5-15-10 Santo Stefano al Mare to Ospedaletti day 41

5-15-10 Santo Stefano al Mare to Ospedaletti day 41
the eve before I had done a joke request to lady chaos that she might provide safe foot paths for at least a couple of days, i did so on twitter... well apparently making your request in writing and in public seems to have worked for this day anyway...after getting breakfast, packed and out on the road I hooked back on to the bike-pedestrian path i'd been walking.. it first lead into Santo Stefano proper and then to my pleasant surprise onwards...i was thinking praises to who ever came up with this great idea.. also there were plenty of pretty plants and flowers to look at some wild some planted ...also the principle applies 'you will build it and they will come'...this path was used by grandmas pushing their grandchildren in strollers, joggers, leisurely walkers, and lots of bikers, both the racing kind and the wobbly clunky bike, inexperienced kind...whole families were out on bikes, and that's just the locals then there were bike rentals at towns and tourists were also taking advantage of this..i was thinking of all the sections of scary road I had been on and wondered how much more foot and bike traffic those areas would have if it where safe.. the reason I bring this up, is because I think there is this sense that if you have a car road leading through a town that's all you need, it's the modern age of convenience...but clearly the reason you don't see pedestrians in those areas is not because people don't enjoy walking there just aren't options.. I was day dreaming of a world were all the best roads were dedicated to just bicycles and pedestrians... and all the crappy ones for those stinky cars..In seattle we also have a bike-walking trail that used to be the old rail line called Burk-Gillman trail it too gets a lot of usage, the only issue I have with that, is that it does not serve the most central part of the city so I only get to use it for leisure riding on weekends...what we need is dedicated road through the center of seattle so we can safely bike to work.. there are bike lanes but in the down town area cars do not know how to respect them.....

in Taggia there was a section under construction so I thought maybe it had ended.. the day before my watch had stopped I was not sure it was broken or needed new batteries... figuring out what to do about that is always a bit fun and messy when you don't get the local system... the back of my watch had tiny screws so I could not change the battery myself if that was even the problem, I lacked the tools... I thought i'd find a cheap watch somewhere and tried little knickknack stores but no luck..then I found a small department store, they sold no watches..but the lady there directed me to what I thought was a jewelers.. on the way out an old lady who had problems speaking, because of some neurological issues, or so it seemed, tried to talk to me, at first I could not understand.. but then I realized she was just trying to determine if I was indeed a pilgrim and whether I was in direction Rome or Compostela.. I let her know I was and headed towards Spain.. she shook my hand and wished me well. I was moved. Then I did find jewelers he had to buss me in..he redirected me again to a watch repair shop... I was basically going back and forth on the same street several times and kinda amused by the mess.. then I found the actual shop and yes, he thought it was just the battery he not only replaced it, he set the time and date for me, and tried to help me get my pack on and held the door... wow... I was most delighted to have a functioning watch again... it is definitely part of my core gear and I had not realized until it stopped working.. now I could get a coffee and treat for a well accomplished mission, at the cafe too everyone was really friendly.... then I did actually do that whole walking thing again... the bike-walk trail did mercifully continue all the way into SanRemo..again I found that an older lady was trying to catch my eye, she then gave me a really warm smile when we did connect, it was clear she was pleased for me being a pilgrim.. SanRemo did not seem too urban from what i'd expected on the map but it sure was long.. I found a cafe near it's beginning and had a sandwich for lunch.. then again without examining it's core I kept walking along the trail it looked brand new in some places like the paint was still drying on the road markings. On the way out of town I heard what sounded like giant angry hornets... there was some sort of mini race car race... happening right by the water.. it sure was loud... I dont know what kind of race cars they were but the looked kid size but adults were driving them.. they were racing on a track with hay stack barriers.. I hurried past this mostly to get away from noise.. I checked at a bike rental place, sadly the path I was on came to an end and I had to get back on the main road, but he promised a side walk.. and there was.. I wanted to get just a little further for the day.. the road climbed and then rapped around a turn in the cliff, but there was indeed a side walk.. and not the sheer drop offs.. I walked till I hit the small town of Ospedaletti, it looked like a tourist town still under construction.. they were still building the board walk and later I would see signs of the future harbor. It looked like this town was hoping to attract tourist business by building a harbor for yacht anchorage since it had no real beach.. I found a small hotel and checked in.. there was a little supermarket next door so I got my dinner ingredients there including bread, cheese, canned fava beans and cured in oil veggies... I was determent to sleep well that night and luckily my body was in consensus so I did sleep well...