Cicily. Day2

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Sicily. Day 2. Free day In Palermo

I awoke at 8am to my phone buzzing and chirping at me. Damn, why did I set that alarm?

A continental breakfast with water in my cereal since no soya milk provided. Rest of it ok, just.

Next job putting bikes together, which took until lunchtime helping others with the job of tyre pumping and setting up brakes etc. The rain stopped by lunch, which had hindered our bike testing. My left gear changer jammed at one point , which meant I had no gears on chain ring - a disaster. However it started to work after a bit if force was applied. Strange! Hope it is ok from now on.

We then went for a stroll into town and lunch at a restaurant by a very ornate church square. After a short walk we spied a tour bus and jumped on to tour the city. Very nice, but I became tired and had to walk back for two hours of shuteye before dinner to recover.

Dinner at the same restaurant, which was very nice before blogging and face timing. Bed called at 11.30. Late considering a hard day forecast for tomorrow. Up at 7.00 for breakfast and bike box sorting etc.

Sicily, whilst being part of modern day Italy, is an island and they do not really think they are Italian, the are Sicilian and have their own dialect, not understood by most Italians. It's history and culture is formed by the absentee landlords of ages past, ineffectual government and poor policing. This created a local form of self rule and justice, enter the Mafia, which were first formed to look after the interests of the islanders but eventually looked after its own interests and the islanders suffered as a result. Bag snatching, pick pocketing and petty crime is rife they say. So we keep tight control of our possessions. In fact it appeared ok and apart from a guy who pretended to be 7 euros short for a purchase we had no problems. The well dressed guy must have thought we had just fallen out of the sky. Donkey. Palermo is what you might say is typical Italian, tall buildings with narrow streets full of Fiat 500's and puddles everywhere.

Good night.

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