Venezia

Istria is bi-lingual. Pula has an Italian name: Pola.

We left Pula and after a long day riding we found ourselves on a camp site in Slovenia, in the seaside town called Portoz (Portorosa). As soon as we entered Slovenia there was a cycle road, nicely situated along the shoreline. Thus we entered the campsite by the back door.

The next day we followed the cycle track, which became harder now. It went up and down, through 2 small but long tunnels and through the countryside, always with a view on the sea. Very beautiful, but it seemed as if we didn’t proceed. Slovenia has a shoreline of only some 30 kms, but it took us very long.

Entering Italy was a bit chaotic, the border post was on the motorway. We passed alongside some way and soon found ourselves in Trieste. Another chaos. A very kind barman showed us how to get through this city and at about 17.00 hrs we landed, by surprise in a very cute little camp ground in Sistiana.

The following day we managed to buy a more detailed map so that we could find our way beside the big main roads. We rode some 70 kms to a supposed camp site that had been abandoned some years ago. The map was “vecchio” (old) was the comment of the kind man who helped us out. He was a cyclist as well and had been riding on Cres and Istria himself. He brought us to a small hotel in a village near Portogruaro, where we spent a pleasant night. The evening was nice too, as there was a big fiesta in the village. Lots of vendors of all kind of stuff, a performance of clowns for the kids on the village square and lots of long tables filled with guests eating sea food and spare ribs and drinking the regional wines. We thought we’d better join them: when in Rome do as the Romans do. The result was a pleasant eveining in a joyful atmosphere.

Today we continued and now we have settled in camping Alba d’Oro. It is situated immedeately next to the runway of Marco Polo airport and every 10 minutes or so we can touch the starting planes passing just in front of us. We now know that these modern machines produce not as much noise as we thought. It is a very nice camp site, with grassy and shady places for the tents, good showers and an hourly shuttle bus to Venice all day long.

We will use this facility tomorrow. It has been many years since we visited Venice fort the first time, it seems to be more crowded these days. We’ll see. I do remember that at the time, when we entered Venice on a vaporetto (a small boat used as a city bus) in the Canal Grande I forgot to breathe for a long time, since I was completely stunned by the beauty that enrolled in front of my eyes. I hope for a repetition tomorrow.

Then the next thing, hopefully, will be the reunion with our son and his girlfriend in Riva del Garda. Sometimes life presents very pleasant opportunities. Who are we to complain.

The tracks from Pula till Venice:

Download 2010-07-30Pula-Portoroz

Download 2010-07-31Portoroz-Sistiana

Download 2010-08-01Sistiana Portogruaro

Download 2010-08-02Pgruaro Mestre

Pula – Portoroz: