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Day 13 A detour into the Prosecco Hills

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 The summer holiday season is drawing to a close here in some areas - our lovely campground on the lake at Santa Croce was closing at noon today! We arrived just in time! Riding along the lakeshore just after leaving our campground Lago di Santa Croce. I think the water level is very low, but it was pretty and very tranquil today  The official Munich to Venice route would continue through Conegliano and on to Treviso, going through the Prosecco wine area, located between the Dolomites mountains and the Adriatic Sea. We had decided to take a detour west to check out more of this area, and to try to reach the town of Valdobbiadene, home of some of the very best Prosecco. The steep vineyard hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene further to the west became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. Although the route we followed involved a heck of a lot of climbing, it did have the advantage of diverting us from the main road to Conegliano which we'd heard was not pleasant ridin...
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Days 11 & 12. More spectacular Dolomites and more bike trouble!!

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 My day 11 was a complete rest day off the bike! It's really the first day not doing any riding, although we had one very light day when we cycled to and from Brixen/Bressanone as a day outing. Enjoyed chilling in the fine setting of Camping Cortina, catching up on laundry, journaling, downloading footage off the drone ( yes first time having a drone and I'm still a novice!), a little bike care and recharging all electronics.  Great campsite at Camping Cortina. Hung out here all day - no hardship. And this is my dear friend Tannis's one man tents which she kindly let me use for this trip, rather than bringing our bigger 2-man  Hubba Hubba That's me chillin 😎  The next morning we were all set to go when I discovered I had no front brake!!! Don't panic Daphne!! I could see that the brake cable had popped out of it's little "casing" in the brake lever. Now if only I could pop it back in myself with my little pliers, but it was way too finicky. And I didn...
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Cycle Day 10. The Dolomites

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 I've jumped ahead a few days! Haven't had enough time to keep up with the reports, but I may go back and and summarise the previous days later. Days are full - packing up camp in the morning, stopping to buy groceries en route before camp, usually arriving in the next camp 5 or 6 pm ( a couple of days we arrived earlier), setting up again, cooking dinner and then it's dark by 8.30, by which time I'm ready to shower, chill, get all the electronics charged, and hit the hay 😀. Typical camp scene, Nancy having breakfast Anyway, yesterday was day 10 and we rode from Dobbacio to Cortina d'Ampezzo, a really scenic route through the Dolomites using a gravel path that used to be a railway track. This was definitielythe most dramatic scenery so far, and we both loved it. The distance wasn't too big at 40 km, but the gravel was often rough, so it was a bit slow going with the loaded bikes. Lago Dobbacio Introducing Nancy's new mascot Wolfgang acquired in Innsbruck, a...
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Cycle Day 5. Sep 7th. A tangled mess on the bike, but made it to Italy!

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 The first order of business was getting to a bike shop to solve my shifting issue. Phoned ahead to a shop near central Innsbruck, packed up camp and made it there before 11am. Got a lovely guy named Ian who actually hailed from Dresden, who couldn't find any problem with my derailleur or chain, but began to think something was amiss with my rear wheel hub, as the rear wheel wouldn't " freewheel" properly. This worried me as the right parts for a hub fix might not be available right away.  My hero Ian That's the tangled mess of fine nylon thread that had become  wrapped inside my rear hub! However, when he proceeded to take things apart, he found the strangest thing.... a tangle of nylon threads like a spiders web had somehow worked it's way into the hub, and that's why my back wheel could not spin properly!!! Isn't that bizarre. Right enough, earlier I had noticed that one of the straps on my new frame back had become strangely unravelled, but it wasn...
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Cycle Day 4. Sep 6th Achensee to Innsbruck - and bike problems

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 Today we got to ride the rest of the way down the east side of Achensee which was gorgeous, and we had perfect sunny weather. Lingered over a coffee part way along as we were reluctant to leave this picturesque spot. Riding along the lake on dedicated cycle path  Hundreds of runners taking part in a race around the lake Next we had a very steep descent from this high mountain valley to the River Inn valley en route to Innsbruck. Great fun but must have been hard on the brake pads with all that weight on the bike! Look at that descent! Strange things started happening with my bike today - I couldn't shift into my two small rear rings (rear gears), and I also couldn't free-wheel properly without things going wonky. Where was Frank when I needed him!!! It was Sunday, so nothing is open here - would not be able to get a bike shop till Monday. Luckily I could manage just fine without those gears for the day along the pretty Inn valley - I just had to be very careful not to force t...
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