Biking through Switzerland

After our 2 day stay in Florence we took the train into Bozen near the border of Switzerland and Austria. This area has biking paths all over including many challenging mountain bike paths. The scenery has changed from rolling olive tree lined hills to sharp snow covered mountain peaks.
We took a bike path up the valley past Merano up the valley by Tirol. The wind was blowing hard and the incline was consistant making the journey a long one.
We stayed in Laas to get ready for our Stelvia Pass attempt only to have a bunch of drinking laughing old Tyroloians tell us that the pass is closed due to snow. Damnn. Had to break the news to the family that we will not be able to climb 6000ft over the pass. They were heart broken ö Well, consolation prize for the next day was more head wind and the climb over Ofenpass, still 3000 ft of climbing through the most scenic views yet. It is a very rural area of CH where thez speak Romanish. BTW excuse the tzpos, we r tzping on a german kezboard where the z is a y so now i know whz germans have that goofz accent when thez talk. it is because thez kezboards is f&?ked up. excuese mz swiss. ok, the swiss clock is ticking on this stupid inet computer. it is sunny outside and i is wasting time trzing to find the right keys on this damn thing while austin and claudia are pumping sweets and chocolates in my face so i can keep typing. oh the choco is sooo good. I brainwashed claudia into liking gulash suppe. especcialy when she climbed her second 3000ft pass in 2 daze. austin in true austin fashion races up ahead on the climbs then jumps up and down at us when we pass telling us how awesome he is ... ha ha.. of course hes not watching me type this. the albunpasses yesterdaz was the best. 2300 meters high. snow and glaciers everzwhere and in true euro fashion a biker bar right on top where we ordered beer, gulash soup, and the best cake ever.
ok, lots to see, claudia cant download her pics on this inet kiosk. so were gonna ride to glarus today and head up into a remote valley towards luzern. we got trapped in yet another pastry shop and are running late. duuhhh.
3 daz till basel and 3 minutes left to tzpe.
weather is great. we chased out the storms which were alwazs one daz behind. so we brought our colorado weather to europe for which thez are all greatfull. fun to speak german. what a relief from trzing our italian spanish. ok caio. prob another 3 dazs for another post. remember y is a z on the german kezboards. is it beer oclock zet

Following St Francis's path of Peace

Okay so this blog is all out of sequence. Here's the way we went but I'm writing about events out of order.
1. Rimini visit with my friend Crisitina. fabulous. more on our visit there later.

2. train to Cattolica and biking to Urbino approx. 40-50 km

3. Urbino to Gubbio 98km of mountainous roads. A backbreaker but specatacular scenery. we dragged ourselves into town ate and slept and then began again the next day. The town was beautiful. small pathways in a walled city. Great food some of the best yet. The house wine good and inexpensive. Austin had a truffle Lasgna that beat all. The pasta tastes like nothing I've ever had. One issue is the bottled water. It reminds me of India. We could if we were not aware use 4-5 large plastic bottles of water a day. ACK!

4. Gubbio to Assisi. 40-50km. A short ride along the the St. Francis Path of Peace. Well yes the grade was at times 16% which was enough to make us contemplate our sins and view the ride as pennance. It kept going up steeper and steeper and then would roll down only to go up again. Ater this ride we needed a break so we decide to spend an extra day in Assisi.
This town is immaculate. Full of tourists yes but plesant and fun to explore. The churches and art within worth seeing. Here the Byzantine influence is still visible in the art work. I really enjoyed seeing the mosaics much more that the renaissance style churches with the gilded gold moldings .

5. Assisi to Perugia. An easy day of riding until the end which was all uphill. I didn't really notice because of the spectacular scenery and view of the sprawling layout of the city clinging to the small hilltop.

6. Lets talk about the food. Gubbio was truffle country. More on this later.

A day in Perugia

We rode in from Assisi yesterday to the walled fortress city of Perugia. The ride from Assisi was short but a steep uphill into the city that keeps going up when you think you've reached the top. It feels like the rice field plateaus in Sumatra that are built on the side of a mountain, each level is flat but there is another plateau above. Every time I enter a different city or town I think this is the most incredible place ever, so yet again Perugia is like this. It is more of a living growing city less tourist centric than Assisi or Gubbio or Urbino. There are several large universities here so the student population adds an element of grittiness to the town. The best sight in the city besides the views which are amazing...an exhibit of Steven McCurry's photography at the national gallery. Incredibly moving. It was the best sight we say yesterday. Even the way the photos were exhibited was a work of art in itself. They hung from a spiderweb network of wooden studs that looked like a Dr. Seuss creation. At any one point in the exhibit you could look past and around to catch sections of all the other photographs. Unfortunately I could not take a picture of it. Security and cameras everywhere. Even the small pathways through the city have security cameras on the walls. Did they make me feel saafe? maybe but it was a little creepy. Maybe the city has a lot of crime and this is a good deterent? We zoomed through the rest of the Nat Gallery which is spectacular and an art historian's dream, but at this point all of us have seen enough religious art from the 13-15 century to last a life time. Especially when its out of context. The weather has been getting progressively cooler so we're preparing for rain maybe tomorrow otherwise its been perfect. We stayed overnight at the Primivera mini Hotel. It is a great place to stay, quiet and in the center of things. Imagine an uphill into the cty and then the htel is up on the second floor and your room further up. My thighs are sore. Today we head onwards to Siene.

A night in the train station

We left Venice yesterady and arrived in Ferrar by train in the evening. The city was full with no rooms to spare. We felt a little like joseph and mary. No one would offer us even a straw bed in the barn. Too much going on there, the Giro and a conference. The city looked nice with a walled city and cobble stoned roads very bike friendly. The train station is okay to sleep in but they keep the lights on and the benches are not padded.

Venice

We spent 3 days in Venice wandering around getting lost and exploring every nook and cranny.
Don was inspired by Carpaccio, Titian, and Bellini. We went in every church we could much to Austin's dismay. Venice must have a couple of hundred churches.
We discovered the way to eat breakfast is standing up drinking espresso and eating a pizzatte. Lunch was salad, fruit, sliced proscuitto and breasola from the supermarket. Oh and a 3 euro bottle of wine, good wine. The most difficult thing to find there was a cork screw that worked. We left all our tools and knives in the bike boxes at the airport while we stayed in Venice.
Not a whole lot of info or awareness about fair trade organic coffee but that's to be expected in this tourist town. I tried to ask but my Italian wasn't clear enough and their patience was non existant. Not a friendly bunch but if I had to deal with all these tourist all the time maybe I'd be grummpy too. It is only mid May the city was packed with people. The weather was bright and sunny which didn't make for good morning or sunset shots.
So in short, Venice is a must see but maybe 3 days is a little too long...
After India and Sumatra, it seems too clean and lacking in culture, imagine that.

The first leg to Venice

I am amazed I've made it this far after a heck of a week including my thesis defense, thesis gallery reception, graduation, and graduation party. I'm 30,000 feet above the ground heading to Venice via Phili. Thought it would be great to take a look at the liberty bell on the way out of the country, not.
Our plan is to ride our bikes from Venice to Rimini to Umbria through Tuscany back to northern Italy to Tarzo then over the mountains into Switzerland with a final stop in Zurich. 26 days, numerous miles and bottles of fine wine to go. We'll get more specific as we go.
Getting on the plane with bikes was no problem, so far as long as you're ready to pay the $100/bike fee. We broken down the bikes and double boxed them for protection and tied all the piece together with plastic ties so nothing gets lost.
Once we arrive in Venice we'll put the bikes in a locker at the airport while we spend 3 days exploring the city. No bikes are allowed in the city.