Ludwig and I spent the evening in the very room where the Meiji Constitu
tion got drafted...Unforgettable views along the way...
Ludwig's superb navigating skills...
Heisei Constitution finally mapped out...
Ludwig and I spent the evening in the very room where the Meiji Constitution got drafted...
Impressive 2-day ride ... looks like a much better planned and more pleasant route than the Brevet ... though still hot much of the way, no doubt. I hope I get a chance to visit the Kintoukan -- food looks great.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad to see that you at least went a few kilometers on the Rindo South of Karuizawa that I rode last year.
David...with Ludwig mapping out the routes and navigating, there are no worries whatsoever. So stress-free...you just blindly trust him and he'll get you to the nicest of places like, yes, like that Karuizawa rindo!
ReplyDeleteLet's do this Kintoukan visit with more PE members some day!
Tom, thanks for the compliments!
ReplyDeleteDavid, yes, I went over that rindo (Myogiarafune Rindo) quite deliberately, remembering your blog report from some time ago. The Garmin took us onto it not quite from the start, which was somewhat irritating, but turned out for the better, because the last section into Karuizawa was actually closed to traffic (though it was unclear whether this meant bicycles could not have passed anyhow).
The onsen (Kintoukan) was great for the large tatami room (actually two rooms, one for sleeping, one for eating/resting), the history, the food and the nice family owning it. The onsen itself was among the worst I have visited - fine for our purpose, but not worth the visit by itself.
I didn't continue with Tom back to Tokyo because I didn't want to get down to lower altitudes and do a lot of distance in this heat. Instead, I was attracted by the idea of finally crossing Shinshu Toge and doing the Crystal Line from the back-end. That turned out to be nice. It was still hot, but bearable, and the descent through Shosenkyo, the lovely gorge area above Kofu, was really nice, especially in the late afternoon.
Here is the GPS track for this second day:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47659852