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On The Road

Archive for the ‘Austria’ tag

Down to Venice

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My buddy in Eschenlohe convinced me to spend an extra day in the Dolomites instead of pressing on directly to Venice. A look at the map sold me on the plan: lots of twisty mountain roads and plenty of campgrounds. I quickly made a ferry reservation from Venice to Igoumentisa for two days later before I left his place.

I set out in beautiful sunshine, which lasted until I crossed the border to Italy.

: Austria, shortly after the German border

: Brenner Autobahn

Luckily, I had dry roads again when I reached the higher altitudes in the Dolomites.

: Little roadside Church in Italy

: Lake in the Dolomites

: Dolomites

I started to realize that it might actually be a bit early for the camping season. The ski lifts that were still running were a clue. I left my all season sleeping bag as well as my winter gloves at home in a last minute weight saving effort. I asked my trusty Zumo how long it would take all the way to Venice and it told me that I could make it in daylight. It then send me on some very twisty mountain roads, including a 2300m pass. Traffic so far had been very light, but until I hit the highway again closer to the coast I only saw a handful of cars going in the other direction and no one going my way. The drivers of the cars I saw looked at me in disbelief. The roads were dry and and with my heated grips I wasn’t cold at all. So, no worries and I had all those turns to myself.

: Maybe a little early in the season for camping?

With all that sow around I kept thinking of ways to bring a snowboard on a motorbike. I was really tempted to rent some gear and put in some turns.

: How do I mount my snowboard?

After a bit of highway and more country roads I reached Punto Sabbioni, across the lagune from Venice, just around sunset.

: Punto Sabbioni Lighthouse

Written by Steffen

April 20th, 2009 at 6:43 pm