As expected the weather turned to custard as soon as I left home and I was riding through rain all the way to Munich. I ended up paying a heavy McCafe toll, hitting quite a few of them along the way for apple pie and coffee. In one of them the very nice old cleaning lady mopped up the wet trail I left across the store and kept mopping up the water puddle around a very apologetic me.

Just South of Munich the sky cleared for the first time and I could see the Alps.

My destination for today was a buddy’s place near Garmisch. The picture below is the view from his living room window.

The next day I had a good look around the lovely village of Eschenlohe.

Later that day we went to Munich for a party with some folks I went snowboarding with a few years ago. Only my first stop and I already got “stuck” for an extra day

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.

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

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.

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