The Cinque Terre, Italia (Italy) to Bourg en Bresse, France to Colmar in the Alsace region of France

Sep 6.  You can’t miss him she said.  I kept looking all over town for Antonio this morning so I could check out.  I missed him.  I finally just plopped down on a stoop and waited.  Three minutes later, there’s Antonio.  There’s a lot to be said for just staying still and relaxing; things happen.  I paid the man, said thanks and got my bags and started hiking up the road.  Once at the top of town, I caught the shuttle bus to the parking lot about a thousand more feet up; sure am glad I didn’t have to hike that with my packs.

Yep, I have mixed feelings about this, I’m leaving Vernazza and the Cinque Terre and heading north.  At last count I have 60+ bites of the bug variety on my arms, legs, feet and neck.  It’s hot but it’s bearable.  After getting my massage from Kate, who came here from London seven years ago and never left, I figured I ought to get going.

I headed north and west on the coast to Genova and then caught another Autostrade north and west toward France.  Tolls in Italy and France are outrageous.  To get to northern Italy, it cost me about 34 euros and then I came to another toll booth before entering a tunnel and it cost 33 euros just to use the tunnel that dumps me out on the France side of some mountains.  I plopped out in France in a cloudy rainy mountain wonderland, it was a nice change.

I didn’t really know where I was going.  Since I decided not to go to southern Italy, I have a lot of extra time on my hands.  I’ve seen everything I came to see except one place which is near Paris, so I have an extra week and a half to fill.  I figured I’d go to Lyon and stay the night and then figure out what to do.  I got to Lyon and decided to keep going.  I started heading east again and stopped for the night in Bourg en Bresse at a roadside chain hotel (Etap).

Sep 7.  I left around 10:00 and picked up some groceries for picnics, I haven’t done that for a while.  It was one of those glorious sunny days with a just a few clouds.  I decided to go to the Alsace region of France near the German border.  This region has passed between Germany and France several times over the past centuries and so it’s a very blended region.

I started the drive on the Autoroute but decided to get off and use the country roads.  So glad I did.  This was one of the most relaxing, pretty, country drives ever.  The temperature was 18º C almost the whole way so I never had to use the AC and I had the window down.  I would have had the top down if I had a car that had a top that goes down.  Lots of rolling green hills, vineyards, corn fields, some harvested some not, cows, pretty little towns, narrow roads and lanes, and a hint of that fall crispness in the air.  It was one of those days that’s just so good for the soul.  Days like this are why I did this trip.

I arrived in Colmar in the Alsace region of France around 4:30 and hunted up an Etap hotel for the night.  I’ll probably look for the hostel or a B&B or something tomorrow and stay another night.

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