This stage of my bike voyage will lead us from Munich to Verona.
It is accompanied by Lisa which happily joined me on this first part.
And was already well-known biking company from previous trips.
So say hey to Lisa ;)
But we will start this story just a bit earlier.
Back at home :)
Day 0 – Home to Munich
All good trips start with a delicious breakfast at Emma's…somebody said sometime.
At least me. Me. Yeah, I would definitely would say that hehe :D
The bike was packed, stomach was filled and on we went to the train station.
And the train connection worked🥳
But still with a tight schedule of having to finish up bachelor thesis stuff and meeting some lovely friends.
Before sleeping yet another night at the best dorm in Munich🫶
Day 1 – Munich to Achensee
94km | 860hm | 🧭
Now it was actually go-time.
Checking the pressure of the tires.
Saddling up
…and go.
The first kilometers were well-known. Packed with a lot of good memories from previous biking trips. Along the Isar and approaching the alps.
GLH to Achensee.
A tour we already knew quite well most of the way.
Known. But nonetheless beautiful. And for me not a regular ride anymore since I moved away from Munich.
Always magically seeing the alps and kilometer by kilometer getting closer to them.
With a coffee and snack stop in Lengries.
Checking out the café as last time. To be recommended. A beautiful selection of cakes. Really quite hard to choose.
But I remain a fan of a good chocolate cake as my carbs of choice.
Now up to the Sylvensteinspeicher. A bit of ascend. But not a challenge with our legs still quite fresh.
But to be honest my legs still had a bit of heaviness in them from the previous trip – 3-Day Hiking Trip⛰️
Further up and along the lake.
Shortly having lost Lisa which went on a small gravel tour.
And over the border to Austria🇦🇹
How amazing is the EU that we can so easily do that!
Love it! More of it please!🇪🇺💜
Just a bit more along the Achenvalley aaaand…
…here we are. The Achensee what a beautiful mountain lake.
Here we already had a campsite in mind from previous trips. Directly next to the lake we set up the tent.
And all worked. It seemed like we did not forget to pack anything to essential😇
Day 2 – Achensee to Bolzano
166km | 1.720hm | 🧭
Rain… 🌧️
We packed the tent in a small gap between rain gushes.
Quickly got ready and on the streets again.
Enjoying the last views of this beautiful lake with it's turquoise water surrounded by mountain range.
The altitude we gained yesterday? Now back down on the other side into the Inntal. A very steep bit of street.
Much more fun on dry grounds. With the wet streets (tho luckily not raining) we needed to be much more careful ;)
Through the Inntal along the river Inn we quickly made pace.
A few smaller detours leading us to meet some feathered friends.
A few gorgeous alleys in the city of Hall.
But enough of the sightseeing now on to the more difficult part of the day.
The Brenner.
And on we went with ascending meter by meter up this mountain valley.
Happy that the clouds spent some shadow and not spilling to much droplets on us.
But all in all doable.
And with that we just had one last steep climb to tackle.
With our willingness of getting it behind us we climbed up there mobilizing all our forces.
And there we are at the top of this col. With that out of Austria into Italy.
2/5 countries finished😉
🇩🇪🇦🇹
🇮🇹🇫🇷🇪🇸
And now – down again.
On a picturesque bike route.
Down the hill we rolled where once the trains have toured up the mountain valley.
On and on we went with somewhere in our minds the goal of reaching Bozen.
Tho with the sun slowly hiding behind the mountains, and valley being left in the shadow of the evening.
We needed a place that was willing to take us for the night.
So we went to the campgrounds…But either they were full or already were the receptions closed. No place for us to stay :(
With our stomach also quite empty and no concrete plan. Except maybe just driving through the night to lake garda.
Pasta and pizza - the carbs of choice this evening
(By the way – Pizza as carbs during bike trips not recommended by myself -_-)
Same live energy regained through food, we at least wanted to get some rest before continuing. So the train station / adjacent park of Bozen it was ;)
Day 3 – Bolzano to Torbole
102km | 360hm | 🧭
1 AM.
Not the comfiest of spots for getting rest.
So back on the streets. Driving through the night.
And meeting some night active friends – A fox chasing a marten. Multiple other sightings of foxes.
At first actually quite a shock🥴
With our energy reserves depleted and after another lot of kilometers another rest.
And which was planned for just a quick power nap became a longer rest.
Putting out the sleeping mat and bag for at least a bit more proper rest.
With the sun slowly coming out again after it's nights rest, we packed up our things and went back on the streets.
The remaining kilometers were mostly just flat following the river along the valley.
Onto Trento – grabbing a coffee and restocking on carbs
And then to Rovereto – another short pitstop.
But that just left a last short bit with a bit of altitude until it was time for the final reveal.
The tired legs getting us also over this last little challenge.
And here we are. Finally.
What a rewarding view after these adventurous last 24 hours.
The first big part done!
But this time having learned from the previous day, organizing our place to stay for the night much earlier.
And for the better since the campsite already only had two spots left…
For two nights we would be staying in this nice little town of Torbole.
We had completed this leg of the trip faster than expected and a rest day seemed sensible.
Day 4 – A rest day
At least kind of.
We got a proper restful night and started the day slowly.
Eating breakfast at the lake.
Still soaking in the gorgeous view.
But – then we already got back in the saddle…upps
A small day tour to Limone. I mean it's just like 15km away so you might as well do this on a rest day.
But somehow with the few tunnels which are shared with the cars – the west side of the lake is packed with these – we rather ended up driving with quite some tempo…ups again.
More like tempo training I guess⚡️
The town is packed with tourists. But I guess we are ourselves one of those.
And o my gosh I think way have a thing with lemons. How this might come.
Anyway it is quite beautiful. So many gorgeous little alleys. And an astonishing sight over the lake.
And they are building an amazing bike/walk way along the outer part of the mountains following the normal road.
Filling us up with some good focaccia, a fresh lemonade and some lemon ice cream.
Before heading back to Torbole and another day coming to a rest.
Day 5 – Torbole to Verona
80km | 550hm | 🧭
Now along the lake.
Not that much of time pressure, but still Lisa needed to be in Verona by latest 5 PM and we had some Pasta plans before that.
There is no separate bike lane so you have the cars right next to you.
Most of the drivers left a enough distance and had a healthy amount of patience as to us feeling quite safe there.
Stopping in a handful of the charming little villages was obviously also on our list.
And they have sooooo many cute little alleys again… yes, I am kind of obsessed with these.
Now away from the lake and over the hills.
While accidentally ending up at Lisa's favorite winery for a short detour hehe ;)
And with this we arrived in Verona💪
Here a very important task awaited us.
A spot that needed to be tried out. Left from a previous trip.
I present to you – La Bottega della Gira
Mhhh, delicious. Worth the kilometers I would say🤤
You can see how they prepare all the pasta freshly with love. An art.
Now just quickly restocking on some more supplies before saying goodbye to Lisa👋
ByeBye and thanks a lot!🫶
Lisa left behind and hoping her train is actually not cancelled.
The second leg of this days bike route was yet to come for me.
From Verona to Moniga del Garda.
47km | 280hm | 🧭
There I would be meeting with two other dear friends of mine – Niklas and Vio.
Niklas family was doing a vacation on a campsite there. And I was very happy about the option to join them for a night.
I said I will arrive by around 7 PM. So it was a bit of a race against time.
…Garmin first of lead me on some high traffic roads…don't trust their navigation to much…but Komoot got me back on track.
Doing a bit more of threshold training and getting those kilometers behind me.
I arrived at…drumroll…exactly 7 PM.
What a timing :)
There Niklas and his family warmly welcomed me.
And got me filled up with another round of delicious pasta😋
I was very happy having a night in a proper bed within their bungalow. Especially with the storm which would probably caused quite a rough night else⛈️
Thanks a lot for letting me join and being so welcoming! 💛
The next morning came and after a final breakfast in this pleasant company the journey continued.
Now on myself.
But more on that in the next part ;)