And so ends a second huge day of cycling, eighty odd kms south to the port city of Hakodate. It didn't rain this time fortunately, and the terrain was somewhat more forgiving, but we hadn't recovered sufficiently from the day before so we were glad to see the end of it when we arrived in the city. It was a great route, starting along the coast then seeing Mount Komagatake on the horizon which we proceeded to ride around, them descending down to the coast again before heading into Hakodate. The kids munched on tomatoes and cucumbers from roadside stalls during the journey, and we stopped at the omnipresent vending machines for drinks.
Hakodate is a nice spread out city, and there were many old buildings and manicured pines lining the roadsides. We spent a few days in the city, shopping, sightseeing, and visiting a fabulous children's indoor playground. It was full of the highest quality wooden toys and play equipment and gave Bron and I an opportunity to actually relax while the kids wore themselves out.
We also ate sea snails at a market, and enjoyed meeting fans of the J-ROCK group GLAY who had come to the city for a big concert.
