Everywhere Virtually

Day	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20

Thursday started off freezing.  Wednesday night was our first night in the tent, and while it was a balmy +17c degrees when we pulled into Liechtenstein late on Wednesday afternoon, it was icy when we awoke in the campground the next morning.  The sort of damp cold that penetrates everything. I wasn’t a happy camper because I had to leave my North Face down sleeping bag behind in the UK in favour of using one of the sponsores sleeping bags which quite honestly was crap. It retained no heat at all and was wafer thin. Despite being fully clothed I shivered and had chattering teeth for most of the night. I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination but I was up at 6am and hitting the showers to defrost. I savoured the half hour long, hot shower and was suitably warmed up after it.

A chilly start in Feldkirch	And slow to get ourselves moving

We packed up camp and hit the road about 10:30. You can’t beat Austrian scenery and we were all set to take on the Arlberg region. It was still only 1 degree celsius above freezing.  We had two passes to deal with today:  the Brenner Pass was the main one.  At 1370 metres its one of the lowest but most important crossings in the whole Alps. The Swiss motorcyclist that spoke to us the previous day said that passes over 1400 metres still have snow and ice on the road at this time of year,  but the Brenner was so important to European commerce that it was bound to be open.  

We were split up. I took the high road and Walter took the low	Karres got stickered up :)
Still cold	Who made the route too long? Walter...

We were less certain about the Arlberg Pass.  At 1800 metres, we thought it would be closed and we would have to pay the big bucks and use the Arlberg tunnel to cross from the Rhine basin to the Danube basin, but we were in luck. The electronic signage said the pass was open and Walter said that if the pass was open, it behooved Sibirsky Extreme to take it on.

And so we did.  Long before we got to the pass we passed the village of Stuben, at around 1300 metres on the west side of the pass.  Stuben is a ski resort village part of the whole Arlberg complex, and sure enough we were riding past stunned skiers, staring wide eyed as we rode up the mountain while they skied down it 5 metres away from us.  

We got a kick out of surprising the skiers	The Ski run down to St Christoph
Somebody beat us to it :)	I spy with my little eye something beginning with "S"

The pass was clear at 1800 metres and at that point we were a full 500 metres above the bustling ski resort of St Anton.  We descended the Eastern side of the pass only to find someone had already Sibirsky Extremed the St Anton sign!  Damn, we were too late again! A couple of hours later, atop the Brenner Pass,  I stopped for a chat with Humphrey, an English cyclist who was off to China … it had taken him a whole month to get to the Brenner.  Good luck Humphrey.

Taking a rest before tackling the back roads of the Brenner	Interesting to note that the Sud-Tirol sign is larger than the Italia sign!
Humphrey on his way to China	Santa Magdalena shrouded in cloud

Then it was Italy, and country number 10.  Weather was instantly shite on the Italian side.  Moist air pushing up to the Alps. We made a small diversion to St Magdalena which under fine weather conditions is a stunning sight of Dolomite peaks and green rolling hills beneath interspersed with quaint Sud Tirol style village building and church spires. Unfortunately today it was drab, overast, raining and generally a miserable representation of its fabulous self. We had some respite in the weather as we descended with odd breaks in the cloud but the rain quickly returned as we made it to the Autostrada.

Hiding in my helmet as best I could	The Trento region of Northern Italy
Eating up the miles	Searching for accommodation

I hunkered down into my body armour and withdrew into my helmet to escape the weather. I was on autopilot for this leg and took in the interesting geology and vineyards of the Trento region. The rock was twisted in bands of grey, brown and red. We pressed on in the fading light to Lake Garda, where we found a bike friendly Hotel for the night.

Hotel Garni Toresela	The view from the room

The hotel Garni catered for bike travellers, in particular German and Austrian bike tourists. They had secure underground parking  and we were in luck as there was a cheesy Tex-Mex restaurant right across the road. Walter and I feasted on Burritos and long overdue beers, steadily stewing ourselves in alcohol as the night progressed.  The idea of camping in the rain was never an option – so to find a bike friendly hotel where we could park the bikes in a safe place was a nice end to the day.

Dry underground parking at the Hotel Garni Toresela	Nago - Torbole - Italy (Lake Garda)
Views behind the hotel	For comedy value we got room 101

Day	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20