Hyogo (Kobe) to Osaka (35 km by bike)
Kobe and Osaka are one large conurbation and the best route we could find was to follow National Route #2 all the way. This is a busy road, but because it goes through a built up area, sidewalks are continuous. Even though we were separated from the vehicular traffic, we still had to contend with multiple stop lights, pedestrians and other cyclists, which made progress slow and tiring. At one large intersection, there were no lights or crosswalks but there was a subway with elevators!
Leaving the route to look for a coffee/ pastry shop open on a Saturday morning, we instead found Caracol, a charming tea shop with great scones. Later, Paul pulled up on the sidewalk for a drink of water. Glancing at the shop beside him, he saw it was an optician and there in the display window were pairs of Clic reading glasses. Paul’s current pair, bought in France in 2014, and which had been repaired once already by Chris with glue, were now being held together by electrical tape: serendipity indeed!
