The Final Day, Alghero - Airport!! 5 miles

Woke up with X-treme winds on the beach!!  We sought out granola, soymilk, chocolate and coffee!  We got Chris a good bike box, hung out in town and then headed for the airport.

We tried to find a go-cart place nearby but it was too windy and nowhere to be found.

Then we disassembled his bike.

A hug, and a few words and our 6-month bicycle journey across the world had come to an end...

...or was it just the beginning?

Sassari - Alghero, THE FINAL STRETCH, 20 miles

Woke up in our parking lot and made our way to Alghero, stopping at the airport along the way.  We stopped at a woman's bed and breakfast so we could get showers.  Cleaned up we proceeded to get a nice dinner for our last night.  The place we went into looked really fancy but they had an Italian soap opera playing really loud in the next room.

We set up our tent on a little beach next to the historic center of town.

Valledoria - Sassari, 25 miles

"Sassari!"  think "So, Sorry."  made some jokes about this today.  "did our brochure make you think this was a fun town?  Sassari!"

Spent another morning on the beach.  I went swimming and picked bits of sea glass out of the sand and filled the salt shaker that i took back in Praha.  The water was very, very clear.

We did laundry today, finally, but unfortunately I came to discover that I had left my underpants at one of the beaches.  Ooops!

Tonight was rather adventurous as we set up camp in a parking lot!!  The sound of honking cars and barking dogs was our sweet lullaby.  Oh, there are more stories, but they must be shared another way besides this open blog.  The kinds of stories that require handshakes and promises of confidence before being told.  Okay... I pooped three times that night and it wasn't solid.  There, that wasn't so hard.

Portobella - Valledoria, 20 miles

We spent the whole morning on the beach and I recuperated pretty well.

Chris and I both read a lot in the morning.  He's been devouring 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond, and I am finishing 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame."  

Christopher made a really awesome Sea Serpent out of a rock.  When we finally took off, it was late and we only left because we agreed that it would be nice to try out a different beach.  

We made it to another beach, but at first we were told we couldn't go because again it was private.  heh, but we went anyway.  I don't think they'll find us because it's already dark out and we're on the beach.

Hope it doesn't rain on us.  There is lightning over the ocean right now.

Saint Teresa Gallura - Portobella, 15 miles

Oh boy, I felt really sick today.  I think I might have been dehydrated from yesterday.  We don't buy bottled water, and sometimes we don't get chances to fill up our bottles.  That and I think my camelpack is infected with the black plague.  

Our first attempt at making it to a beach failed because it was private, but we found another park nearby.  The beach isn't exactly what we were looking for (something of the more iconic sandy beach).  Ours was really rocky, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  even for a sickly boy like myself.

Aleria - Sta Teresa Gallura, 75 miles

What a beautiful sunrise on the beach this morning!  The beach cats came back to say good morning to us and beg for food they won't eat.

The moon last night looked like a giant glowing alligator eye peering through the fog of the swamp fog of the bayou.  yes, it's the truth.

And guess what.  ALL SUN TODAY!!!  not a drop of rain!

Today we passed by two cyclists, a couple in their 70's.  they were faster than Christopher and I.  Oh yeah old people!?  Well, we have big bags on our bikes... Pooh, no excuses, they whooped us.

We caught the last ferry to Sardinia and slept under a fort in town.

Fontanone - Aleria, 55 miles

The water rose about 3 feet overnight!  A man showed up in the morning.  I thought he was upset with us for sleeping on his property but Chris translated his french.  Apparently he was only concerned about us being swept away in the deluge!

We rode to the inland town of Corte, where it started raining again for a little while.  Christopher got charged 2 euros by a jerk at a cafe just for using the bathroom.  Oh yeah, that makes 5 days of rain so far.  My senses tell me that this is going to change very soon!

Parts of our ride today reminded me of Jurassic Park.

Tonight we set up our tent on the beach in Aleria.  There was a little cabana with a deck going over the water.  It was really beautiful.  We're lucky it's off season or we wouldn't have been able to stay there.  

We made friends with the beach cats, even though they didn't like any of our food they kept asking us for some.