Cycling the Italian Alps. Italy Austria Odyssey Episode 22

In this episode I cycle up through more Beautiful scenery and quaint Alpine towns to a campsite in Villabassa Niederdorf. The following day I cross the border into Austria and continue on the Eurovelo 7 down a magnificent decent into Lienz before arriving in Greifenburg.

All routes and ride stats can be found on my Komoot profile.
https://www.komoot.com/user/3198098439500

Monday morning 12 to June just leaving camp got a top of 26 heading to pushia and then I’d put the to BL root in and I’m staying in a campground before to BL I’m doing about 64k nice day so far beautiful and sunny let’s Go for the past 5 days I had mostly been in the balzano province which stretches from just north of trento to the Austrian border once a part of the austr Hungarian Empire balzano is bilingual reflecting its Italian German Heritage the mostly agricultural economy flourishes with apple orchards and the

Region’s Alpine scenery offers a playground for outdoor activities with hiking biking and skiing drawing visitors [Applause] Often overshadowed by its apple orchards balzano’s Vineyards yield excellent wines and the Region’s favorable climate supports multiple grape Varieties Some of the climbs in the Els are so gentle you don’t even really notice that you’re climbing like yesterday went up 5 100 m didn’t even feel like it I go up another 500ish M today from 750 up to 1250 is and so far it’s been there’s some little steeper bits at the

Beginning but it’s been very gradual most of the Way this is great through here the highway is few hundred met away to my left so it’s nice and quiet there’s no road noise it’s just Beautiful about 35k to go the Town I’m staying staying at is Vasa neor found a campsite there hopefully I can get In This tunnel looks really long and it’s just a cycleway tunnel can’t even see the end of it it’s all lit up too how good is this nothing like this in Australia out of that tunnel into another tunnel I’m Look at this Well it’s not a great pitch but it’ll do 65k 722 M as scent good day feel good no rain can’t plan 13th of June all packed up had a good night’s sleep pitch wasn’t great but good facilities it only € 15 it was pretty packed camping site was really

Busy first town is to BL not far away have to change routes and then to Le ends but I’m doing about 90k today want to get there a bit earlier so I’m setting off at 8 yeah ready to go it’s pretty cool here today I think Top’s

Only 19 but I’ll be dropping about 600 elevation or 500 elevation so it’s not going to be 19 down there and I’m at um almost 12200 M or around 1180 something like That All right coffee time’s over time to roll so I’m just leaving the town of T and I cross over the Austrian Border in about 7K so I’m interested to see if there’s anything at the border or if I just ride through and there’s nothing there well I cannot win with

Wind I’ve had literally headwind or cross headwind every day since I left Rome and it’s blowing pretty hard southeasterly and I’m going [Applause] east I’ve just seen a little sign turned around and come back to go past it again I’m wondering if this is the Austrian border the euro sign with the Stars it says 50 m maybe that was it maybe I’m in Austria I hope so that’s awesome no border crossing no

Passport that’d be great I think I’m in Austria Woohoo these cows over here look like they’re grazing on a lawn grass is so perfect Loving Austria they have a picnic table and a bin in the same Place I just saw a woman skiing up that hill on roller blades she had stalks and she was pushing herself up the hill never seen that before only in Austria Stand this is such a nice ride to BL To The Ends it’s just beautiful downhill just magic and there’s part of its gravel but it’s super smooth gravel along the river you don’t even have to go on the gravel cuz there’s on the other side of the river there’s brand

New ashel uh bike lane bike PA but the Euro V7 takes you on the Gravel all right completed the to BL to leen’s Route so I got to put in Leen to baderin and head to Steinfeld my mobile just doesn’t work now I’m in Austria and I was told that it’ll work in Austria and I have to ride back 5Ks to Le ends well that worked out pretty good I actually found a mobile while I was electronic store that did SIM

Cards and just happened upon it I’ve got unlimited data for €25 so it’s all go I’m back to the same rest area as I was time for a sandwich and a relax I’m in for probably a terrible afternoon uh headwind all the way and it’s going to

Be pretty flat got about 40 yeah 40K to go [Applause] I just rode past one of my free Camp stealth Camp spots that I found on the satellite images I spent so long looking at it as soon as I rode into that little area I recognized it immediately and

Then I look to my right and there was the little driveway track going off into the forest but as it turns out there’s plenty of campsites campgrounds I think I’d rather just stay in campgrounds and not have to worry about finding somewhere to hide every night the Euro 7 from Rome to Bologna

Doesn’t really have any campsites that’s why a stealth Camp all the way except for the hotel inoya we pretty much have to stealth Camp unless you want to pay for a hotel or an airb every we’re Hing de passing Jacky for dick yeah totally back there there was a tractor

And a guy with a plate compact up filling in potholes on a gravel section of the bike way filling in with dirt and compacting it with a plate compact up how good is that well parts of this ride from Le enss have been really nice cuz

I’ve got protection from The Wind by the trees so it’s been quite Pleasant All right did the grocery shopping I went to an Austrian grocery store I think it was and it was awesome well I’m here it’s only € 15 and you get power and you get free Wi-Fi well I’m all set up feel pretty good the last 30k was a bit of a SLO

With the wind but um no it was a good day overall it was a really enjoyable ride that to BL to lean’s was just unreal so Good just some quick rot notes didn’t have any problems on this two days um really enjoyable writing no problems with the route the distances on the maps at the beginning of the episode are the distances from the GMA computer from the data so it said it was 110 K from

Camping Olympia to gripenberg it was only 94 I had to double back and go and get a new SIM card I used the Tim mobile M Tim mobile and it was great I had no problems in Italy it would have worked in Austria had I had the roaming turned

On I forget how much that was I know the card in Austria was €25 for unlimited data and that worked really well but yeah no problems on this day was a great ride two great riding days