Albert's travel blog - a rider's view

... continuing with the non-linear description of my trip - here's a look back at the great day of riding and eating I had on September 21. I went for a nice bike ride starting in Orgosolo, where I was staying, and promptly had to stop for this photo of farmers picking grapes for one of the local wines under a canopy of gentle clouds and a backdrop of the mountains of interior Sardinia. Harvesting grapes in a visually stunning landscape My lovely wife Anita is great at trip planning, and as a circulation clerk at our local library, she is good at finding the right resources for our trips. She lent me one of the library's guidebooks for Sardinia with the admonition that she doesn't like to take guidebooks on trips because she sees them coming back trashed. She's been happy to hear I've found a safe place for it in my luggage and it has survived nearly three weeks on the Island with nary a bent page. One the guidebook suggestions is to visit the town of Burgos and spe...

 If you've followed me on Instagram ( @newenglandrocks ), you'll know that I tend to post non-linearly. I'm continuing the non-linear tradition by fast forwarding this blog to the current time to recount my most recent travel experience in Sardinia. To catch up on the trip so far, Anita and I spent nine wonderful days together circumnavigating the Island and exploring the coastlines of Sardinia before she had to return home. Between September 13th and 24th, I stayed in the municipality of Nucor in two towns: Posada close to the East Coast, and the hill town of Orgosolo in the interior of the Island. While I'll post a separate blog post on these places, in summary the people  are extremely friendly, there didn't seem to be any American tourists - only the occasional French tour group!, the food is hyperlocal and delicious, and the bike riding in the surrounding areas is hilly and fantastic. It was a great and memorable 10 day stretch. Since I am leaving Sardinia from...

Anita and I arrived in Cagliari the evening of September 5. Although we sat down for dinner at a great location, which usually portends a bad meal, our food was wonderful and we tried our first pane carasau , which is a twice baked Sardinian unleavened bread traditionally eaten by shepherds when they are out tending their flocks. It is so common, I've only been at to one restaurant on Sardinia that doesn't serve it. Pane carasau on the right Our meal also included some delicious fritto misto featuring very fresh seafood, which I've been discovering seems to be universally fresh wherever you go on the Island. Frito misto with linguine con vongole in the background As we found out the next morning during our tour of Cagliari, we were very lucky to have picked an AirBNB in the Villanova neighborhood, which has been completely rehabilitated in the last few years. All the tables and chairs shown in the photo below - which was taken from our AirBNB's balcony - are put in plac...

I am in Sardinia for the whole month of September. But why here? If you're going to ride on the road, surely there are better known, glitzier and more vertiginous destinations. The Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites, the South of France and even the Voges mountains come to mind, as they are regularly featured during the three Grand Tours broadcast worldwide every year in May (Giro d'Italia), July (Tour de France) and September (La Vuelta a Espana). But in 2007, I recall watching the first stage of the Giro d'Italia , utterly transfixed in the massive GC (general classification) shakeup that happened on the first Team Time Trial stage. Riders were getting tailed off on a very hilly course on what appeared to be a beautiful tropical island.  The Italian team Liquigas competing in the 2007 Giro d'Italia opening TTT A bunch of guys struggling up a steep hill is NOT your typical photo of a Team Time Trial stage. There was chaos and panic amongst the teams, but I recall thinking, ...