Italy part 1 - Potatoes in the Dolomites

+1300km or some 5% of road covered!!!!

Thursday, Oct 16

As promised, Alessio let us take the train from Innsbruck to Brennero. Those 40mn in train saved us probably 3 hours of suffering as the Astrian-Italian border is a horrible high pass, too hard to cover especially when we still have 100km after that.

So we sit comfortably in the train for the first 40km and started cycling around 11AM. We still have the cycling path for most of the first 80km. The nice weather is still with us. It was easy util we got out of Vipiteno. Then, it was the most horrible pass ever (I know that lots of worse things are still to come but this one was hard...). We struggled during 1h45 on a never ending uphill where I passed the worst tunnel, the longest 450m ever of my life, tunnel of which every meter was gained in pain and fear. I had to stop 2 or 3 times when cars approached because I couldn't even hold my handlebars straight.

Our suffering ended finally in Castelrotto after some 90km. The deliverance came along with 10km of downhill till Fie allo Schiliar. The counter showed 100,56km when we finally reached Alessio's mum's house. It was for the first time that we exceeded the fateful limit of 100km.Here, we had 2 relaxing days with nice walks in forests, good traditional sud-tyrol food, wine and hospitality. 

Saturday Oct 18

We left Fie around 5:30 PM. Alessio's mom took us through some horrible passes, from the car's window, I look out and feared for what it might be if I had to cycle over all that.

We started cycling for real :-) when the sun already set, the Rosengarten had lost its final flamboyant reflection and become paler and paler peaks under the darkened sky. 

We went downhill for most of the time of those 15km but I had to confess that I felt quite uncomfortable going down the curving road in the dark. I particularly hated cars arriving from the opposite direction with their dazzling lights. Fortunately they are not so many....

We arrived finally at home a bit after 7 PM. Here we started two weeks of "usual holidays" of hiking 

cycling

picking mushrooms

wonderful home-made food

going out with friends.... 

The Dolomites are simply an wonder. The hikes are sometimes quite challenging but I could not help myself from being amazed and feeling so lucky in front of such impressive views. 

The weather, as usual, is magnificent with beautiful honey-like sunshine; I feel like I could almost taste its sweetness. 

One negative point is that our budget doesn't allow us fancy restaurants anymore :-( :-(. But I think I should draw a cross on that matter (snif snif)

We decided to stay here for an another week, so still some more days before we hit the road again!!!!

Austria part 2 - Vienna

Sunday Oct 12

After 2 days in Munich, we arrive at Vienna at 4:30PM. As our appointment with Minah, our Couch Surfing host was at 8PM, we had some hours to walk around.

We crossed the Parliament, the City Hall where a circus was performing (!!!). 

The weather was nice so people were happy drinking and eating out. People in Vienna are less dressed than in Innsbruck. A lot go by bike. And the public transportation is very good. We had a stay in Museum Quarter, they had those very comfortable half seat half bed where you can be two on it, talking, dreaming, debating or enjoying the free wifi :-) :-)

Minah arrived with Lilith (!!!) her little dog. Minah, half Moroccan, half Korean, hosts us in the apartment she lives with her Korean mother. Student in medicine, she is also involved in a lot of alternative projects, talking with her is so interesting and we learnt so many vibrant things about this beautiful city that at first, looks so quiet

Monday Oct 13

We started the day quite early and headed directly to Belvedere to admire, amongst others, Klimt's work. Belvedere was prince Eugene's residence and reception's hall. As it was built into 2 parts: the upper and the lower castles, they decided to sell 2 separated tickets at the cost of 12.5E each (!!!!!). We stayed the whole morning in the upper castle, until hunger drove us away for lunch. I wanted a cheap hot place, so we ended up in Mc Donald (!!!!).

Later, with Minah, we went to Opera house and what a chance, we found two tickets for the next day's presentation of Mozart's Idomeneo at a reasonable price (still it was very expensive for our budget now) of 65E instead of 125E. (In fact we had to separated seats, one with the normal price of 33E and one of 33E instead of 92E).

Before going home, Minah showed us some quite interesting alternative places: the restaurants where you can eat then pay as much as you want

or the public fridge where people can freely serve what it's inside (mostly fruits and veggies collected from different places i.e supermarkets....). At home, Minah's mother had prepared already the dinner, for our joy, with lots of veggies and rice, and kimchi :-)

Tuesday Oct 14

We talked so much at breakfast that we left home finally only at 10 AM. Last day in Vienna. We visited the Schönbrunn Palace. It was very green and pleasant. and uphill, we had this nice view over Vienna.

Then, the highlight of the day: the Opera. 

We felt uneasy right away being the only two in sportswear among all those beautiful, dressed up to the nines people! The opera house is quite nice , but the performance was a disappointment, a bit far from our expectation (and everybody's....). It's a bit frustrating but we soon got over it :-) :-) We had our consolation with the wonderful pumpkin soup that Minah's mother had prepared for us. That's another fun thing about Vienna: you can have, out of town, a plot of land where you can cultivate whatever you want and be sure of your own organic food :-)

Wednesday Oct 15

We spent most of the day in the bus to get back to Innsbruck. At some point in Germany, we got a control from German police, they took all non-German and non-Austrian passports and checked it through-fully every page!!!! A bit further, some other policemen stopped the bus again but at the drivers protests, they let us go. It's so weird! We wandered if they may look for someone....

At the end of the day, we get to Innsbruck. Our bikes were still at the campsite, in good shape :-). We quickly set up the tent and prepared for dinner. In the kitchen, we got acquainted with Wayne, alias Gypsy who's been on the road for 38 years. He is an expert in clean water supply's solution and had worked and travelled all over the world. Impressive. He told us about Horizons Unlimited and started telling us his own adventures. We stayed with him till Morpheus dragged us back to our tent.

End of Austria. Tomorrow we will be in Italy!!!!

Deutschland part 2 - Munich

Friday Oct 10

After 2h30 of bus ride (which costed us 8E each!) we arrived to Munich at 2PM. H.A, our friend lives in the suburb so we decided to walk around, enjoying the city and the daylight. Without any map, we just strolled about, fixing some church's towers. That lead us at first, via the Oktoberfest's pavillon, fortunately empty as we arrived at the end of the crazy event. 

Just behind it was Saint Paul church, a beautiful monument with pure lines, also empty because of restoration works in progress. 

We saw some offerings of fruits and veggies in front of the altar, apparently an old german tradition.

H.A joined us for a walk in the busy quartier of MARIENPLATZ. 

Then, of course, event if we don't fancy Oktoberfest, we sit for a famous Augustiner Keller in the garden nearby

The evening, we went to H.A's place and we all started to prepare for dinner (well, most works are done by Alessio and H.A, I confessed, cooking is really not my thing...). For once since we started the journey, Alessio has the chance to eat some of his favorite Vietnamese stuffs: sticky rice and lap xuong, the famous sweet saucisse :-). And we have our chance to taste a wonderful chicken with curry sauce. I should have taken some pictures (sigh)

Saturday Oct 11

Alessio had his second chance to have a typical Vietnamese meal (which I scarcely ever gave him). Thanks H.A a lot for that :-) :-)

Then again, we moved to town, visiting the tragically famous 72' Olympic park. The weather was so-so and H.A predicted the sunny weather for the next day, when we would leave (which is confirmed!!!!) It was pleasant anyway to see interesting structures (it should have been such a technical exploit 42 years ago when it was built ), lovely green landscapes. Munich is not the most beautiful city we've ever been to but it seems quite nice to live in. 

And do you know how to make a man happy? Put him in a car exhibition!!!!

Then we paid a visit to an open air market in the center of Munich, without buying a thing because it's simply too expensive :-) So, it was with what we quickly found in the supermarket that we had the second dinner, a healthy one with tons of different veggies and salmon (I should have taken some pictures (sigh bis)).

Sunday Oct 12

As predicted, the sun came out when we left! We could take advantage of some sunlight at the bus station, having breakfast with Laura, an Alessio's friend who was too sick and busy to see us during our quick stay.

The Flexibus left at 10:40 AM. We were too slow to get the front seats in the second floor (grrrrrr). In some hours, we will be in Vienna, playing the tourists for some more days.

AUSTRIA part 1

+ 1060 km

Monday Oct 6th

Right after our arrival in Austria, we saw an old lady crossing the bridge too. It was odd to think that probably there were times in her long life, she couldn't cross that bridge so easily. Even for us, it hasn't been always "natural" to cross european borders like we do now, even not noticing it sometimes.

The first good thing in Austria is that the cycling path continue and always in perfect quality. Alessio's theory is that Austrian are also very proud so they could not do something worse than their swiss neighbor :-) :-) 

We made several tiny stops for food and dried fruits. I was in perfect shape, unlike yesterday. On the other hand, Alessio started to feel some knee's pain. We ended the day anyhow after 96km at 18h. We wanted to stop a bit early in Bludenz but it was way too expensive (33E for a night) and the lady was kinda snob. When I asked her whether she worked there, she answered with this air like she was vexed " no, I am the owner!!!"

So we needed to ride some extra km to Burs, for a nasty camping, overwhelmed by the cars and trucks noises from the autoroute, way too expensive for 16E (at least they had hot water!!!)

Tuesday Oct 7th

We expected the morning would be freezing but then it was just as usual. We picked up some pears fallen from the trees and they were so tasty, miam miam. 

Today is promised to be a hard one. Very hard. As we had to go uphill for some 40km and 1200m of difference in heigh (from 600m to 1800m).

 Needless to say that we rode most of the time with the smallest gear and had all the pain in the world to move ahead. The sceneries were wonderful but I had no heart at it. All I did was to concentrate on my breath: In/out, in/out and to manage my efforts. Some parts of the roads were really bad with rocks and mud, which worsened our case. It's also a misery to go up the way, when you roll at tiny speed, with cars and sometimes trucks passing so fast and so close, blowing this damn wind - an extra difficulty to keep your balance.... But the worst was to go through those dark tunnels!!!! Fortunately, for most of the time, we had the cycling path and luckily enough, we didn't have the wind on the face. More over, the worst tunnel of some 800m of darkness and dust, we had it on the other side of the hill.

Before attacking the hardest part, we stopped for some sugar: a huge torte and a coca for each. It was such a pleasure!!!! If one had ever told me that I would love coca one day.....

So after some 40km of hard labour, we had the last 10km of downhill during which, finally, we could enjoy the wonderful view and have some rest. We even need to brake from time to time because it became dangerous to go that fast. Anyway, here, we broke our speed's record established in France of 57km with the new one of 63km/h.

We ended the day,after some 53km, completely exhausted but so proud of us,  in Pettneu Am Alberg a campsite after Saint Anton, the famous sporty town. The way in was such a slope down that we got scared for the next morning. The pitches are quite bad but the facilities were very confortable. And it was for the first time that we had to pay for the shower. 30 cents/minute!!!! WTF!!! So we had a quick shower the two of us together, to pay a bit less (yes, it seems so ridiculous but that's the way one finally does when one travels for a long long journey. There are things one can't accept, such as to pay 17E and do not have a hot shower!!!!) 

Wednesday Oct 8th

We got up a bit later than usual, around 7:30, a luxury that we gave to ourselves after such a hard day. The weather was quite cool, so I kept my jacket for almost all day. The goal of the day was to arrive to Innsbruck which is 100km further. We started the day with some serious downhill to compensate with yesterday. We went down the 500m within no time. It was wonderful. And then it was mostly flat, which didn't spoil at all our pleasure :-) . We've been very lucky with the weather so far. Always sunny and warm. And the autumn colors of Austrian mountains are simply breathtaking. We enjoy so much rolling in the middle of the nature, breathing the fresh air, filling the whole lungs with the perfume of pines forest, corns fields, wet grass and of course also sometimes of cows'  and horses' dung :-) :-) And by the hillsides, all those little towns that look so peaceful. Sometimes, you can see their existence only by the church's tower that pierces the wood. One funny thing is that the cows always stop sprouting to look at us.

We followed the Inn river and its clear blue water and arrive finally to Innsbruck's suburb at 4PM. The first camping was empty and the reception would be open at 6PM. Don't know what to do, we started to undo the bags, trying to dry the tent. And I was picking some nuts fallen in the garden when the owner interrupted, completely furious " what are you doing here?" "Oh, we are waiting for the reception to be opened at 6PM". "But the nuts are ours, you can not eat it" (WHAT? The nuts that are fallen on the ground and get perished without no one cares????) "Oh I am sorry, I didn't know it would bother you" and I poured all the nuts by the ground again. 

In fact he first took me for "someone from the streets" (WTF? Is it my asian face or do I look that miserable? Or is it Alessio's beard???) but calmed himself down when he knew that we are French/Italian!!! 

Anyway, we moved from there and go to the other campsite nearby, which was way better, less expensive with way nicer people (not that hard though!!!!)

The Kranerbitterhof camping is really lovely with one side, grandiose mountains, and the other, the view of the valley. It has wonderful facilities with big kitchen and dining room, so we can have dinner, comfortably seated at a table, warm and relaxed.

Thursday Oct. 9th

We decided to stop being travelers for a while but tourists. We spent the day then visiting Innsbruck. It was funny to ride without all the bags (that we left in the tent at the campsite). It's a very lovely city, small but quite rich in every term of culture, history and economy. We can't resist but jumped into a very nice bakery to taste some "viennoiseries". Hm hm delicious. The touristic information office served also as a ticketing center, so we bought our bus tickets to Munich the next day there too. 

Then we paid a visit at Alpin's museum. The weather was so lovely that we decided to have lunch out at the French' market: wrong decision. It was bad and expensive!!!!

We continued the day strolling amongst beautiful streets, nicely dressed people, noisy Chinese tourists taking selfies everywhere with their long sticks.....

Friday Oct. 10

As discussed with the lady at the campsite's reception, we attached our bikes with the bags at a pitch visible from the reception, tried to secure and to cover them as much as we could. Then took the bus to town. The bus driver, seeing that we were tourists, called us back to show us the right way when he saw that we got out at the wrong stop for the connecting bus to down town. It was a pleasant surprise to see one could be so nice. In general, we find Austrian a bit cold and distant but at the same time courtois and helpful.

Before taking the bus to Munich, we couldn't help ourselves from going back to our bakery and have breakfast there. Miam miam bis :-)

At 11:30 AM, we got into the bus. Bye bye Austria, Munich here we come!!!

Switzerland, part 2

Saturday october 4th, after 5 nights in Laufenburg and 9 without sleeping in a tent, we hit the road again, happy but regretting a bit the warmth of Paul' house and company. Paul, emotional like a grand-father seeing his grand-children adventuring in far away lands, kept asking: what else could I give you? Some more jam? Some fruits? :-)

We only had to cross the Laufenburg's bridge to be in the Swiss' land and their perfect cycling path again. Swiss people, very proud of their country, brandish their flag and use the red color as much as they can: everywhere and all the time. The first time we saw the cycling path's sign in red, we were a bit confused, not very certain we should go or stop :-)

Fortunately, after some lazy relaxing time, we didn't lose the cycling reflexes. The muscles, the feet and even the bums respond positively :-). Not long after the departure, we took a wrong turn which made us cycle for some 5km more but allowed us to assist a village's saturday "festival". People looked at us like at zoo's animals. It was a bit funny....

The road was pleasant with some uphills quite hard where, even with the smallest gear and a heart beat at 160, I climbed at 2km/h!!!! (2km/h = French expression = very very slowly :-) )

At the end of the day, we decided to stop and asked a lady the way to go to the camping. And the answer was as a thunder: it was closed!!!! But then she assured us that there was a place a few km more where we can set up our tent. We rode then for some extra km, found in the middle of the forest, a tiny "campsite" without a "private" sign and decided that it was The place. 

So we had our first wild camping experience and of course, had a very bad night sleep because of strange noises of some animals during the night, of apples and nuts falling from their trees, of the church's bell every 15mn and of course of an uneasy feeling :-) :-)

Sunday October 5th

We got up early, got ready quite quickly because we left almost all the bags on the bikes and because of the morning "grooming" was expetidious :-) It was for the first time that we are on the road before 8:30 AM.  The weather was mild but froggy. And we continued the swiss cycling path that took us through swiss countryside and small villages. 

One particular thing in Switzerland that you can find from time to time, tiny "shops" along the road with fruits, veggie or juices.... There is no casher but only price tags, you just serve and pay by yourself.

I felt tired very quickly. After one hour, I didn't feel any strength on my feet and got slower and slower. We had to stop several times and even had to make a long huge pause in a Vietnamese's restaurant in Konstanz (OK, it's in Germany but right after that, we went back to Switzerland again...). It was well, not that good but acceptable. And the couple next to our table started to ask questions, probably intrigued by our bikes. In fact, some 13 years ago, they also went for a 8 months biking trip in New Zealand. 

Alessio suggested that we'd ride for some 90 km to get closer to Austria but I just said NO NO NO (!!!) and kindly requested that we'd stop before 4PM. So we found this very nice camping just by the Konstanz lake side, a bit expensive for us (23 CHF = 20 E) but so lovely and comfy. They had these huge private bathrooms like what one has at home (and not only those individual showers in a big commun bathroom) where we had our best shower since I don't know when :-). But the thing that excited us the most was the drying room for the washed clothes, heated and equipped with a huge fan!

It was a pleasure to walk around, and to have our daily beer by the lake.

In campsites in France, most campers are Dutch, here they are Swiss and German.

Monday Oct 6th

We started the day cycling along the Konstanz lake. It was a magic moment to see the morning ray of sunlight, trying to pierce through the clouds and the mist and to shine over those towns on the hillside. 

We also saw a duck, unable to jump to the shore where the female duck was strutting about, got angry and went for some exercices before the second, and successful attempt. Hope he would have a nice romance with the other one :-). We also saw a cow, persuaded that the grass at the neighbor's field was better but prevented by the hedge's string, got to its knees so it could put its head to the other side. It was also hilarious.

At some point, we crossed a bridge and what we see: Republic of Austria. Woauh, the 4th country of our journey. Bye bye Switzerland!!!

Deutschland part 1

September 29th to October 4th

We didn't have to cycle very far but some 53km from Oberwil to Laufenburg, a small town at the Switzerland-Germany border, by the Rhin river.

Here we visit Paul, a German friend that Alessio had encountered 4 years ago in Argentina (but a few days before we met in Peru).

Paul, 76, a year younger than my father, is still in perfect shape. And a perfect gentleman. Former director of Krefeld zoo (Germany) he is a passionate of nature, wild life but also history and culture. With him, we went for some walks into the Black Forest (you know, Hansel, Gretel and the witches!!! Brrrr!!!!), to Freiburg and learnt so much from him.

In Freiburg, the capital of the Black Forest region, we could not resist but to threw ourselves onto this, the original Schwarzwälder kirschtorte

 We had an easy relaxing time in Laufenburg: no tent to set up, no sleeping bag but cosy bed and warm blankets, no fire camp but good meals, good wine in good company.  We really enjoyed all these 5 days spent with him and it was with a pinch at heart that we left, on saturday October 4th.

We didn't really cycle in Germany but just crossed the bridge to bein Switzerland again: It is a damn expensive country but they have wonderful cycling path :-) :-)

But then, we went back to Germany again after some cycling hours: all the cycling path lead to Konstanz town, in the middle of the famous Konstanz lake, just a little time to have a glance then back to Switzerland again :-)

We did enjoy this town with its quiet church and beautiful doors with wood carving

and the perfect place to sip a beer under the sun

To be continued :-) 

SWITZERLAND, part 1

September 25th to 29th

+650 km

As you see, we didn't cycle that much in Switzerland. In fact, it was more a relaxing time with friends than anything else. We arrived at Oberwil in the Basel's suburb where live Youko and Fabienne around 3 PM. We have 2 hours to drink our daily beers, in a small bar beside the COOP supermarket and have the first glance of this country. And it was to notice that people were very much into casual and sports wear, and to confirm what we all know: it's a damn expensive country!!!! That's why a lot of people cross the border and go shopping either in France or in Germany.

Fabienne and Youko have one of the most lovely apartments that we ever saw: nice volume, clean and clear, well designed, a lovely balcony and a wonderful top roof garden - a paradise for aperitif. For those who don't know our friends, I met Fabienne and Youko at my Chinese class some 9 years ago. And unlike what everybody may think, Youko is not a Japanese girl but an almost 2 meter high blond guy with blue eyes, half British, half Dutch!!! 

                                                  (Photo: Fabienne)

We were all happy to get together again after more than a year. And Alessio was happy to be able to do his cooking in a real well-equipped kitchen. Of course, we let him do :-) The next day, Laura, Fabienne's cousin joined us from Geneva than we all went to Zurich, first for the Pumpkin's festival (!!!!) than to Timo (Youko's brother) and Djana's lovely house. Their kitchen was even better equipped (and Alessio was even happier hahaha).

Zurich is a lovely Milan-like fashion city that made us feel even more aware of our "rolling potatoes" mode!!! We did some window - shopping (in France, we call it "leche-vitrine" or "window-licking" !!!) but the prices discouraged us quite quickly :)

We left Switzerland the next Monday 29th September to Laufenburg in Germany. Let's spend some Euros instead of those Swiss Francs!!!!!