Bike tour report Bassano-Ravensburg-Munich-Brenner August 2010

( ciao Farfallina ! )

The path recorded by the navigation system:

Total km: Trip: 926

average: 185 km / day

Path in GPS eXchange file format (gpx): tracking.gpx

First of all, I want to say that 264 km are rally too much... So if you want to go the same route, you should better split it... I even do not know what pictures to show of this day, because today I really took too many... I better split in sub-tracks:

Bassano – Trento (mostly along the right side of the Brenta river)

25 km after Bassano starts the mixture between bike ways andlow traffic roads (however also the first 25 km is low-trafficated)

This picture is pretty interesting: this sign shows the stone of the border line between the former kingdom of Italy and the Austrian empire. Today it is located at the border between the 2 Italian regions Veneto and Trentino A.A.

Trento-Bozen

Arriving from south east it is not that easy to find the bike way from Trento to Bozen, so you should better have a look to my google map recordings. However, once you have found it, Trento-Bozen is one of the best bike way I have ever gone: mostly next to the Adige river and very well isolated from the normal traffic.

Bozen-Sankt Jodok

Uhmm... After Bozen there are some new portions of bicycle path build in the last 2 year, which are really wonderful :-)

However, some old portions are not very well asphalted, like in San Pietro Mezzomonte, where the asphalt is even missing for something like an half km (!)

And also, the last few kilometers are really up hills...
Can you see on the right side of this picture the mountains where it seems there is not street ? That is the way to go...

The place where I slept that night is 7 km after the Italian-Austrian border. 270 km in one day... Do NOT do it ...

Well... there is a reason why today I wanted to arrive here: I know the owner of the hotel (who is also a cycle lover), and I need to ask him the way to Ravensburg. Otherwise I do not think I would go 270 km in one day :-) I also had another reward here: since this year his gf works here with him, and she is much more beautiful to watch that him ha ha

After passing Innsbruck, there are many cycle paths along the street. However, when they are missing, there is not so much traffic. Today I do not go so many kms, but it is however an hard day because of the Arlberg pass ( elevation 1.793 m).

On the last 2 (?) km, to avoid a tunnel, I have to take an unpaved road. I have not idea how long was the tunnel, very strange ( for Austria) that its length was not showed before its entrance. And also very strange there is no paved road for cycles to avoid it.

I do not know if this is going to be useful for anybody reading this web site, but I have to publish the picture of this rainbow !!!

This one is instead the tipical austrain way to care about cycles (tunnel divided in 2 parts, one for bikes, one for normal traffic)

Now I just want to tell something not strictly related to the bike: this evening, after having dinner, I could not go back to the hotel because of the rein. The owner of the restaurant insisted to lend me and umbrella. So,if it happens you are in Braz, I suggest you to restaurant next to the church ;-)

Today on schedule I have only 108 km, and mostly on flat land, so it is not an hard day and I have time to take many pictures.

This one is me happy for the idea of a short day trip:

This one is a small lake in Austria:

This one is the bicycle path around the lake Constance.

This is the reason for me to go to Ravesburg: to take a picture next to the sign of the local university, where I did an internship when I was a student. The ratio parties per week was something like 3... :-) During the internship I suffered a weight gain of 3 kg-beer. I finally lost them now 10 years later with this bike trip...

Ok, the distance for today is not that short, but fortunately the height profile is not so scary.

Here below I put some pictures to impress you with the legendary German efficiency:

Along small country side roads there is always an emergency phone:

Still in the country side, there are bags for the dogs (like the park of a big city)!

This is nothing related with the German efficiency, I just want to remember me that I had to buy some aspirins because I caught a cold going true the alps in Austria.

I 'd say that Ravensburg – Munich in one day is not that hard. Ok, that is a 180 km trip, but there are not particular big cities in the middle and also there are no mountains. And moreover, it is mostly on bicycle paths.

The height profile from Munich to Hall in Tirol (Austria) is not hard at all ( to notice: the opposite way IS HARD). If you check my google map/gps tracking you will see that I used the common roads. There is also a bicycle path, but I still have to find out exactly where it is.

Instead, Hall in Tirol – Brenner is very hard trough this way. Probably it is better to go on until Innsbruck and from there to Brenner, so you save an hills-up-and-down.

I have gone many times Munich-Brenner in both directions, but my route can still have a lot of improvements.

I have been “meeting” this guy for many years, this time finally I get a picture with him :-)

Sylvensteinsee view:

Weight of rucksack at first day: 8 kg

This is one of the no-to-do things... you should better have the classics 2-bags around the back wheels instead of a rucksack.

Because of the bad weather and because of a getting-worst-and-worst cold, I preferred to go back from Brenner to Bassano by train ( sigh ! )

report written between 19-August-2010 and 27-September 2010

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