my way home – part 1: Nice-Ovada

223km; 2,300m ascent; 1 pass actually! (Passo del Turchino: 532m); drank 8.5 litres

towns passed:
Monaco; Menton; Ventimiglia; Sanremo; Imperia; Alassio; Finale Ligure; Savona; Varazze; Arenzano; Genova (western outskirts)

My “operation ‘getting back home'” has begun.

The first day was under the impression of the French and Italian Riviera. Never have I cycled along the sea before as long as I did on this day. And on a sunny and warm Sunday, the beaches and roads in all these famous holiday places were completely packed with people, scooters, cars, …

taken in the morning after I’ve left, just east of Nice (Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat)

The most famous place I came trough, however, led me into my sixth country on this trip: Monaco! It was a “first-time” for me – and as if they wanted to show me what it’s all about, the first three cars which I saw right after I’ve crossed the border were a Ferrari 599, a Lamborghini Aventador, and a new Mercedes S-Class Coupe. And me on my bike 😉

The next border wasn’t far away – and made me enter Italy (Liguria), my main country for the next days.

At the western outskirts of Genova (from where one could well see the wreckage of the ‘Costa Concordia’ cruise ship in Italy’s largest port), I left the sea for good and headed north towards the mountains – which I have to cross in order to get to the wide valley of ‘Po’ river where I’m going to cycle eastwards. And in these mountains I actually climbed another pass – unintentionally… but as it was along my route I thought that a picture can’t hurt:

So here I am now, in the southeastern region of Piedmont – after a long and very hot day on the bike.

PS: here are a couple of photos of my day in Nice – quite a nice place actually!

accurate route details (incl. GPS track):
Vienna-Nice Transalp – ride home part 1 (Nice-Ovada)
Start date/time: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 8:16, distance (km): 222.31, elevation (ascent in m): 1,809

all photos of the day: