One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. In Ingolstadt, on the way to Munich, the Sprint clocked up 10,000 miles.
The forecast was for a 40% chance of rain this morning. Turned out to be 100% right. As we sat having our brekkie, it was teeming down. All packed up, the waterproofs once again avoided the luggage. We were parked in an underground car park, so the thought of negotiating a steep slope with a fully laden bike, in the rain, was at the forefront of our minds. As it turned out, the slope was all but dry, so we needn't have worried. And as a little bonus, once at the top, the rain had stopped. It would return in spells for the rest of the journey though.
We didn't need to make a fuel stop today, so we would be riding straight through to Vipiteno, about 140 miles, except for the stops Grizzly wanted to make to try and get stickers of each country we pass through. The journey out of Munich was uneventful, save for one incident where some clown reversed out into the main rode in front of me. Seems they get everywhere. It wasn't too long before we were in Austria, though we stopped for a pee and coffee just about 200m from the border. At this point we were well and truly in the alpine region, having long since picked up the Tyrolean style architecture and traversed some spectacular roads. This is biker country and we have seen more bikers today that on the rest of the tour put together. Almost falling off the side of a mountain, down a 1 in 6 hairpin bend road, we soon found ourselves on the outskirts of Innsbruck. Off to our right was the amazing site of the ski jumping hill. TV just doesn't do it justice. Fair play to Eddy the Eagle for having the cojones to go down there!
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| Ski jumping anyone? |
Out of Innsbruck, the weather perked up and we found ourselves twisting along the side of a spectacular valley, which soon becomes the Brenner pass. With the roads now dry, sun peeping through and some superb sweeping bends, it was play time. The stunning views though do form a distraction, so I was more of a TT finisher, than a winner. It was around 2pm when we rolled into Vipiteno or Sterzing as it is also known, probably because it sits just a few metres over the border in Italy. The hotel is situated at the north end of town, with beautiful views from our balcony. Whichever direction you look, there are mountains rising up. Stunning green walls of pine and grass, interspersed with the chalet style properties, which seem to cling precariously to the mountainside. Not sure I'd fancy it in the winter though and in fact, I can see one patch of snow, off up to my left. I think tomorrow we might find ourselves having to go over one of these mountains, as we set out for Lake Garda.
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| The view from our room |
We had a walk into the quaint little town and Grizzly picked up some stickers, so he's happy. We ID'd a place to eat too, which we'll probably do in a hour or so. We have also bought a couple of bottles of Hofbrauhaus Octoberfest beer in the supermarket, so we can have a drink on the balcony tonight, though the forecast is for something like 7 degrees overnight! Grizzly is taking a nap whilst I write, he just can't hack it, the poor old boy ;-)
More later or maybe tomorrow.
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| Vipiteno's ancient clock tower |
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