On European soil

Saturday

Landed and after a couple of miles walking thru the airport in Brussels we found a spot to camp out and we needed some sleep, did not get much on the plane and we all felt like we had not slept in days. Quick bite to eat, I forgot how expensive Europe was, 12 euros for a couple eggs, a bowl cereal and some fresh squeezed orange juice, delicious!
When you are really tired I guess you can sleep anywhere but on a plane, so the rock hard airport bench felt like a pastropedic bed in a 5 star hotel ( see the picture in the last blog ) . Finally back on a plane and off to Milan, a nice short flight and no problems with anything. Our luggage came right away and we out of there in no time. Our bus driver Carlos was there waiting to pick us up with a FinKraft Camp sign in his hand and Kevin Hines were there too (he lost his suit case in Paris, but it had came on a later flight so it was all good) Nice smooth ride to our hotel and now the weather is beautiful and not what we have seen on TV from the Giro the last couple of weeks.

The hotel is amazing, located on top of a slope over looking the valley, a very private and quite place that you could just dream about and not really think would exist.

The drive way or road ( last 1.5 K about 12-15% ) up to the hotel was steep with a little gravel at the last 100 meters to make every ride each day plenty challenging, just the way we like it at the FinKraft camps !

Kevin is eager to get on the bike for a quick spin before dinner, so I slap my bike together and off we go! The legs feel surprisingly good and we ride for about an hour without really knowing where to go, but is just great to be on the bike in Italy. Paolo already took the rest of the guys on a 2-hour “welcome” ride before, so when we got back it was dinnertime. Something we all have been waiting for since we left the US on Friday and really had not eaten anything good in days!

The hotel Cascina Belvedi is from the 1800’s, so very rustic and a great atmosphere and the food is out of this world, not mentioning the best wine I ever had!

An unbelievable first night dinner, a great start to a week. Now we just needed a good nights sleep and we can start what we are here for; riding our bikes and soaking up the Italian culture!

There was even plenty of mouth watering delicacies for our vegetarian -:)

Stay tuned for more amazing pictures and stories ,

Roger