Can’t you hear what my mind is thinking?

Day: 354
Poreč, Croatia to Verona, Italy
Time: 9 hours

True to our host’s word we were met at 6:00 am by a light breakfast and hot coffee. Quite the nice guy. The typical breakfast in Croatia is fresh bread with butter and spreads. It also has a lot of cold cuts and cheese. After loading up on mostly bread, spreads and some coffee we got rolling on down to the ferry dock. The dock was hopping this morning and I found myself using my big bike as a deterrent to queue cutters. As I was keeping the hordes from swallowing up Leslie and me, Leslie was giving cuts to a couple of old birds from England. One of the ladies remarked that since I was bigger than she was, she had better do as she was told. We finally boarded the high speed ferry and got underway. The weather was stormy so the sea was quite rough and I found myself eyes closed and Ipod on most of the ride.
We got to the dock in Venice just as the skies decided that a thunderstorm was necessary. We got our bikes together in the rain and since we were dead last leaving the dock area we didn’t have to wait in line at all going through passport control. I suggested that we head west, but Leslie said that passport control was to the east. I replied ‘I know that, we should head west after passport control, can’t you hear what my mind is thinking?’ A truce was reached at that point and we agreed to lighten up. We rolled our wet bikes into the control area and one of the guys hopped up flagged us through and stamped our passports without us breaking stride. SERVICE!! When we got back out the other side the rain had intensified and we worked our way west. Even though it was raining the travel gods were smiling on us and we worked our way really close to the train station. We sought shelter under a gas station garage and got our bearings. At that point the rain really picked up (I am talking inches per hour type of rain, with lightening and thunder) and we decided to wait a little. The rain lightened up a little (so we thought) and we made a break for it. We got about 200 meters from the gas station and rain started coming down harder than before. We only had one bridge to cross, but it was one the gorgeous arched stair stepped ones that grace the canals in Venice. They aren’t the easiest to cross lugging a 40 kg bike in a torrential downpour. We found a little respite under a hotel overhang along with several dozen other people. Right when we were getting ready to make another break for it there was a lightening crack right over head and the resulting thunder shot a rush of air through the overhang. We both thought that we could wait a little more. We finally got to the train station, got our tickets, got lunch and got to Verona. The rain continued here and since we didn’t want to walk all over the city looking for dinner, we ended up at McDonald’s at the train station. Lame? Yes, I think so, but we were hungry, it was dark and it was pouring. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.
Tomorrow we are back on the train to Venice for a little tourist action. I can guarantee that McDonald’s won’t be in that game plan.
Ciao
CK