Today we ended up doing 92 km despite our intentions to start slow. The route was intended to be under 70 km, but meanderings to try to stay off busy roads added to the distance. However the entire ride was flat, the weather was good and we still felt strong at the end. It was good to be bicycle touring again.

We had a good early start and enjoyed the experience of riding right through Milan again in the Monday morning traffic. There were quite a number of bikes and motorbikes commuting to work and even someone on a electric scooter in amongst the traffic. The traffic was so slow it felt fine – in fact the bicycles were generally going faster than the cars.
We rode past the magnificent Cathedral again and the nearby pedestrian boulevards were all but empty compared to the previous (Sunday) afternoon.

The route took us past the Milano Linate airport where we began see our first views of the Alps in the distance. We found a small fortress with a moat (Castello Di Peschiera Borromeo) and then progressed through some scrappy farmland and light industrial zones.

• 

• 

The biggest town we passed through was Treviglio, before heading north to cross the river at Muratella. The roads were quite busy particularly on the latter part of the route.

Our final destination was a small town called Ghisalba just across the river, where we had found a B&B. We bought our usual picnic fare from the supermarket before we arrived just after 3 pm. It was not quite what we were expecting but was fine in the end, clean, good value and met our needs.

The bedroom decor was unique. Kris felt the painting of five disembodied penises hung over the bed and the snakeskin was a bit creepy. One of the bedside table lights glowed red.