drawback where I stay is that it is very far to shops or places to eat, like 1-1,5 hours by bicycle. Closest bigger town is Alghero – a rather famous tourist destination. I plan to go there now and see if I can find internet to post this and also to buy some food as I will have to do my own cooking. The good thing with that is that I probably can save some money by cooking myself, and I must say that money start to become an issue….. Another good thing is that I now plan to continue with my writing and being isolated is probably good for that purpose. All is well apart from that I start to feel my hay fever, a clear drawback of following the footsteps of spring. It makes me tired……

Shoes in my bed. Skor i sängen One morning I woke up with my shoes next to my head. I do admit that I and Kolbjörn did drink quite a lot the evening before, but still I couldn't really figure our how my shoes ended up there. ButI had my idea. When Kolbjörn woke up I asked him about it and he said he threw my shoes on my to stop my snoaring! En morgon vaknade jag av att det låg skor på huvudkudden bredvid mig. Förvisso hade jag och Kolbjörn druckit lite mycket kvällen innan men.....När Kolbjörn vaknade så frågade jag honom. Han hade slängt skorna på mig för att jag skulle sluta snarka!




KB trying wines with producers!

Missöde
Kolbjörn lämnade mig i Korinth och åkte till Aten för att lämna tillbaks cykeln och titta på Akropolis, vilket han gjorde. På väg till flygplatsen var det någon som stal alla hans pengar och hans kort i tunnelbanan.

Färja
Jag sitter på färjan mellan Patras (Grekland) och Bari (Italien). Resan tar 17 timmar. Jag hadeköpt däcksplats. Men jag lyxade till det genom att uppgradera mig till en singelhytt för 400 kronor-normalpris 2000 kronor. Färjan har tom wireless internet - men dyrt. Färjan självt kostar 400 kronor. Väldigt lite folk på båten. Några långtradare samt två busslaster med Italienska skolungdomar plus kanske 20 andra.

Immigrants
In the port of Patras there were hundreds of young men (seemingly Albanian), waiting to jump the fences for the ferries to Italy. I saw several men hanging in the barbed wire. It is an awful world we live in where some people are closed in, others are closed out.




Italy
So now I left Greece and arrived Italy on Kari's birthday. Happy Birtday dear Kari! My plans for Italy are a bit vague. I believe I will go from Bari to Naples, and from there take a ferry to Sardinia. And stay either 5 days or around 11 days in Sardinia. I don't want to travel during the Easter days, as I believe it will hard to find some place to stay. After Sardinia I want to go to Corsica / Corse. From there I think I'd better figure out how to get home!

1000 km
I have not done much biking this part of the trip. Only 1000 km the last month. Greece is a bit too mountainous for pleasant biking and the islands I visited are not large anyway, so there is not much biking to be done.

Ireland - Italy. 1st >April there was a world Championship match between Ireland and Italy, you can imagine that there was quite some movement and noice on the streets. 1-1





Staying in Bari a few days. I feel a bit tired and will stay in Bari a few days.