Mat & Kat's big bike trip
Day 26 Cremona
It was a bit wet and grey today, we had a 83km ride to Cremona, it's very flat and not particularly interesting. The road's quite busy and there's quite a lot of industry around here and the towns aren't very attractive.
The forecast today was very wet and it was raining steadily when we woke up, but we waited it out and by the time we left the rain had stopped. We were mostly on the highway and there was a lot of heavy freight traffic; we passed lots of logistics centres and light industry. But at least wasn't raining!
We've both found northern Italy to be less pretty than expected. It's very flat and featureless, lots of traffic and very car-dominated even inside towns, the historic buildings are mostly brick and some them are a little plain.
After lunch, it brightened up, and we bumped into 2 touring cyclists - Quentin and Peter set off from Brittany about the same time we left Valencia, but they're definitely more hardcore than us. They're camping, they cycled over the Alps, and they're heading for Vietnam! We parted ways and took a completely traffic-free cycle path along the top of a levee all the way into Cremona. It started raining lightly, and it was quite exposed; by the time we reached our destination, Mat had hit the bonk (it's a cycling thing), so we refuelled with hot chocolates, pastries and a toasted sandwich.
Cremona has some very beautiful buildings; the cathedral is a vast brick structure with a gorgeously painted ceiling inside. This city is the home of the violin-maker Stradivarius, there are lots of violin shops and scultures dotted around the place, as well as a violin museum (sadly closed by the time we got here).
We've got a kitchen in our accommodation, so Mat's making asparagus and wild mushroom risotto. The fresh fruit and vegetables here are to die for, it's a total joy to cook in this country.
Time for a movie and a lie down.
Love, Kat & Mat x