Ravenna, Italy

The ship offered a free 25 minute shuttle into town, but we thought it would be a nice bike ride in. The roads were flat, but the two lane highway took us past huge industrial sites, with smokestacks spewing black smoke. This is the industrial north of Italy. After an hour of riding, and hoping we were going the right way after many “turnabouts”, we met a lady on her bike and asked for directions. We followed her straight into the center of Ravenna. It turned out to be a cute medieval town, with cobblestone streets, a massive center square, with many affluent shops. And this town was filled with bike riders! In fact, they had free bike rentals on several corners. We parked ours and walked around – whole families were out for a Saturday walk, a cup of coffee, and to shop at the flea market set up all over town. Since we had a short port stop, we hoped the shuttle bus back to the ship, folding up our bikes and putting them in the baggage hold. We’re ready for our two day voyage to Egypt