Riva del Garda - June 27,28

It's pouring. I really thought that I'd leave the rain behind when I went south. Ah well, it's an excuse for having a beer at 11:30, but surely it's 5 o'clock somewhere ...

So yesterday, I started out by visiting Ötzi. Who or what is Ötzi you might ask. Well, he's a 5000 year old iceman that was found in the Alps by the Ötztal, 20 years ago. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ötzi It's pretty fascinating, in that he's extremely well preserved due to the climatic conditions in the area. I first heard about him on radiolab a few months ago, so I decided I should go check him out if I made it to Bolzano. It's pretty cool. http://www.radiolab.org/story/ice-cold-case/

By the time I made it back to the hotel I was drenched. Not because it rained, but because suddenly the humidity was ridiculously high. Think Louisiana in July. The forecast hadn't improved any, so I figured I'd head for Trento and see how it turned out. The precipitation percentages weren't over the top, but too high to risk the high passes. I hopped on the secondary road to Trento, fired up Coldplay on the iPhone (connected with my bluetooth helmet headset - I do love technology) and found my zen. I had picked out a loop through the hinterlands to the east of Trento. Nothing high, just nice roads through the wine country and some funky towns, so if it did start to rain it was no big deal. As it turned out the weather held, so I got a nice ride through some pretty landscape.

Trento is a "Sliding Doors" (movie) place for me. 25 years ago my advisor asked me if I wanted to got to Trento to come to work with him. I said yes, but then in the end the money did not come through. My life would have been very different. Obviously there are always junctions for all of us that dictate our paths, but this one does pop into my head every so often - obviously driving through it is a good reminder.
The weather was nice enough in Trento, so I decided to grab a quick run over Monte Bondone (1650m) that was conveniently located along one possible route to Riva. Really great run up the mountain. Wide road and good visibility through the switchbacks so it was possible to use the entire road. Also, not much traffic. Of course around 1500 m, it started to rain. Oops. Luckily it didn't amount to much and the road surface stayed dry. Then, as I crested the top, I drove into the clouds. Great, switchbacks in the fog. Once again I got lucky (probably undeservedly by now) and a few turns later things cleared up again. Very open and fast descent. Dropped 1000m in maybe 10 min. Fun run!

Arrived in Riva to find Tom & Pauline waiting by the side of the road for the apt owner. Timing is everything. We settled in, wandered around the town a bit and Tom and I went and watched some football in a local bar, while Pauline worked. I'll be here for a few days before setting off again. The rain should stop tomorrow...

Grey

That's my mood, exactly like the weather. Should have stuck with my plan to go to Venice today. Showers, rain, thunderstorms everywhere. I have no idea what to do. Venice is now 3h away and I have no intention of finding out what a thunderstorm on a high pass is like. I'm going to look at Oetzi, but after that I have to check out and go - somewhere. This sucks.

Bozen aka Bolzano - June 27

Friday's previously miserable forecast had mellowed to the point where I plotted a path back to Trento covering several passes, with the intent to hit the Autostrada at Trento and drive to Vicenza. First one up was Passo di Gavia at 2621m. Wow, just wow. Forget Stelvio. Really. Gavio winds its way up via a narrow single lane road (by which I mean there's just enough room for a car and a bike) with a road surface quality that's rather questionable at times. The north side winds up gently and has long stretches above the tree line with great views. The south side is steeper and more dangerous. Even though  switchbacks are not too bad, it has some sections where there's a whole lot of nothing on the other side of the guardrail (when there is one) for a long, long time. It also throws in a couple of 14% and 16% grades, just to make sure you're paying attention. Meeting oncoming cars isn't much fun, but luckily it didn't happen in any of the blind turns. Never know who's NOT paying attention.

Passo Tonale (1883m - I used to think that was high), which came after didn't even clear the tree line. Booooring. Actually, it was a nice run up through the trees. Fairly narrow, but not terribly steep or tight. It did catch me by surprise though that I found a sizable town up top. Apparently a major ski resort. The east side descent then was a rather wide two lane road, suitable for buses and trucks, On a bike, it made for rapid transit back down.

I stopped for lunch at a funky bar before trekking further towards Trento.

At some point I pulled over to check routes and such and noticed that Saturday's weather had largely cleared. I thus decided to head north towards Bozen with the intent of running the Dolomites on Sat. Also, the BMW had blown its headlight bulb, which made me a bit uneasy, thus going to a large German speaking city seemed like a promising possibility to take care of that - which turned out to be true. Along the way I traversed a couple more passes and came upon the Lago di Molveno. The turquoise waters in the lakes around here is just stunning. We spend way too much time trying to be a productive member of society - for whatever that's worth, rather than just enjoying the beauty of the world. I really envy people who can just toss it all and live on their own terms. Aussteiger in German. Don't think I have it quite in me...

Central Bozen is a maze of one way streets and streets closed to traffic. It took me quite a while to realize that my hotel was only accessible through the closed roads and that I was thusly authorized to to drive on them. I came very close to punting and getting out of Dodge and it would have been nice for the dingbat at reception to mention this when I called. Oh well. The town is pretty cool. Lots of bars and restaurants. I managed to have an Aperol Spritz (always extra lovely when consumed on a piazza) and eat dinner (braised donkey) before the long promised rain came.

Passo dello Stelvio - June 26

2760m Holy shit. I'd be lying if I said it was fun. 48 switchbacks up on the east side and 38 down. Not only was it tight, narrow and steep, but also packed. Tons of bicyclists, many times 2 wide, just to make sure to be a nuisance, but also tons of motorcycles and the occasional Winnebago (really, you have to go up there in a frigging camper?). Dangerous in the sense that it's easy to drop the bike on the inside turn (co habitant at the hotel here did just that, and his wife bent/broke her shoulder), but only true lunatics would be going fast enough to actually risk flying off (there were one or two). That's going up. The west side is much more open and you can get up a good head of steam. I chose cruising mode on the way down. But it's cool, very cool. You're way up there, it's barren, it's out there, of course there's still snow at the end of June. Had to be done.

Another funky footnote is that in Prad am Stilfserjoch, a little town on the way to the pass is a very off the wall artist at the side of the road, selling, hmm, kind of shaman stones and talking your ear off if you give him a half a chance. He goes by the prosaic name of "He who speaks with the whispering wind", aka. Lorenz Kunter.

Today was gorgeous. I started out from Imst, Austria running up the Oetztal and over the Timmelsjoch. At 2509m the other high pass in the eastern Alps. Timmelsjoch is nice. Wide open bends, good road surface, awesome views. Very popular with crowds of fast two and four wheelers. Tons of bikes, of course, but also large contingents of Porsches (from 356 to 991), Lotuses, older sports cars, and the the occasional tourist in a Ford holding everyone up. That whole thing about riding the passes in solitary bliss is seriously history. This pass is only open four months a year. For some reason they get ridiculous amounts of snow. When they started clearing this year on April 30th, they had 10m! of snow on the road surface. Nuts. There was still plenty left now, but having hit the Dolomites in mid May, I wasn't as impressed as some other visitors.

I wound up staying in northern Lombardy - in Sondalo. Tomorrows weather is dicy and I didn't want to be in the mountains with lousy weather, so I went south. Didn't make it that far, but I'm under 1000m and I wanted to stop in time to watch Germany beat the US in soccer. :) Turns out the Italians lost all interest, but I did find a cafe with a big screen and beer so I got to watch. Absolutely no clue where I'm going tomorrow. Once again, nice view out the hotel window.

Yesterday was kind of weird. Wasn't completely into hitting the road. Weather forecast looked crappy, I had just gotten back from Finland/Berlin, no time to chill. Traffic on the Autobahn kind of sucked and then the weather turned to shit halfway down the A7. Cold rain that feels like hail at 90 mph is just a real downer. Luckily the Fernpass wasn't totally soaked, even so it wasn't nearly as welcoming as the first time around. Things turned around in Imst though, where I did find my happy place and got into eing in a new place yet again. The rain had stopped and it actually was was fairly warm. Imst is an alpine tourist town, but during the week it's (still) nice and empty. My hotelier told me that they were totally booked over the weekend, but as far as I could tell, Tue night there were maybe 10 people in the (big) hotel. I totally fell in love with the Rosengarten Gorge and if the weather forecast had been better, I likely would have stayed for the morning and hiked it. Maybe on the way back.

Finland epilogue - June 18,19

I left my traveling party behind, slowly working my way back south to warmer weather. Hopefully the solstice provided sunny weather, which was sadly missing in the days prior. In addition to our lofty lunch, I spent some time wandering around east and west Helsinki, getting a feel for the town.

Thursday, we indulged in some culture and listened to a short concert of Sibelius, in the Helsinki music centre.

This was followed by a boat trip out to the Suomenlinna sea fortress, which was pretty neat.  Also a Unesco World Heritage site.

By Thursday night the city started shutting down for the midsummer holiday. Everyone clears out and treks up to the cottages. Nonetheless, we managed to find a couple of open bars, which didn't kick us out until 2am. Another memorable meal in between pubs kept the energy levels up.

Helsinki is a nice city and the people a very friendly. Everyone speaks English, which is very handy because Finnish is fiendishly difficult and alien. Even trying to remember a few words is tough. It's very clean and safe. Basically no police presence and even the drunks behave themselves. The white nights were very cool. I feel a trip way up north is warranted to get the effect even more. That and maybe Lapland in winter.
A good time was had. Kiitos, Suomi.

Lunch - June 18

Today, back in Helsinki, I had one of the most outrageous meals ever as a birthday celebration.  It was a very nice three course menu, prepared by a Michelin starred chef, but as they say - location, location, location...

Porvoo - June 15-17

The plan was to spend a day in Helsinki, then travel to Porvoo for three days, then back to Helsinki. Shortly before arriving in Porvoo by bus, life intervened. Chris told us that Monna's father had died. This terrible news put us in a bit of a tailspin. While Monna went to her parents' place outside of Helsinki, we went on to try to enjoy the itinerary she had planned for us, albeit with somewhat dampened spirits.

Porvoo is a cute little town 50km to the east of Helsinki. This also puts it about 100km from the Russian border. While people are joking that one should see Porvoo before the Russians get here, the Finns are in fact looking at Vladimir's recent expansionist ambitions askance and have heightened the state of alert of the armed forces. One hopes that some sanity is left in the big state to the east. Porvoo is the second oldest town in Finland, and was founded around 1370. Its importance was based on its location by the exit of the river into the gulf of Finland. A row of warehouses on the river is still preserved.

We arrived on a Sunday and found out a little too late that restaurants close early that day. After wandering around aimlessly, first on the web, then on the streets, we wound up at a Nepalese place. So much for local cuisine. I overcame my prejudice for eating non local ethnic food outside of Queens, and it was actually pretty good.

The next day we were being hosted by friends of Monna's family. We started by visiting a small Orthodox Church, complete with private tour by the pastor, followed by a tour of the locale cemetery and its notable deceased. After that we had coffee at their house followed by sauna. Can't come to Finland without that. Alas, the weather gods were starting to desert us. It rained much of the afternoon and got colder.

Today started with flurries. That curtailed any thoughts of kayaking or biking. We went to see an organ concert at the Lutheran church and then had lunch with that same family. The afternoon was spent largely inside, since it was decidedly uncomfortable outside.

In spite of my earlier comments about the midnight sun, I'm becoming very fascinated with the bright nights. I wound up wandering around in a very empty Porvoo last night at 1:30 after we closed down the Irish pub. I get this sense of not wanting to give up daylight. Had it not been cold, I very likely would have stayed out much longer. It also totally screws with your sense of time.
Midnight:

1:30 am: