The day started out with an excellent full English breakfast - again, top thanks to Christina and David, and if anyone is thinking of spending a lovely time in the Tyrol, be sure to check out Weissbriach 26 but call them direct on +43 676 311 4052 rather than going through Booking.com or other agencies - they'd love to see you.
David and Alfred outside No. 26
The day started swimmingly, again almost literally - rain!! We squelched our way along the road from yesterday's excitements, and then headed for pastures new.
What looked like a relatively easy road on the map (the mostly straight bit going E-W above) was in fact pretty hairy! It passed along the edge of a valley and wiggled around a lot, going up and down into the bargain. It's a very lonely life out there in the winter, no doubt, for example the hamlet of St. Jacob has a nice smooth, fairly straight road through it, but the road in and out is a hairy nightmare of broken tarmac, surprise curves and typical Alpine pass like ups and downs. So you wouldn't be visiting the relatives in the next village very often for Christmas...
We headed for Cortina, since that seemed like a sensible place to go, with potential for food, drink and fuel. Again, the road was misleading - it started well but got hairier! Then Cortina turned out to be a nightmare of a one-way system, the usual random collection of Italian drivers insisting on being right up your chuff just when you need to work out where you're going and not a lot of of obviously open places, although there were lots of obviously not open ones.
In something resembling despair, we headed out in the required direction, hoping to find somewhere on the way. There was an obviously open albergo/ristorante, but it turned out to be closed for a wedding! Some of the guests arrived as we sat bedraggled and a little crestfallen outside...
And still the road went up... In fact, the road went up so much there was continuous snow on the sides - the picture provides a view of a slightly earlier point! And the temperature dropped... and dropped. In fact, the rain, which had continued to fall, became snow - that was quite a shock! Yeah, modern tyres are amazing, but how exactly amazing are they, actually?? And then there were the lumps of snow in the road, usually on the inside of the 1st gear, slip the clutch rising hairpins... Erk. Some moments of self-doubt occurred...
But then things eased slightly, and a roadside cafe appeared. A quick coffee, pee break, and back on the road, fortified. A handy garage, with friendly staff who appeared to appreciate the whole snow and motorcycles thing sorted the fuel situation. And the road was going down...
Of course, things don't always go how you'd like - there was yet another pass, with vast snowfields stretching away and up on all sides, with skiers loading skis into inconveniently parked cars, and more traffic! And cold, really cold...
Did you know that they label the hairpin bends in these mountain areas? I've seen it on stages of the Tour de France, but never seen it for real. The last major descent was 30+ hairpins (tournante) and that doesn't include the ones that aren't actually 180 degrees...
Finally, the Val di Fiemme, the last major point before heading up to the stop for the night. Lots of beautiful lakes, and it's warm!! Relatively anyway. The climb to Baselga di Pine seems almost trivial, although the gaff takes a bit of finding - we end up relying on the signs put up by the proprietor, since Jim's GPS doesn't seem agree on its location. What a place!!
It has everything - bike garage, friendly lady patron, nice room with a balcony and view, and hopefully, excellent food in the attached restaurant. It's already filling up for a Saturday night...
P.s. The status symbol and chariot of choice in the Tyrol is a tractor - what better than a premium marque!
p.p.s. One of David's emails referred to us as "you crazy sods". That struck us as appropriate when negotiating the passes in the snow - maybe he was right!
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