Day 24 Flying Home

We set off pretty early from the hotel, about 7:30. It was great cycling through a big town at that time on a Sunday morning with the streets deserted, the only hazard being the tram lines.  We had absolutely no problem getting to the airport where we packaged up the bikes in big plastic  bags which we had carried all the way from home, we also taped our panniers and rucksacks together with parcel tape to reduce the number of bags we had to check in (airlines charge by the bag which is a bit of a pain in the bum when you have umpteen bags attached to various parts of your bike)

Check in was absolutely no hassle and a straightforward flight home,(much easier than trying to get bikes on a train in the UK)', the only problem being that we missed Andy Murray winning Wimbledon.

We've had a great trip, it was tough at times but the number of changes in the landscape and all the different styles of towns and cities we went through were fantastic. Travelling by bike you always get involved in conversation with other people, either other cycle tourists or just people who are curious to know what you are up to.

It would have been good to have had a longer time to do the journey as there were times when we would have liked to have spent longer in particular places, but we always knew that would be the case on this trip.

Due to the fact that we could only afford. 3 weeks holiday this was always going to be a challenge to see if we could complete this journey rather than a sight seeing trip.  This inevitably means that you sometimes don't always get to see as much of places as you would like, however on the other hand you do get to see a hell of a lot of places, and it gives you a great list of places to return to.

Here is a link to a rough map of our trip, it doesn't exactly follow the cycle tracks and roads which we took, (so don't follow the directions!) However it does follow our general route.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/184077052/

The big question now is where next??

Today's miles 6  (by bike)

Total miles 1166

Countries travelled through 7 (including Scotland and England)

Continents crossed 1

Numbers of smiles - thousands!

Day 23 Venice

No biking today, instead it was a walk of a couple of hundred metres from our hotel to the bus stop then straight in to Venice itself.  Our hotel receptionist had given us plenty of information on how to get in to Venice but as we queued for the tickets for the water bus it was obvious that a lot of other people were totally confused which meant that it took a while to get our tickets.  The No1 (slow) water bus is a great way to travel down the Grand Canal, stopping every few hundred metres for passengers to get on and off, whilst dodging water taxis, gondolas and aquatic scaffy carts!

We took the water bus right down to St Marks square then spent the rest of the day wandering about on foot along with the thousands of other tourists, we've heard more English spoken today (usually with an American accent) than we have in the last three weeks.

Venice was a spectacular destination to end our trip and definitely one of those "must see" places, but it was no more spectacular than some of the small mountain villages we rolled through which generally seemed much more real.

Tomorrow we just need to find a way to the Airport!

Day 22 Citadella - Mestre

Well yesterday's guess of 30 miles to Venice was spot on.  Despite the lack of cycle paths our route was pretty straightforward following the minor roads through a series of small towns.  The landscape was much less spectacular than the last week or so, but the roads were flat, smooth and fairly quiet.  It was hot today, about 35 degrees, but we got a decent breeze as we swept along at a fairly fast pace, wheeching round roundabouts like a 2 man breakaway in the Tour de France (although carrying a bit more luggage!)

We had no problems finding our way into Mestre and the Hotel Vivit which will be our base for the next 2 nights before flying home.  The hotel is in a great location in one of the main Piazza's of Mestre ( the mainland part of Venice). The shopping is also excellent and has been taken advantage of, well as much as is possible with limited space in Sandra's panniers. Tomorrow  we'll have a wander round Venice itself. Unfortunately my camera has decided to pack in so I'll need to see how the new phone works as a camera, the results so far seem ok.

That's virtually all of the biking done for this trip and it feels a bit weird not to be planning tomorrow's route, although Sandra's already wondering where we're going next year!

Today's miles 30

Total miles1160

Day 21 Arsie - Citadella

Yet another great day's biking.  We started off pretty early this morning, on the road before 8:00 and starting the day with a climb of about 500 feet  The lake was pretty spectacular.

After that there was a fantastic descent down a wee single track road with loads of hairpin bends. It had been closed to traffic due to subsidence but fortunately we were able to get out at the bottom where we ended up in the small village of Cismon del Grappa for breakfast.  The valley of the river Brenta is really narrow at this point and the village is entirely surrounded by huge cliffs, in winter it must make Kinlochleven look like a sun trap!

 We then carried on down the river Brenta with steep mountains on either side until we came to Bassano del Grappa where the alps very suddenly stopped and we were on to the flat plain just west of Venice.

Unfortunately not only did the alps stop suddenly, so did the cycle tracks.  We had originally planned to go the whole way from Arsie to Venice in one day, but as we still have a spare day in hand we decided to stop off early at a hotel in The walled town of Citadella which probably leaves us about 30 miles to Venice tomorrow

Miles today 40 

Miles total 1130

Ascent today 948 feet (which was surprising as most of it felt downhill after our initial climb)

Day 20 Caldonazzo - Arsie

               This mornings ride was a fairly gentle descent down the Val Sugana, again on fantastic cycle tracks surrounded by hills on both  sides. 

We stopped at Borgo for a break to find a huge market in full swing in the middle of the old town where we had a wander round and a quick snack.  

We then carried on to Tezze where there was a campsite marked on the map we picked up at last nights campsite, however when we asked at the bici grill, (a snack bar for cyclists along the route ) we found that it didn't exist although they offered to let us set up our tent in the neighbouring field.  We decided to carry on to the next campsite at Arsie which involved a bit of a climb up from Primolano past an old fort which had obviously seen some action.

Arsie is a bit quiet apart from the occasional rustle of tumbleweed, although it is in a picturesque setting by the lake.  We now have two days to get to Venice but haven't quite worked out the route yet or where we plan to stop tomorrow night as there don't seem to be many campsites from here on.  Our plan is to find the tourist information office in Bassano del Grappo tomorrow and take it from there.

Today's miles 40

Total miles 1090

Day 19 Ora - Caldonazzo

You'd have thought that after crossing the alps the climbing was all over....fat chance!

The morning started with an easy 25 miles following the river down to Trento, another Change of scenery as the river was enclosed by steep cliffs of what I would guess was limestone, the orchards started to become interspersed with vineyards, and the track was pretty flat Tarmac the whole way.

We found a great wee place for lunch on the edge of an industrial estate just before Trento, it was obviously very popular with the local workers and served great grub at very reasonable prices.  The quality of the food has definitely improved now that we are into Italy.  We were a wee bit concerned about the afternoon section as we were leaving the main cycle route and heading into the hills to the east of Trento and the maps we have of this part of the route are pretty duff.

Luckily enough we got chatting to a German couple at lunch who were cycling the same way, they were armed with the Bikeline guide (which I hadn't bought because it was only in German), printouts of all the tricky bits through Trento and the whole route downloaded onto their GPS.  I really felt a bit inadequate!  However, having had a squint at their top notch maps and making a few notes on the freebie hand out we had got from the last campsite I was fairly confident that with the aid of our trusty smart phone (mark 2) we would find the way. Then our German friends took pity on us and offered to guide us through the worst parts of Trento. Result!

you can see what's coming can't you?  In the centre of Trento we picked up a fifth tourer, a solo German girl who was even more clueless than us, then got totally lost.

We kept ending up below the same railway bridge, our guide then discovered that his guide book had suggested getting the train for the next few kilometres and his GPS was expecting us to be on the bloody train! After consulting with a local we all ended up shoving up a hill through some park and some really steep inclines to eventually get to a village on top of a hill. The wrong hill! Back down again and eventually onto the right road which we climbed up for about another half hour before coming to a "road closed" sign, fortunately none of the Germans knew what road closed meant in Italian so we carried on and were lucky enough to get through

After that the going was fairly straight  forward and we have ended up in the really nice resort of Caldonazzo on the shores of the lake.  

Despite our traumas it was great fun and we a re really sorry that we didn't exchange contact details with our guides. ( although I'm sure he wishes he had never offered his services)

Miles today 50

miles total  1050.25

Today's ascent 1995 feet

Day 18 Prato allo Stelvio - Ora

Well that's the first thousand miles done!

This morning was probably the best cycling either of us have ever had.  The weather was glorious, beautiful sunshine and not too hot, the whole way down to Merano we followed fantastic cycle tracks through miles and miles of orchards

 

After last year's bike trip through Tuscany we had been a bit worried about what the cycle paths would be liked once we got to Italy, but they have been the best yet.  They are mostly excellent Tarmac and are almost totally separate from traffic and followed the river down a series of steps all the way to Merano with great views of the mountains all around.  Just Before Merano the path dropped quite steeply down with some great viewpoints on the way

We had talked about having a short day today and stopping just beyond Merano, however Sandra was on form today and going like a train so I just shamelessly tucked in behind into the headwind and we did another 25 miles on to Ora.  A great day!

Miles today 60

Total miles 1000.25!!!