Day 2 - Tsuruga to Fukui
The weather has turned today with cloudy skies and gusty winds greeting us as we exited the hotel. The forecast is for rain and the skies are certainly threatening. Fortunately the wind is at our back again, making the first 40 or so kilometres easy pedalling.
No particular sights to see today, just enjoying the rugged coastline of the Sea of Japan as we make our way a day closer to Komatsu.
Route
Today is the day of tunnels. As we follow the coast North from Tsuruga around Cape Echizen, we ride through 11 tunnels. There's more on offer but the tunnel before the cape, just after route 365 joins the coast road, is too narrow and too long for our liking.
Instead we opted to head inland and go up and over the cape rather than around. This is a relatively steep climb with sections greater than 16%. I certainly found it challenging. The rain and high winds didn't help matters.
Stay and Eat
We'd planned to have lunch at the Echizen road station or Cafe Maruta-Ya, depending on how we were feeling distance wise. We stopped at the road station for a toilet break with no one really feeling hungry yet after overindulging at our morning tea stop. It was a pretty underwhelming with nothing on offer looking enticing, so even if we were ravenous, we'd probably have opted to push on to the cafe. Unfortunately for us, the cafe was closed today.
Fortunately Komeya was nearby. It's a tiny, 2 table family run shokudo. Most of the party opted for the karaage bento and I had the sweet and sour pork lunch box. Good food and affordable prices.
We struggled to find affordable accommodation at around 60 kms from Tsuruga. We eventually found and chose Saiyouji seaside farm stay. The building appears to be the former residence (?) for the monks at the adjacent temple. It's now used as a very laid back temple stay / ryokan where guests are treated as family the hosts have just met. On arrival we were offered tea around the kitchen table to complete the very perfunctory check in process. A fabulous dinner featuring produce grown on premise was supplemented with lively conversation from our hosts. Really enjoyed our stay here.
See and Do
If you're looking for an attraction, the crab museum at the Echizen road station might fit the bill. Echizen certainly seems mad about crabs. I mean the whole of Japan loves a crab, but Echizen takes it to the next level. I settled for taking a picture of the crab inspired architecture so can't vouch for the experience itself.
