So blogging is new to me. Doug and I are learning to ride our electric bikes. Last week we went 31 miles and climbed 2600 feet. Sadly the batteries played out and we had to push uphill for about an hour. Not fun.

Today we went 27 miles and climbed 1400 feet. We came home with full batteries! WE were not biking into strong wind unlike last time. We also have learned the value of pedal assist, especially on hills. It is easy to pedal uphill with the help of the battery and you don't lose your charge if you are pedaling. So we did better today.

It was a beautiful day. We did not need our jackets and got some sun. We biked along the seafront and the water was great today. If Plankton had batteries we would have sailed away today. Two boats left this morning and joined us on the net from the sea. Gentle winds and seas. A good day to go, just not Planktons. We expect our batteries to arrive on Tuesday...

The bike ride took us from the coast up onto a high ridge with views into the valley beyond, actually vistas. Green fields, old farmhouses with barns etc. Glorious roadside flowers, mostly yellow with a some patches of purple and a few red poppies here and there. The olive trees are putting out minurature olives, reminding us of the new Schindler olive grove back home.

There were cows and goats enjoying all the tall fresh green grass and plenty of evidence of the Arabic presence once in Sicily, noted by all the water canals extending along the side of the road on the ridge crest. There were also quite a few old WWII gun bunkers up there.

We descended into Scicli (the name comes from Arabic), a 5th century BC town, totally wiped out by the 1693 earthquake, like 60 other towns in eastern Sicily. The upside of that is that it was rebuilt as a Baroque city with many lovely churches, a castle and a monastery and 3 convents and a lovely stone canal with stone bridges running thru the town which lies in a ravine. Scicli is a UNESCO World Heritage site. All the churches were closed but one and it was outstanding.

We had an excellent lunch after being refused pizza at 3 places. Whats with that? We are in Italy! Turns out they have wood fired ovens and just fire them up in the evening. In the summer when the tourists arrive they will have pizza during the day.

After lunch we headed out of town and DOWNHILL to Donnalucata. They have a pretty waterfront like our town. We went to the fishing store and Doug got some swordfish lures after I showed them a picture of a swordfish. Then we had some awesome ice cream and were entertained by some locals and a dog with golden brown eyes.

The ride back to Marina di Ragusa was right along the coast and pretty pretty. Our last stop was DiMeglios supermarket where we picked up a roasted chicken for dinner and some ricotta things for breakfast. Our pal at the meatcounter insisted we eat a couple for free so I enjoyed mine with a free expresso. At the front of the store we sampled two local wines with local Ragusa cheese.Yum. This all made up for the awful lettuce and asparagus that we bought on the roadside coming home. There is a pet turtle in the marina that is getting BIG treats from us tomorrow.

We ended the day with a couple of pals onboard for happy hour and a game of Mexican train after dinner. Life is good. Hope to be sailing soon!

Maybe I will try to load some pictures tomorrow.