4-6 July 2010 Ancona to Rome

4-6 July 2010 Ancona to Rome (train)

Phase two

Come 7.30am the bikes, bags and ourselves were on the train waiting patiently for departure, some 50 minutes away - anyone would think we weren’t keen on Ancona!  Technically that’s not fair, as I’m sure they have a nice city centre and we just happened to see it’s ‘not so good’ side.

Four hours later we arrived in Rome after seeing some lovely scenery on the way.  Again we had a hotel close to the train station and again it was a pretty shitty part of town. 

However the hotel (4 star) was nice enough.  Rome was a baking 35c so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and spent the afternoon in our room.

Phase two complete

Rome

Phase three (getting bikes on the plane)

Today we woke up with the mission of finding two bike boxes to pack our bikes.  We spent the good part of two hours trying to source boxes through our airline, airport, other airlines to no avail.  Plan B. With the help of the hotel staff we sourced a bike shop that sold bike cartons.  The bike shop I worked in we gave them away so I was suspicious of what they had exactly and didn’t get my hopes up.  So with GPS in hand we set off on our two km journey (it’s was going to be a right royal pain getting them back to hotel).  We found the bike shop easy enough but no cartons, surprise surprise.  However they gave us the address of another shop, another 2km away and no number to call.  Hmmm.  We set off again, in the 35 degree heat in the general direction of the next bike shop.  No more than 200m down the track we walked past the door of Mail Boxes Etc, a Pack ‘n’ Send equivalent.  While they didn’t have bike boxes they had some big boxes that we decided we could fashion into a box of sorts.  Big enough to be a pain in the bum to walk the 2 km back to the hotel.  The afternoon was then spent packing the bikes.

Day 2 in Rome and we thought we’d better catch some of the sights.  We were due to fly out at 10pm that day so we had the day to fill in.  I don’t think Gary could of cared less but not being impressed with Rome so far I thought we’d better check out down town.

So off we set, in the 35 degree heat and wandered the streets of Rome with 5 million other tourists.  I’m glad to say downtown Rome was an improvement to our area but a combination of the tourists and traffic neither of us are keen to return.

Eventually we moseyed back to the hotel and waited for our chariot.  The taxi arrived on time, we loaded the bikes and sat back for a white knuckled ride to the airport.  At the airport we got the boxes ‘secure wrapped’ for reinforcement and proceeded to check in.  Bikes loaded, all within our weight limit.

phase three complete 

Saturday 3 July 2010 Zadar to Ancona

Saturday 3 July 2010 Zadar to Ancona (ferry)

Our post-sail drinks last night with Ivan and Melita and Dragan (the Manager of the charter company) were great and we planned to catch up with Ivan and Melita for lunch tomorrow as our ferry to Ancona leaves at 10pm.  Dragan gave us the use of the boat to stay on for the whole day as it wasn't booked out.  It was very nice of him as it meant we had a base for the day and somewhere to store our bags.

It would have been very easy to take the boat for another week but we both new that it’s time to go home.  So we woke up in the morning with heavy hearts to get on the Internet and start booking; the ferry to Ancona, the train to Rome and then the flights to Australia.  There was mild panic when we looked at the ferry timetable and found that on Saturday’s it leaves at 1200 so we only had 3 hours to get organised.  We were so close to staying a couple more days and going on the next ferry on Monday but we knew it was time.  We were so upset we couldn't have lunch with Ivan and Melita.  

So it was ‘mad rush’ time.  I raced around the harbour on my bike to buy the ferry tickets, only to find that I needed my passport to buy the tickets so I raced back but then realised that it didn't matter as we could buy the ticket when we boarded?  Never mind I needed the exercise.  Ivan was on the boat when I got back so the three of us went and had a coffee. 

After coffee and goodbyes we made our way to the ferry and there we began the multi-day journey home, with this leg nicknamed “phase one”.  Six hours later we docked at Ancona  and got another stamp in our passport - yay!  We had pre-booked a hotel, opposite the train station but the price of the convenience was a dodgy neighbourhood.  No sooner had we arrived there was a melee outside a cafe two doors down, we decided then and there to get the earliest train out of Ancona!  Once we were settled we ventured out to find some dinner, unfortunately we had our blinkers on and turned right out of the door only to find a little deli with dried out pizza after a 20 minute walk.  Had we turned left there was a respectable restaurant not 100 metres down the road - I then found myself humming Alannis song once again.

Phase one complete