By Zachary Moses
This is the second in a three-part series. Click here to read Part 1.
Day 2 Museums and Molfetta
Can you believe it? We woke this morning completely free of hangovers. I would have figured with all the wine we were drinking last night that it would have led to some worn out guests this morning. Apparently when your hosts make their own wine, and don’t fill it with sulfites, you get to skip the horrible hangover. Hooray! Here is an image of this year’s harvest getting ready for processing into wine.
Today was the first day of cycling for the group. Our guides showed up bright and early to fit everyone to their bikes. Some guests had brought their own bike seats or pedals and they were quickly attached and adjusted to each person’s comfort.
For this tour, we had two support vans, a bike trailer, and three guides to keep everyone on track. I felt like royalty with the amount of support I was receiving.
Our first stop was the Jatta Archeological Museum, famous for its Grecian burial urns… we’re not supposed to take pictures, but here is a picture of me and Nurse Jackie with an urn behind us…shhhhh.
Our next stop was Molfetta. We lined our bikes up alongside a church, and then stepped inside…I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the church because there was clearly a funeral going on inside, and we suddenly felt a little silly in our biking jerseys and spandex shorts.
We then continued on with our walking tour of the town.
We even dipped our toes in the Adriatic Sea … a bit cold for my taste.
Day 3 Gravina, We’ve Attempted to See You.
Today we took a trip to the beautiful town of Gravina, situated on the side of a ravine, with a beautiful ancient Roman bridge marking its entrance. The intention was to take a tour of the town, and then ride our bikes back to the villa. However it began pouring rain, and nobody wanted to ride.
In an effort to make people more comfortable, Paul and I found a café and we got everyone out of the vans and into the café. We enjoyed fabulous local coffee and pastry while we waited for the rain to clear. It never did.
Finally we decided to give up on the ride for the day. Paul had an idea to visit a fantastic lookout point where you could see practically all of Puglia. A group photo here seemed appropriate. As you can see, I should have worn better shoes. As my sister will tell me, “Zach, it’s not always about fashion. Sometimes you just need socks.”
In the distance we saw the ruins of an old fortress, and decided to take a muddy hike up the hill to it.
We all posed on top of the hill. With the drop offs behind us. Here’s my best “I want you” photo.
With all the changes we made due to the rain, we actually had one of the best days of the entire tour. I really appreciate how flexible an HE Travel tour can be.
Day 4 Castel Del Monte and the Holy Grail
Today began with a shuttle to Castel Del Monte (one of the many fabled sites of the holy grail). This almost perfect hexagonal castle sits grandly atop a hill boldly shouting, “Stay Out”. However, this is 21st century tourism … so we of course paid a few Euros and went right in.
We followed the course inside the castle for ages trying to find the great secret at the end. But alas, whatever that great secret was has been long removed. Many archeologists guess that it was something like the holy grail. I, however, put my money on a torture device that can steal your life away one year at a time (I’m doing my best Count Rugen impersonation over here … think Princess Bride).
I guess we’ll never know. To be continued…
Click to read Part 3
