Into the hills: crossing the Alps via Brenner Pass
After a quick glance of our routemap, it may look like we didn't know which direction we were heading in (and this would be somewhat true); we were cycling in the direction of the Alps but not entirely sure of which pass to take, instead, taking time to enjoy almost every lake we passed.
We could have been more direct, but have loved the different stages of our ride so far!
After some deliberation and long discussions with our WS hosts, we finally decided on the Brenner pass, which would take us from Austria to Italy. Brenner pass is one of the lowest passes in the Alps, although not generally considered to be the easiest, hence our minor anxiety.
Thankfully, we overcame our nerves with a secret weapon - an element of surprise - for ourselves! What we'd planned to be a rest day turned out to be out hilliest day so far! With the biggest pass of the trip! Here's how it unfolded...
We stayed with very lovely WS hosts, Lisa and Philip, around 20km from Innsbruck, Austria. We'd had a fantastic ride there, involving some wonderfully smooth roads and quiet lakes, and a very long lunch break at one such lake. Our hosts cooked us some fantastic tacos and we heard about their Norwegian cycle tour (future inspiration for us!). I casually asked what time they leave for work in the morning.
"About 6:30am, will that be okay for you?"
We smiled enthusiastically and said confidently "absolutely fine for us!" Though our glazed expressions may have given us away.
The next day we awoke early (it turns out being up at 6am is fine when you aren't working!). It was forecast to rain, our first time on the trip, so we planned to roll into Innsbruck, find a cafe, and have a very relaxed day.
Our first soggy ride - heading into Innsbruck
After the early start, we found ourselves in Innsbruck at 9am, soaking wet. We waited it out in a coffee shop, but by 1pm the thunderstorm had passed and the weather looked fantastic and spirits were high. So we decided to change our plans and take on the pass in the afternoon! It's fairly built up, so we knew we could find somewhere to sleep on the way up, with no pressure to get to the top. We found it had some punishingly steep gradients on the lower slopes, but it did ease off in places, and in the end, the 800m of ascent was surprisingly fun! Sadly, it isn't the most picturesque of passes, with a rather odd shopping centre at the top of the pass, so we didn't actually take a photo of us at the highest point of the trip (1,370m)! But after an hour (or 3) of battling, we found ourselves at the top, smiling that we'd got our heavy bikes up!
Having not originally planned to do this we hadn't even thought of locations to sleep that night. As the afternoon ticked by, and with no endpoint planned, we found ourselves cycling late into the evening with no plan... At 7pm, with over 110k and an alpine pass in our legs, spirits starting to wane, and no viable camping spots passed we found ourselves sat in a bus shelter searching for any accommodation options, with nothing jumping out to us at a reasonable price on booking.com. We continued. Soon after, we passed a guesthouse and in a slightly old-fashioned way, Mary knocked to inquire about a room... 30 mins later we were fast asleep on a comfortable bed.
We were staying in Vipiteno, our first night in Italy of the trip. It was a very beautiful village and set the tone for the next few days of the trip; we passed more beautiful villages in the Tyrol, all with a beautiful backdrop of the Alps.
After criss-crossing Austrian and Italian borders, our next country was Slovenia. We had another climb to go in order to get there, and it was another very wet day, but we pushed on, though sometimes the rain was so heavy we had to shelter in supermarkets. We also treated ourselves to Italian pizza, as well as some funny looking cat chocolate that Mary picked up! Again, we ended up rather enjoying the climb (aside from some sketchy roadworks where the traffic lights didn't allow us enough time to get through!). After a wet descent that we were relieved to complete safely, we rolled into a very atmospheric Slovenia.
Slovenia looking mysterious in the clouds
Brightening up a rainy day with chocolate with cats on it!
Our first holiday 10 years ago was to Slovenia, so it's always had a special place in our hearts. It turned out to not be quite as cheap as we remembered, but the beautiful unique tree covered steep valleys remained.
Whilst the mountains in Italy and Austria had a very similar feel to it, Slovenia's scenery felt very distinct. It's an incredibly beautiful place and we'd definitely recommend as a place to explore, with crysta clear waters and breathtaking mountain views. After a solid two weeks on the bike, we were keen to have a day off, and get into the mountains if possible.
There aren't many WarmShowers hosts in Slovenia so we didn't have high hopes for a fun stay with locals; however, there was one that looked promising, and only 30km away - perfect for a short day! There was just one problem, it involved 800m of climbing in 8km. Having done Brenner pass on our loaded bikes, we knew how tough this would be! But it would be even steeper. Nonetheless, our WS experiences had all been fantastic, and we were keen for another, if possible. They were very responsive, and so we set off for our stay at 1000m elevation.
Following advice to avoid the main road, we ended up down a closed gravel track, that turned out to have a large section missing... this led to lots of carrying our bags and bikes! Not the easy start to the day we'd had planned! It got easier and we made it to the start of the climb in good time. The climb was hard, and we took breaks every 200m of ascent to break it up. Eventually we did make it up, and it was beautiful! We were given a lovely room, dinner and breakfast the next day. Jutta and Paul, a German and British couple who'd bought their dream house made us feel so welcomed that the climb had indeed been very worthwhile. They also kindly lent us a rucksack and a map, and recommended a route to go up Krn mountain. We left our bikes at theirs and spent the night in a mountain hut, allowing us to see both sunrise and sunset from the summit of Krn - a real highlight of the trip.
Departing from Slovenia, we said goodbye to the mountains, in order to embark on stage 3 of our trip: going coastal.
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