The best thing about today was the coffee scroll for breakfast …

A detour to the station for breakfast was a bonus – such a lovely modern precinct with added bonuses … a french style bakery ‘set’ breakfast included yoghurt, egg or banana and a croissant, sandwich or toasted sandwich and coffee. A coffee scroll had my name on it! Too bad I will consume the lot. The coffee scroll was absolutely delicious!!

Second bonus was the dinosaur sculptures in a roundabout by the station …

‘John, I need to take some pics’ before I knew it the sculptures were moving and making sounds … passersby were also transfixed and mobile phones were busy.

There is a Dinosaur Museum here I would guess it would be a great excursion.

We rode through the suburbs as Komoot does best – lovely to see the houses and gardens – away from any busy traffic, lots of rice paddies – they still fascinate me. The snow capped mountains are on my right – always lovely to see. A few hills to climb and heading towards the coast.

We have a strong tailwind which is very welcome … towards the coast we are on a path through a young pine forest … dappled shade and feeling like we are at home in the bush … we are entertained by some military fighter jets screaming through the sky at a thundering pace. I thought tunnels were noisy.

We copped out today the expressway was closer to the coast, however we lost Komoot for a while and were on a busy road. Finally connecting with Komoot at the beach … a strong tailwind was advantageous, we were the only ones out there on a smooth cycle path … joy!  The beach was a sorry sight, dirty coloured sand and tonnes of flotsam washed up – polystyrene foam chunks, plastic bottles in all shapes and sizes littered the whole beach … quite a disgusting sight. I couldn’t bring myself to take a pic. I was glad when we left the beach … such a contrast from yesterday.

Later on we hit the road after booking into our accommodation to explore the city a few kms away … extremely impressed with the ‘state of art’ railway precinct then up to the castle grounds – the gardens are immaculate. A quick ride through the shopping area … that’s all the time we have. This place deserves a good whole day to explore.