Italy by bicycle...and rental car and train--Aug-Sept 2014

We knew way back in March that by the time Aug/Sept rolled around it would be time for a trip outside of Rwanda.  We chose Italy as some friends told us of a week long bike/barge trip along the Po river in the Po delta in northern Italy (see map below).  We researched and booked the trip in May and were off to Italy at the end of Aug/beginning of Sept for 2 weeks. (Don't forget to click on any photo to enlarge it as you peruse through).

With as much biking as we love to do, we've never done an organized group trip by bicycle.  It was new to us, but we did enjoy it a lot, met some very nice folks and found other bicycle trips which we will probably do more of, in various forms, in the future.  Touring by bike is becoming very popular and we found there are guided trips, self guided trips, barge by night, hotel by night, camping by night, etc.  The choice is yours, depending on the country(s) you want to visit and the amount of money you want to spend.  We'll update you again when we do another one...as you can be assured there will be more!

This trip started by us leaving Kigali, stopping in Entebbe, Uganda and with a very short layover in Istanbul, Turkey then on to Venice, Italy.  You leave Kigali in the late evening/early morning hours, fly all night and arrive in Italy in the early afternoon, the following day.  The time zone was the same, so we didn't experience any real jet lag, just the normal fatigue of flying long distance.  We made it safely to Venice, though our bags arrived a day later.  After only 1 day of being inconvenienced (luckily we had planned an extra day before the bike trip started) we left the Marco Polo International Airport outside of Venice by train bound for Mantua (Mantova in English) where we would meet up with our fellow cyclists, our guide and the Vita Pugna, our barge home for the next 7 nights.

Buddy at the train station waiting for our train

a comfy way to travel

This bike/barge trip is operated by http://www.girolibero.com/en/catalog/from-mantova-to-venice-aboard-the-vita-pugna-115 and was really a nice way to travel.  The Vita Pugna is one of the smaller barges with room for only 20 passengers, 1 captain, 2 kitchen cooks and 1 guide.  This company does this trip back and forth Mantua-to-Venice and the reverse, Venice-to-Mantua all spring, summer and fall long...and the trips are usually completely full!  They all start on a Saturday and end on a Saturday.

our home for 7 nights with the provided bicycles

The route from Mantua-to-Venice (or reverse) connects the lowland plain of northern Italy with the Adriatic Sea.  Water is a dominant feature in this unique landscape with many canals, 3 major rivers, inland lakes and lagoons, all intertwined with small towns and renaissance cities such as Mantua and Ferrara, both with rich histories of ruling dynasties such as the Este and Gonzaga families and ending in the pearl of the region, Venice.

Mantua is not only one of 110 provinces in Italy, but also a provincial town and capital city--more like a small town of ~48,000 inhabitants.  The province of Mantua has a vast network of partly navigable canals which are used to irrigate the fields and drain the marshlands.  Here are a number of photos of the town with it's many Piazza's (squares) just one weekend in August.

one of hundreds of cobblestone roads we will see on this trip

Castello di San Giorgio from the outside

beautiful columns and stone work

the moat around the Castello di San Giorgio

the Castello di San Giorgio was built by Francesco Gonzaga
same Gonzaga family as the University in Spokane, WA

one of many outdoor capuccino stops

a tobacco/souvenir shop

We had forgotten how many people smoke...we saw more smokers in the 2 weeks we were in Italy than we have in the past 7 months we've been in Rwanda.

The Cathedral built in the 13th Century

locals hangin' out

delicious shortbread type crispy 'biscuits' famously from
Mantova

yummies in many a window

a busy Saturday afternoon in the Piazza Broletto

our 1st gelato!  so rich and creamy

window candy

a beautiful astrological clock and the Rotunda di San Lorenzo

a very bike friendly town

and dog friendly too

San Lorenzo's Rotunda (a small church from the 11th century)

Day 1--meet the boat at 4.30pm and do Mantova by foot, our bike trip was to begin on day 2.

Day 2--40 kms--around the lakes of Mantova and a free afternoon of cycling.

our small cabin with 3 portholes, 2 beds, 2 closets

and a small 'head'--toilet, sink and shower

cycling around the lakes of Mantova

a small 'neighborhood' church in Mantova

ornate wood window frames

the inside of Saint Andrea's Basilica

more of those delicious Sbrisolona Mantova shortbread

back on the boat for a dinner on the deck (that's
Fabio, our guide on the left)

Day 3--55 kms--Mantova-Governolo-Zelo

the boat sets sail, while we ride off...
our 2 cooks (Sara and Vera) dancing, bidding us farewell

A stop in the small village of Bergantino, where street entertainment, carnivals, fair rides and carousels got started.  Most carnival and fair rides today were either commissioned from Bergantino or built with Bergantino expertise.

Carousel and Street Entertainment Museum of Bergantino

a photo of 1950s Italian carnival operators

Next stop was a small cheese factory making Grana-Padano hard cheese--very similar to Parmigiana (but don't tell the Italian's that!).  It's one of the most popular cheeses in Italy.  It was a delicious stop!

the evening bartender---while out playing darts in the
sleepy town of Zelo

Day 4--50 kms--Zelo-Ferrara-Adria

Vita Pugna leaving Zelo--we left by bike

one of the sleepy villages we rode through

entering the village of Ficarolo

the church in the Ficarolo piazza

before arriving in Ferrara the path takes you along pear
orchards and vineyards

pear trees along the route

We arrived in the historic town of Ferrara.

Dinner in the dining room on the Vita Pugna was always fresh and interesting--that is thinly sliced watermelon over cantaloupe with watercress and balsamic vinegar for the vegetarian in the bunch--the others had salmon over their melon--really delicious.

Adria by night

 Day 5--40 kms--Adria-Porto Vero-Chioggia

stopping to watch the fisherman with their nightly oyster haul

on our way to have a swim in the Adriatic Sea

the water was great and the beach was lovely

looking across the Venetian lagoon from Chioggia

having just arrived in Chioggia--Rod and Buddy

 Chioggia known as 'little Venice'

Thursday morning fish market

the 2nd oldest clock in the world--the 1st being in
Salzburg, Austria

looking down at the market from inside the clock-tower

San Andrea tower which houses the 2nd oldest clock in the world

Day 6--30 kms--Chioggia-Venice

Lido Island shots...

weaving down the alley-like 'roads'

the red carpet of the International Venice Film Festival
(no we did not see any stars)--it was starting the following day

rowing regatta in the lagoon--we watched, cheered and
celebrated the end of our cycling trip 

getting closer and closer to Venice

celebrating our last day of cycling

Mary Beth, Jill, Bob, Jackie, Kit

Andre the captain

the cyclists

a water taxi

Our first view of Saint Mark's

sailing to our dock with Venice in the sunset

Day 7--walking tour of Venice

Saint Mark's

a floating veggie market

the Grand Canal

and old square

Gondola's for hire

Gondoliers

Saint Mark's Cathedral

the famous square

gorgeous architecture

famous Venetian (Murano) glass

the Grand Canal

Carnevale masks

more gelato--delicious any time of year

sandwich shop

Day 8--departure.  And that is the end of our 8 day/7 night bike/barge trip.  We had a really lovely time, biking, boating, walking, swimming and meeting new folks.  Now, it's off to the airport for a rental car, so we can head north and go into the Dolomite mountains of Northern Italy for a week by ourselves.

the view from heading up into the mountains looking
back towards the plains and Venice

downtown Asiago where we stayed

mushroom season--all kinds of mushrooms

having an Aperol and a beer

the main Piazza in Asiago

looks a bit Swiss

WWI war memorial in Asiago

Asiago from the war memorial

heading towards Bolzano

Walther von der Vogelweide Piazza, Bolzano in the rain

fresh breads of the region

taking the gondola up the mountain through the vineyards
to the Renon plateau for some hiking

The Tyrolean village of Mittelberg Monte di Mezzo

earth pyramids--very similar to the hoodoos in Bryce
Canyon National Park in Utah

out hiking with a Dolomite backdrop

too beautiful not to...

the small train that takes you deeper into the Renon

taking the gondola back down after hiking all day

beautiful views of the Dolomites

our hotel on the Piazza...Stadt Citta--beautiful and old

Fabio--our guide from our bike trip, Aly and Buddy--
we met him here for an apero after a glorious day of hiking

another very bike friendly town (like so many Italian towns)

After a lovely 2 days in Bolzano, hiking the Renon, meeting up with our bike guide Fabio and visiting Otzi, the ice man in the Archeological Museum of Bolzano (http://www.iceman.it/en/node/233), we continued our journey in and throughout the Dolomites, before heading back towards the Adriatic Sea and ultimately Rwanda.  The Dolomites are gorgeous and we were lucky with the weather as we wound up and down passes and throughout this beautiful part of Italy.  Enjoy the journey with us...

We wound our way down to the small village of Fonzaso to visit an old friend of Aly's.  Marconi used to live in Burundi back in the day, and we hadn't seen him since 2006.  The two days spent with him were fun filled, eating, drinking and reminiscing about old times.

Fonzaso

Fonzaso with the small chapel built into the mountain (see it
midway up the rock face?)  it's there to guard the village

Buddy and Marconi and a propeller from a plane he
crashed in...he lived to tell about it!

Aly and Marconi

a view from the historic walled city of Feltre

a cheese and meat shop--so clean and proper

Mt. Grappa WWI War Memorial near Fanzaso

the holes are graves of some of the almost 75,000
Italians and Austrians who died here

resident of Mt. Grappa

heading down to the beach leaving the mountains
behind

the beach of Lido Di Jesolo

our hotel for 2 nights, Hotel Marina

a little chilly, but a nice beach and a relaxing end to a
lovely vacation

Two wonderful weeks spent in northern Italy...fabulous.  Until next time....grazie e arrivederci!

A Rain Forest Weekend--There's No Place Like Home--Aug 2014

It was time for a weekend out of Kigali and since we had no prior engagements, we looked at the map and chose a forest weekend as opposed to a savannah or a volcano trip, both of which are feasible here in Rwanda, but those will come later...so, we left Kigali just after 1pm on a Friday, got out of town and headed south.  Our 1st stop just over an hour outside of Kigali was a small pottery cooperative, The Pottery of Gatagara, funded and founded in the mid 1970s by some Belgian's who wanted to help preserve the traditional Batwa art.  The Twa (known collectively as Batwa) are a small population of Pymgy living in Rwanda and the surrounding area.  Most of the materials for their pottery are found within 15 kms of the center which may be one of the reasons why they settled in this area.

a Twa potter throwing a pot on an electric potting wheel

the pottery after it has been thrown, fired and glazed

From Gatagara, we continued south through small towns and villages until we arrived in Huye (formerly known as Butare), the largest town in southern Rwanda, with a population of over 100,000, where we would spend the night in a small, inexpensive motel and veer west tomorrow morning towards the forest.  Huye is home to the National University of Rwanda, the oldest university in the country and the National Museum (a gift from the Belgium King in 1988) which houses a wonderful collection of Rwanda's cultural and historic heritage.  The ~85 mile or ~3 hour drive--due to the twists, turns and truck traffic with no passing lanes--from Kigali is well worth a stop.  It's the dry season right now in Rwanda and taking photos of the hillsides and countryside is not very clear, please excuse the dust in the air...

Gatagara Church

flood zone with rice paddies

a Friday afternoon hillside market

an inexpensive place to stay--clean, decent enough and only
about $28 for bed and breakfast for 2

the courtyard of the motel

snacks on the menu...needless-to-say, we did not order any
of the above mentioned items

We left Huye, Saturday morning venturing closer and closer, up and down hills and through more towns and villages to one of the last remaining primary montane rain forests left in all of Africa.  

a small roadside market with pumpkins, pineapple
and bananas

a shop owner with almost anything a villager might need

transporting mattresses

boys pushing a HEAVY bike up some really steep hills
transporting bags of charcoal

bed mats---on their way to market, probably woven by these girls

more goods on their way to market--potatoes are most likely
in this first bicycle load

closer and closer to the forest with planted plots

and finally, the forest

This beautiful forest is not only special because of the fact that it is one of THEE last remaining primary montane rain forests in Africa, but also due to the fact that this is the same forest where Aly was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burundi so many years ago.  The Kibira forest in Burundi is the same forest as the Nyungwe in Rwanda, the names only change because of the borders...but the forests themselves know no borders...neither do the monkeys, the chimps, the birds, the plants, the flowers or the tree species.  It is a GORGEOUS forest, bordered by well kept tea plantations in both countries, at altitudes averaging 7,000ft and cooler temperatures in the 50s and 60s.  We took a lovely couple of hour canopy walk one day, and spotted a few critters along the way.  Here are just a few of our photos...

this little guy met us in the parking lot--a Diademed Monkey

hiking down into the forest

Buddy and our guide

look at that beauty?!

the canopy walk

the walk is suspended about 200' in the air

about 150' of distance

with lovely views

a Blue monkey watching us as we watched him

more beautiful views

walking back up the trail

We stayed 2 nights at the forests edge; the 1st night at an inexpensive 6-room guesthouse and the 2nd at a very swanky, high-dollar forest lodge on the edge of the tea plantation and the forest just a few kilometers from the guesthouse.  Both places served their purposes, from quiet and quaint to special and luxurious.  The temps dipped down into the 50s during the eves and the air was fresh and clean and the rain did fall...as it should in a rain forest.  Luckily we were tucked in and listened to and a fabulous thunder storm and lightening show...

the small 6-room guesthouse

a feeding sun bird

a Vervet monkey out front of our door

a small family of Vervet monkeys getting ready for their day

the tea plantation bordering the forest

the swanky forest lodge

the lodge with cabins bordering the forest and surrounded
 by tea--it really was a beautiful place

the infinity pool at the lodge

the tea right up against the forest

a mama Colobus monkey and her baby only yards from the lodge

and the big Colobus male--probably the troop alpha

napping after eating

eating his breakfast and not scared at all

It was a fabulous weekend seeing parts of the country we had not seen in years with the feeling like we were home, or at least for Aly it felt that way!  We actually hope to someday get back to the Kibira in Burundi...but that'll be another trip...