Ampezzo - May 14

What a brutal day. I set off from Udine towards Slovenia since I had mapped out a ride through the Carnic Alps. I crossed the border at some goat herders crossing. Now it's all open anyway, but in the past it was a crossing likely only used by locals. I rode towards Nova Gorica and then turned north towards Kobarid. I'm basically finding way points in biking tour books and then letting the GPS/navi find a route using the curvy route function. I rode up some small (well I thought it was small at that point) mountain road, which had some fairly spectacular vistas. My first taste of the mountains.

All was well until I had crossed back into Italy. I was cruising through a nice flowing forest roadwhen the   GPS informed it had found a better route. Sure, why not. Then it told me to turn around. I thought no way, go recalculate - well it won. After 5 km of nagging, I turned around. Went back to turn onto the upper path. Oh boy. This had barely been opened (the road closed signs were still leaning there). I wound up going 12 km on a road that barely fit a car, had crap all over it and was so windy that I never made it out of first and in fact had to feather the clutch so often that my clutch hand started to cramp up. Half an hour later I stopped to see if I could resurrect  my left hand. At least I made it - guess again - the descent was almost as nasty. After that episode things went well for quite a while and I was on some great rads through alpine valleys, except I was getting pretty tired. I didn't have a lot to eat and hat goat road had zapped quite a bit of energy.

Well, I was a half hour from Ampezzo when it again told me to turn off  on to a goat road - this time it actually was closed. Crap. At this point I found out there was a reroute/road closed function. Great, get me there quick. Sure, first back up 20 km, then take the long way around the mountain - 1h to go. By now, I was beat. It was getting pretty hard to focus and those switchbacks were getting tough. Well, no choice, rally and go. I finally make it to my hotel. It's closed. Shuttered, empty, not a soul around. In the immortal words of Johnny McEnrore - You CANNOT be serious! I'm starting to get delirious now. I ride into town in search of a room. Everyone's booked. No wait, the guy at the pizzeria down the road rents a room. Off I go to 'El Greco'. Ja, wir haben ein Zimmer frei. 30 Euros. Awesome. Thank the Universe! He probably made the worst pizza in Italy - all the toppings were canned, but it was great. The beer was good too. I ate, went to my room and passed out for 10 or 11 hours. The place did have a great view -

GPS:
Nova Gorcia: N 45.69, E 13.65
Kobarid: N 46.2462, E 13.5798
Ampezzo: N 46.41, E 12.79

Udine pictures

Meant to write last night, but was too wiped. Passed out by 20:30 - more on that later

Started the day by wandering around the old town, stopping for a couple of cappuccinos and some breakfast. The number of cafés is staggering. Stopped to take some pics and climb up to the castello. Then off to Ampezzo via Slovenia though the Carnac alps...

Udine, Friuli

Udine: N 46,068994, E 13,245669

The day turned out much nicer than anticipated. I did another walk around Pula and picked up some Tartuffi. It's a good thing I have limited (read no) extra luggage capacity, otherwise I probably would have grabbed tons of the stuff.

Mama Hruskar prepared a wonderful stew of Boskarin (Istrian cattle) for lunch. Suitably fed, we set off for Medulin. It's at the tip of the Istrian peninsula and beach tourist paradise. All the bays and beaches were pretty spectacular, so one could see why people would want to go there. However, looking at he campground, which can take 5000 campers, and the harbor promenade, ready for tourists, one could envision the hell this turns into come July. Shudder. Right now it has a strange anticipatory feel - most of the cafes and restaurants were open, but totally barren.

The ride to Udine was uneventful. Not great riding weather. Slightly chilly and very windy. Wind on a bike isn't much fun. Sometimes you wind up leaning into it while doing 90 to keep from getting blown off the road and if you're in "dirty" air of mountains it's even worse - you just get buffeted all over the place. So you try to stay relaxed and not tense up, while keeping a grip on the handle bars and trying to stay in your lane. I was even looking forward to tunnels. Tunnels on a bike a weird. You can't take off your shades, so photochromatic lenses are key. The light seems to kind of create a weirdly distorted effect - I find it difficult to judge turns - yes, I could slow down and not pass people. Also, after a while the fumes aren't much fun. There are lots of tunnels in the alpine areas, so I'm pretty used to them by now. The longest one so far was 4km long.

Udine seems to be a town of piazzas. I know nothing about it and picked it simply because it's close to the mountains. I'm done with highways for a while! It has a sizable old town and a good vibe. My resolution to restart my diet wavered briefly before being tossed summarily. What was I thinking? Really though, I did behave myself. Found an interesting Osteria and only had primi, a carafe of wine and a grappa. Practically starving myself. Very tasty. I wound up dining alone, and I mean really alone. First I though I was early, but then I thought that potentially no one really dines - lunch is the big meal and everyone went home after having drinks.Oh yeah, I did have a Gelato on the way home - hey, I'm in Italy!

Tomorrow, I hit the Alps, and try not to let the Alps hit me!

Pula, Croatia

Spent a leisurely day around Pula yesterday. started out with a walk through town. Lots of hills and small alleys to explore. There's a great market here every day. All the produce vendors are outside, several rows. Beautiful fresh vegetables and fruit. Indoors is divided into a meat and fish market. Vast selection of fresh fish, not too cheap though. On the other side you have multiple butchers and salumerias. Some specialize in just poultry, some have a vast array of offerings. Carnivore's paradise.

In the afternoon we took a boat trip around the Brijuni islands. They used to be Titos private playground. Some are now open to the public, but some are still reserved as summer residence of the Croatian government - obviously they thought not all of Tito's ideas were bad.

Late afternoon we went for a walk around the Plaza hotel complex. It's a vast complex situated next to some beautiful each & costal area. In addition to the main hotel they have apartment complexes and individual houses spread around the area. Lots of walking paths wind through the property. It's very popular for locals as well - though maybe less so in high season.

Later on today it's time to move on. Weather is not great, so I'll run up the highway to Udine. Probably about 3h. At that point I'll be at the foot of the Dolomites and will go for a nice run through the hills tomorrow.

Valdo - Pula

I'm sitting here in Pula, Croatia on Zoran's parents' balcony, overlooking downtown and the massive soccer stadium. Little brisk this morning, but sunny.
Pos: N 44.863570, E 13.851446

Back to Valdo for a moment. Saturday dawned to a fairly decent hangover. Definitely felt the countless bottles of Prosecco, not to mention the grappas - 3, maybe 4? that finished the night. Felt a little better after a walk to the store to pick up Bigoli and Bottarga. A solid breakfast (after all, we hadn't eaten in 12h), largely finished the recovery. We then set off to Bassano del Grappa because the blood alcohol levels were also dropping precipitously (well, some of our group, who will remain nameless to protect the guilty,  had already addressed the issue with a breakfast beer).
Bassano is a lovely old town with a popular, key feature - the Ponte del Vecchio. An ancient bridge that has been rebuilt numerous times over the centuries, the last time after WW2. In one of the towers is a bar that serves precisely one drink - as far as anyone knows, called a Rosso, which is a Nardini Amaro, with some seltzer and a lemon wedge. This is dispensed out of a tap by the hundreds. You grab one and the stand on the bridge and drink it. A very popular past time, esp at sunset, but appropriate for any time of day really.

We then set off to Asolo, a lovely village on a hilltop and had a Aperol spritz. Very much a cocktail of summer and indeed the temps reached nicely into the 80s.

Upon arriving back at the Riva we found that the local Ferrari club had come by for lunch and there were 16 of them parked all over the grounds. Wow. They did let one Lambo come along.

We settled in for lunch under the the birch. Home made bigoli with duck ragout, washed down by bucket of Prosecco. Aaaaahhhh.

After a nap and digesting precious little of lunch, we congreated to have another dinner - we mostly did skip the primi, except for the boys who probably figured they needed strength to lift all the Prosecco cases the next day. I largely behaved myself, since the next day I was riding.

The ride down to Pula was straight forward and boring. 250km of straight and empty highway, and a few villages. Slovenia had one hill with a few corners, but that was it for the excitement. By the time I got here, Mrs. Hruskar had a big meal prepared with lots of local sausage, meat, Tartufi , Strudel and a couple of bottles of local wine. We then went for a nice walk through town. Pula has an an astonishingly complete Roman arena. It's again being used for performances, which must be amazing.

Valdobbiadene, Treviso

Took me a day to get to get WIFI sorted, so I'm a day behind.
I'm at N 45.887016, E 12.000211

Fri, May 9. Hopped out of bed at 6am in order to get an early start into Italy. After breakfast I was on the road by 7:30. It was cloudy and some showers were in the air, so I was mulling whether to take the highway or back road up the Brenner pass. In the end, I decided to stay off the Autobahn and wake myself up with a few curves. Make that lots of curves. The first 15 miles up the Brennerstrasse are nothing but twisties. Yeehaw. No time for day dreaming, just settle in and go. It occurred to me that motorcycling on a road like that, driving on a track and cooking at a high level have similar attributes - focus and adrenalin. The world is blocked out, you're in the moment.
I haven't even hit the great passes yet and I'm already loving it. You need to definitely stay within your limits and lots of warning signs remind you of that. Crashing is not something you want to do on any day, but here you have the added twist that you will then fall off a mountain... Not recommended.
So after I crossed the Brenner I hopped on the Autostrada and started descending into Italy. It's really quite astonishing, in that you drive downhill for 100km, all the way to Bolzano. The temps rose probably about 20 deg from maybe 45 deg at the top, so I had to stop a couple of times to peel off layers.
All was not smooth however. As you leave the Brenner highway there are toll booths. I remembered that I had my wallet packed, so I decided to quickly pull off into a rest stop. There, I found out that that you just get a ticket and pay when you exit. Sigh, wasted stop. Fine, off we go. Wait, how do I get out of here? And surely I can get on the right road through this exit.... NOT. Back on the highway to Austria. NOOOOOOOOOO. Trying not to get totally pissed and simply enjoy the scenery - again. Next exit 10 miles, peel off ride down the local road. 20 min later, back where I started. Fine, onwards, don't dwell on it. The rest was smooth sailing and I rolled into Valdo by 12:20. 275 km. I was beat.
Valdobbiadene is Prosecco country. Vines as far as the eye can see.

The Riva de Milan, is what is referred to as agrotourisme. A farm, with a restaurant and rooms attached. The main business used to be growing and making Prosecco, but over the years they built a separate building of guest rooms and the restaurant is heavily visited by locals as well as tourists.

I was welcomed by the proprietor who asked if I wanted some Prosecco 5 seconds after he handed me the key. Why yes, what an excellent question. I dumped my stuff in the room, took a quick shower and settled down outside with a bottle and glass. Heaven. What could be better? A short while later a plate of salume showed up! Never assume that things cannot improve, even if they already seem perfect!

About an hour later, my parents arrived and we drove to Ca Salina, the preferred Prosecco supplier, to meet the rest of the group. He has a very nice table up on the hill where the seven of polished off a few bottles of Prosecco and  some salume - are we seeing a pattern yet?

The purpose of the trip for the rest of the group is to buy Prosecco for the year, so the two strapping young lads of the group drive down with a flatbed van, which can take 93 cases. It's popular...
Back to the Riva for a nap and then later dinner with lots of - yep - Prosecco, salume, gnocci with ragout, salad, filet. As happend last time, I hit Prosecco saturation half way through and had to switch to red wine. Not really specialty of the house, but great nonetheless. Some dolce and grappa to finish everything off. Nice.

Innsbruck, Austria

OK then, first on the road post.

Well, I managed to get most of my gear packed. This was a nontrivial affair and involved repacking the bags after the cases wouldn't close and adding my messenger bag for a little bit of extra storage. I will not be getting any souvenirs. Definitely a new experience. There's quite a bit of 'just in case' gear in there that just wouldn't be necessary on a shorter trip or indeed if this wasn't a shoulder season. By the time I got into Innsbruck it was in the 70s and tomorrow morning, when I ride up the Brenner pass it'll be around 40.

The ride into Innsbruck was nice. Total 330 km. I did most of it off highway, stopped for lunch at the side of the road. Turns out those side cases make a decent table.

I hopped on the highway after Memmingen. Was tooling along at a comfy 85-90 mph, when after crossing into Bavaria and the Allgaeu, the Alps came into view. Very cool. It was really momentous to have that first glimpse of the snow tipped peaks. Of course they became ever more prominent as I crossed into Austria and then I was just in them. Drove up the Fernpassstrasse and right past the Zugspitze.

Slight delay as they closed the road to remove some debris from a minor rock slide (No worries, nothing to see here), but I made it to the hotel without any trouble.

Innsbruck is literally surrounded by mountains. This is not a huge surprise if you look at a map, but it is very striking when you're just ambling about town.

Grabbed a beer in the old town and the with the aid of Yelp, tracked down a very local bar/restaurant just a half a block of the tourist square, called "die Wilderin" (the (female) poacher). Had Kohlrabi carpachio and a horse ragout with spinach bread dumpling, accompanied by old vine Zweigelt. Fantastic. Wish I could get that wine stateside. Had a body more akin to cabernet than Zweigelt. Nonetheless, I stopped early, since I am planning one hitting the road before 8 am tomorrow.