Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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Alps - Day 11 : Ah, nice
This was the first morning on which the grass and my shoes were dry. It was warm and my bicycle shorts had dried during the night. Yesterday we bought jam and bread, so we didn't need anything. It was brown bread, which was hard to find in Italy. I took a thick slice and put jam on it. It tasted horrible. The bread was some weird stuff with anise seeds, and I nearly threw up. Bram also couldn't stand it. At the campsite's store we quickly bought some white buns.
We were in a large city. The big road we needed to follow was closed to cyclists and we didn't know where to go. After half an hour and asking for directions three times, we found the right road. It involved much climbing through tunnels, so it could have been better. After five kilometers the tunnels stopped and we could climb normally, it did turn out to be a beautiful area. We passed a very nice lake with clear blue water. There were many tourists, and we talked about how it would be funny if we had encountered someone we knew there while looking (and smelling) as bad as we did.
Karersee
The water was clear and green
It was only a small climb to the next pass.
Passo di Costalunga.
Its German name was Karenpass.
We ate a watermelon before starting the second pass of the day.
Viewpoint during our climb of Passo Pordoi.
This pass was also very tough. After we cycled our lungs out to get to the top while breathing in the cars' exhaust gasses, someone was smoking. Bram suddenly needed to cough really loudly. That helped, the smoking lady sat down in her car.
Passo Pordoi
Bram had finished coughing
We passed many small villages without supermarkets. Everywhere were only hotels and restaurants. We hadn't eaten anything during the past four hours except some granola bars. Eventually, we found a small grocery store, where we bought some apples and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. Those were finished within minutes. In the next village was a better store where we bought bread. When I cut it, I noticed we had made a big mistake, they were again filled with anise. We didn't eat them but did keep them in our panniers. Our previous cycling vacations had taught us not to throw those things out until we had found other food, just in case we would have a hard time finding food later.
After the descent we started the third pass of the day. There was a campsite 12 kilometers away. After much climbing we found a sign saying the campsite was in the next village. That was too close, so I told Bram, 'then we will take the next one'. Eventually, the campsite was indeed only a few kilometers away, but those were all uphill. We arrived around 8 o'clock.
View during the last climb of the day
The clouds where returning
One of the many small villages
When we arrived we realized we had lost our map. I had kept it in a plastic cover in the back of my bike shirt. This map was really important, as due to its small scale it contained our route for the next four days. Fortunately, I found it after pitching the tents.
The showers on this campsite were good, until the warm water ran out. To go to the bathroom you needed to use paper toilet seats, there were no normal ones. Of course the paper ones were out, so we had no choice but to sit down without a seat, there also wasn't any toilet paper. At night it was cold and rainy.
Distance cycled : 117 km.