Didn’t sleep too well so got up rather late – 7:45 or so. Had a leisurely breakfast, then walked my bike down the hill to the village of Santa Stefano al Mare with Colin and the dogs. It’s really nice – right on the Med, but not crowded with tourists. It was market day so they had the seaside road closed off for several blocks.

Colin and the doggies stayed in the village to walk around and find a place to have coffee while I went up to the cycle path and headed west for 1/2 hour. The coast is, of course, gorgeous – the water is the most beautiful aqua then deep blue, the flowering bushes are lush and there’s palm trees everywhere.

Met Colin back in the square at the village, then went for a cup of tea. Actually they gave me a whole pot that was about 4 cups in all.

Rode my bike most of the way back up to the campground – the last little bit was the steepest so I got off and pushed the final 100 metres or so.

It’s pretty hot unless you’re in the shade, and there’s a nice breeze at times. Walked down to the pool to check it out – they have nice lounge chairs all around it, but everyone has to wear bathing caps and there’s a lot of folks there that aren’t actually staying at the campground.

The campground is filling up – it’s the weekend, after all, and our area is now full of motorhomes, one’s even from Norway.

Marcel Kittel won another stage – his third of this Tour – photo finish this time.

Had a nice picnic-type dinner outside Colin’s campervan, then a very quiet evening – at least until the karaoke started. I was just nodding off nicely when music down at the pool bar started blaring – it was 11:00. It kept up until almost 1:30 – not the early night and nice long sleep I’d planned.

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