06 July β China (Shaanxi) β ~120 miles
A short ride into Xian, where we’ve got an entire 3 nights in the same bed.
75 miles of awesome road, twisties through greenery, following rivers – and a little bit of a wrong turn which took me through a panda-park. Many times during today’s ride, I thought “this could be New Zealand”.
And then 45 miles of just highway and city.
Even with the short ride – it was hot enough that I’d resolved to get a swim in, near the end of the 75 miles… but just as I’d decided “next place I see, I’m in…” – the road climbed, the way to the river started being blocked by fences and cliffs… and I never got my shot.
Now in Xian – staying across the road from the central Bell Tower – my view is directly onto the thing. Went searching in the laowei-bar district for any place showing the Super-Rugby final, but couldn’t find it. Instead – a couple of the local craft beers at Xian’s sole brewpub – where the staff seemed to find such an idea a huge distraction from their planned itinerary of doing nothing.
The cellphone was dead today, so photos had to be taken on the backup old-school camera, and therefore of minimal quantity and quality… but here’s all of them…
