The bike tour to Venice went by extraordinary quicky… as Cédric and I were looking over videos and pictures from our trip today, I found hard to believe that the 670 km (415 miles) and crossing the Alps was finished within 7 days.
The first day from Augsburg to Füssen was a ride where everyone realized that this trip is actually taking place. After we finished the first 50km (30mi), the mountains of the Alps appeared and continuously got closer throughout the rest of the day. At this point, the route also became more hilly and challenging.
Day two, from Füssen to Imst, will probably be remembered as our most difficult day. This was the day where we had to climb several hundred kilometers/miles with our bikes on poorly marked routes. As we got closer to the Fernpass, the highest point of the day, the bike route gave way to a steep mountain biking trail, so we had to finish riding on the road with cars.
The third day ended in another mountain pass, the Reschenpass. where we crossed the borders from Austria to Switzerland to Austria to Italy. This day was the beginning of some really enjoyable paved bike paths that took us through small towns and remained mostly in the Inn valley. Only towards the end did we need to take a winding, steep road up to the Italian border.
The next two days were spent riding from Reschen to Levico in the Adige valley. From this day on, we were rewarded for the tough start by an ever-so-slight decent. When the bike paths were straight and unobstructed, we could get our heavy bikes to reach over 30kmh (20 mph). Once we passed the city of Bozen, the villages also became more Italian-looking, with old stuccoed buildings.
The day from Levico to Montebelluna was our last day in the Alps. This was another day of paved bike paths, but this time down the Brenta valley. Once we reached Bassano at the foot of the Italian Alps, we had the feeling that the trip was soon coming to an end- less than 100 km /mi separated us from Venice.
Venice itself was a lovely city, full of tourists, but if you turned down a few side alleys, you could still find yourself alone in a small square. Cédric and I spent two days in Venice after the bike trip to see some of the historic land marks and check our the island of Murano, where the famous Murano glass is produced.
We both had a wonderful trip and are looking forward to hitting the road again next week. but this time from Basel to Toulouse.
