Archive for August, 2007
Monday, August 13th, 2007
97km Roverto to Verona
We’ve started feeling the heat again so we made an extra effort to get up and rolling early before the sun began working its magic. Cloudy skies helped us along and we made good time along the wonderful Via Claudia cycle path, which meanders along the Adige river and through plenty of vineyards, growing grapes for tasty wines like Pinot Grigio. A stop in a small village led us to the local shop with all the fixings for a great lunch: salami, cheese, fresh bread and a basket of juicy plums. As we got closer to Verona the bike path disappeared but we managed to follow the back roads into the city and happily found signs to the campsite. We were thrilled to find the campground in Verona’s castle – what atmosphere! – but their check-in procedure was less pleasing. It seems to date from about the same medieval era as the castle. When we arrived we found a huge group of new arrivals, none of whom seemed to know who was last in line. It took over an hour to get through the queue, which was managed by two men in dreadlocks who moved at a snails pace and frequently took breaks to rearrange their hair, sip a drink or to shussh the crowd into silence when their concentration was interrupted. At the end of it all we did get a spot for our tent with a great view over Verona but the quirks of the campsite are rather annoying. In addition to waiting ages to register, we found limited hours for hot water, bathrooms closed for most of the afternoon for cleaning and squat toilets. Not what you expect when you are paying “big city” prices for a place for the night.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by andrew
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
94km Bolzano to Roverto
After days of complaining about the rain and cold temperatures, now we can comment on the exact opposite. What a difference in the weather since we descended from the Alps, through Italy’s German speaking South-Tirol region and into the start of the plains that surround the Po river valley. It’s no longer chilly and wet but hot and humid and we are gulping water in large quantities as we fly along the wonderfully kept bike paths in the area. Today we truly flew, even though we didn’t have the advantage of yesterday’s long downhill stretch. Instead we had the company of an Italian going in same direction. Mareno was carrying a quarter of the luggage we have so he set a quick pace and we had to work to keep up with him. Mareno will also stick in our minds for his amazing skill of using one hand to look up words in his English-Italian dictionary while using the other hand to steer, keeping up a steady speed of well over 25km an hour and managing to avoid other cyclists coming towards us on the path. This feat trumps the Dutch cyclists and their trick of biking in pairs, arms wrapped around each other. To Mareno and his bike skills, we have to say complimenti! We stayed together until the town of Trento, where we all got ice cream cones and then carried on our separate ways. A fierce headwind blew up in the afternoon and we found ourselves stopping often to get out of the wind and the sun. After quite a distance we managed to come across a bench in the shade and happily grabbed it for a long snooze and supper. Since there are no campsites in this area at all – nothing, in fact, between Bolzano and Verona – we had no choice but to find a field as a home for the night. On the bike path this is easy and once dusk falls there are rarely any people out at all since the path isn’t lit. Unfortunately the motorway runs near the path so we do have traffic noise from just across the river to put up with, but on the upside we have a huge field all to ourselves and even though we are only just outside Roverto there are no houses in the immediate area, only grapevines and apple orchards.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by andrew
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
109km San Valentino to Bolzano
Our hard work climbing yesterday paid off today as we hopped on our bikes for a roller-coaster ride downhill and out of the mountains. It really was the bicycle equivalent of being on a theme park thrill ride as the bike path led us around swerving corners, through narrow alleyways in tiny villages and down slopes that were graded as steeply as 20 percent. This continued for most of the day, so although we notched up quite a few kilometers, we really didn’t have to work too hard to get to a big total. In between we had time to lunch under the shade of an apple tree, one of the millions that cover this part of Italy, both on the flatter fields and high up onto the mountainous hillsides. Apples seem to be the sole crop in this area, aside from the odd patch of cauliflower, and it’s harvest time so everywhere we saw farmers out filling green plastic crates with apples ready for market. Plenty of cyclists joined us for the ride along the Adige river and in the afternoon we chatted to German couple who had driven into Italy and were doing short trips around the area. They were very interested in our trip but when we invited them to come along they quickly replied: “not on your life”. Apparently a world exodus doesn’t appeal to everyone! Further down the road we marvelled at another couple going the opposite direction. They had four bags each like we do but also a fully loaded trailer. We thought we carried a lot of stuff. What could they possibly have in that trailer?? We stopped for supper along the bike path and turned on our link to the rest of the world, our shortwave radio, to listen to the BBC broadcasting live from the first day of English football. It’s nice to have a taste of home sometimes. Then we carried on, intending to find a wild campsite but instead we went to the campground in Bolzano. It was nice to set the tent up early, have a swim in the pool and relax before we carry on to the hotter southern parts of Italy.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by andrew
Friday, August 10th, 2007
73km Landeck to San Valentino
One day, three countries. We woke up in Austria, had lunch in Switzerland and went to sleep in Italy. Our mini one-day tour of Europe was thanks to the Via Claudia bike path, which uses one of the easiest paths over the Alps for cyclists. None of the border guards were interested in our passports. Instead they just waved us through the various checkpoints, sending us up a series of switchbacks towards the Passo di Resia. On our way up we passed a man we’d seen earlier in the day, although the last time we’d seen him he was with his wife and son. As he slogged his way up the hill along with us, we wondered where his family had gone. The mystery was solved when we reached the top just before he did. His wife and son were sitting on a bench by a bus stop, looking very rested. Obviously they took the easy way up and left him to do the climbing on his own! We were a bit surprised, since the pass only reaches 1,504m – not high at all for the Alps, but to each their own. Even though the road doesn’t rise very high it’s beautiful nonetheless, surrounded by alpine fields and with a teal green lake to admire on the Italian side. We were able to enjoy the scenery for the first time in days as the weather has finally improved. The clouds cleared and blue skies showed themselves again, although it is still desperately chilly for this time of year. The high temperature for the day didn’t even reach 20°C and we were glad to have plenty of climbing to keep us warm. We made good time climbing and by early afternoon we’d done almost a whole day’s work so we settled by a lakeside picnic table and waited for dusk to pitch our tent.
1 Comment » - Posted in Austria, Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by andrew
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
72km Seefeld to Landeck
Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.
Rain was the steady beat throughout our day, from the time we first woke at dawn when water poured down on our tent along with a fierce wind. The storm had passed when we crawled out of our tent and we had a few hours of respite before the clouds and wet weather came back to chase us. This is not cycle touring at its most glamourous: cold and soggy.
For a while it was like being in a British panto play, where the audience yells at the main actor to let him know where the “bad guy” is (inevitably, the villan lurks just behind the star of the show).
“It’s behind you,” we shouted to each other jokingly, while we looked at the ominous dark skies closing in on us. If we stopped for a few minutes the rain soon caught up with us and we had to take shelter under bridges and buildings several times during the day.
During the breaks when it wasn’t raining, the scenery was quite pretty as we cycled through the Inn river valley. Mountains rose up all around us and the green fields on either side of the bike path were dotted with alpine huts. We stopped in amazement early in the afternoon to watch four people gathering hay by hand on an incredibly steep slope. Raking the grass seemed hard enough. We can’t imagine how they cut it in the first place.
Late in the afternoon we wished for a picnic table where we could put our tarp up and eat supper in a dry spot. Someone up there seemed to be listening because just over a little crest our wish appeared and we stopped to make a hot meal. No sooner had we eaten than the rain started up again and we decided there was no point in going any further. The picnic area has a flat spot, so we’ll take that for our tent and hope for blue skies tomorrow.
