Miura Hanto Ride Friday

大きな地図で見る

I went out riding to Miura Hanto last Friday. The idea came when I wanted to go out cycling but it was already very late. My wife asked: "Where are you riding today?" I said "Well, just around in the neighborhood." and she answered: "Neighborhood, that goes at least as far as Miura, am I right?" So I thought, that is a very good idea, I have not been out there in the South for quite a while.

This is probably one of the rides nobody would like me to join. Only one time I could convince David to come with me. One has to go through the congested traffic of Yokohama, followed by the congestion in Kanzawa followed by more congestion in Yokosuka, so 50 km at least of suffering on big roads and being passed by trucks. After Yokusuka it is basically the same until one comes to Kurihama. I always thought that it would be nice to take the ferry from there to Chiba and continue to ride on the other side.

After Kurihama there is one road [215] which leads along the coast. Yes, the coast. After focusing so much on riding in the mountains this year, one has almost forgotten that we are living on an island and riding there gave me the feeling back. The view was splendid on the Chiba coastline [One has to be a least 30 km away from Chiba to appreciate the beauty of the prefecture] and I passed some small fishing ports with boats neatly lined up in the harbour.

I then took the road back to Kamakura on the West side of Miura Hanto. I stopped at some shrines and bought 絵馬 for my collection, something I have not done for quite a while as I was always driven by speed. Mitsumine was an exception though. Mount Fuji was huge on the horizon, bot only the top as one can see from the Tamagawa, but one could see the full shape from the coast.

There were strong winds but I made only small breaks and managed to arrive at the coastline at 4 PM. I wanted to drink a coffee either at the Seascastle, the famous restaurant where fear and terror reign and which is operated nevertheless since 50 years by two German brothers and her sister, or at the Amalfi, a nice Italian restaurant further West on the coast in direction Enoshima. Both places were closed so I rode home through Kamakura and hopped the train in Ofuna.

From there it is only 45 minutes back to my house.

A nice ride, 5 hours long and about 110 km in distance. Could have gone faster but made a lot of short breaks. Not many climbs, but a lot of hills to oversprint.

Very pleasant short ride, just a good thing to do when one gets up late because of an overdosis or red wine and German movies the night before. I guess watching Rainer Werner Fassbinder movies on TV (Angst essen Seelen auf) and drinking too much alone is a German idea of having a good time.