7/17 Venice on foot, boat

No bikes.  No cars.  Just a beautiful unique city.  We all separated in the morning to museums, the beach, Jewish Ghetto  (a Venetian word meaning to throw, as in foundry), burano then reconnected for a guided tour with marc.  We learned why Google can't map Venice's funky street numbering, saw some cool secret spaces,  heard great stories and walked a ton.  Nice dinner in quiet (except for pleasant live music) alley near ghetto and a final Vaporetto ride.  11.8 miles walked.  Tomorrow, the Frankels and Weinstocks go home, Lowensteins continue their visit to Amsterdam (2018??), Leiters go on to Barcelona, and the Glasgows go to Florence.

7/16 venice

The last day.  Both sad and happy to have accomplished the goal.  630km, 3 countries, 8 days of riding.  Awesome.  Early start today to get to treviso, a mini-venice halfway on our days trip.  Sunny ride through the vineyards near the Piave river.  Highlights of the morning were seeing a bike race (Video to be uploaded) and a key shortcut to avoid killer climb up the Presa in montello.  Mostly off road, and mostly dirt, but we arrived in treviso at 11.15!!
Spent two hours walking around the city of 'silent canals', then pressed on in the rising heat towards venice.  More river riding along the sile including by the boat graveyard. The guide book, with its eloquent descriptions, was mostly spot on today and signs were good until the last 15 km or so.  Made it to Mestre around 5, where we stayed in a nice hotel in mediocre location.

Then Leiter said we had to go to Venice by bike (10km further along highway/causeway) and Jon stepped up, so he wouldn't ride alone.  Nice dinner, with lots of toasts to us all, in the square in mestre, and a little planning for a non-bike day in Venice tomorrow.  120km including Venice extension.

7/15 Conegliano

Guest Writer - Jason

We woke today to fabulous views of Lago di Cadore.  At 5:30 there was a small cloud over the lake, at 6:30 the fog had enveloped all of Pieve di Cadore and Hotel Belvedere, but by 8:30 when we were ready to start our day of riding the fog magically lifted. Another day of amazing weather which we all appreciate.

Breakfast at the Belvedere was delicious.  Fabulous cakes, and the regular assortment of cheeses, meats, fruits, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, etc.  After breakfast I ran down to check the brakes on Lisa's bike, because she had noticed yesterday that she could pull the rear brake lever all the way to the handle bar, and was losing stopping power.  On Friday she was consciously avoiding the brakes for fear that they would catastrophically fail soon.  It did not sound good, and this was after we had already adjusted the cable length.  I examined the rear brake pads, and indeed they were well beyond the wear line.  Totally shot.  Since her front brake pads were practically new I swapped the front and rear pads and readjusted the cable length.  I examined some other brakes, and the situation was similar.  Dena needed new brakes, and others were worn, but not yet critical.  As we were descending a huge hill later on, we decided this was life threatening enough to allow us to fix the bikes on Shabbat.

We grabbed our regular morning photo in front of the hotel and someone suggested that Donna and I should make a run to the sports store in Calalzo di Cadore, just 3km away (430' down, some at 15% grade, ridewithgps).  We did so and arrived 5 minutes before Sportler opened.  Donna and I peered through the window and were discouraged.  Sale - Sale - Sale, but of bathing suits and all sorts of non-bike clothing.  We waited though, and when the store opened at 9am, Donna asked for bike brake pads and we were sent upstairs, where magically the sport clothing store transformed into a mini-bike and sport equipment store.  We were able to buy 2 sets of replacement brake pads, and returned up the hill to the hotel (oops) and back down to chase after the rest of the group.  We figured it would take a long time to catch up, but due to some confusion over directions and language, the group had not made too much progress.  At 9:30 we found them near the southern tip of the lake just as they were figuring out which way to go. Perfect for us -- it's so much easier when somebody else is leading the way.

The big deal of today's ride was the huge amount of down hill.  We started the day at 878m and ended the day in Conegliano at 74m, and although we had to cover 95km, we did it in record time -- under 9 hours.  Wow.

Aside from the early morning navigation problems, most of the rest of the day went smoothly.  At one point we saw a barrier and a sign that pretty clearly indicate that cycling was forbidden.  A moped zoomed past and wagged his finger at us to let us know we shouldn't go.  We proceeded for half a kilometer only to find the road entirely blocked because of construction.  Ooops.  Debate ensued, and Jon, not wanting to turn back convinced us to sneak through the fence and ride over the brand new (day old?) asphalt.  Go Jon!  It saved us a ton of time and there's nothing like fresh pavement.  Alas, several more kilometers down the road at the power plant south of Soverzene the path was blocked due to construction.  Most of the group went on even though it was a dirt road and was ascending.  I stayed back thinking I'd bring up the rear, but luckily looked around and found the detour sign with directions on how to loop around.  The forward group ran into a ladder at the end of their path and realized they had to turn around.  Back on track -- some busy roads, some bike paths.

Eventually around 1:15 when we were all about to collapse from starvation, we arrived at Campeggio Sarathei on the northern banks of Lago di Santa Croce.  What a fabulous lake.  Windy and tons of kite surfers.  We grabbed lunch and many of us (Jon, Bruce, Jason, Donna, Becky) went for a swim in the fresh water.  It was like the ocean because of the waves, but no salt.  Perfect.  Lunch and back on the road.  We split into two groups -- Frankels and Lowensteins in front, texting directions back to the rest of us.  Amazingly the "slow" group arrived in Conegliano only 20 minutes after the fast group -- and that include a stop to pump up an italian cyclists flat tire, and a stop at yet another bike store where Lisa bought 3 sets of 4 replace brake pads.  (By this point Bruce's disc brake pads were also pretty worn, but we were unable to find the proper pads for them).

Conegliano is out of the mountains, and there were some stellar views of the mountains melting away.  Hotter and more humid here.  The hotel even has air conditioning!  Jon checked out the old jewish cemetery from the 16th century.  Dena and Jason also tried to visit, but Jason was too law abiding and refused to jump the locked gate.  Most of us climbed to see the castle on the hill and took in the great view from the hill.

7/14 Pieve di caldore

I have learned that when you're on a bike trip, complications happen.  Today, I was hoping to take everyone up your mt Cristalo,  aka bridge of death, and to Lago sorapis.   Woke up to fog and rain, a closed chairlift, and uncooperative bus schedule.  So...we all (not Donna - off on her new bike to paso giao) got on the tram with our bikes, up to faloria.  The fog lifted, the rain stopped, and down we went.  Mostly steep forest road, with some single track, and we all walked part of it, but that brought us down to a short climb to the lake hike.  A new  definition of beyond impossible solved.

The lake hike was great - through the woods,  alongside a cliff, a  bit of climbing, and ending at a freezing cold glacial lake.  Only thing to do now was swim, and Bruce stepped up to raucous cheers.  Then a fast 6 km ride back to Cortina (60 kph for jason), and headed down the bike path (detour for Jon to old house, and mtb trail by the piazones lake & river).  An easy downhill ride through the Cadore region, with lots of tunnels, ending in a steep climb to Pieve.  A late shabbat dinner, ending with a limoncella.  47km

7/13 cortina

Guest entry - Lisa
Woke up to the sound of church bells - others disagree, but I think one on quarter hour, 2 at half, 3 at 3/4 hour, and 4 at top of hour; plus bells to indicate the hour.   Plus a crazy sequence at 6.30 to tell people it's time to wake up (and go to church?).

We awoke at the Hotel Bachmann in Niederdorf to one of the clearest skies we've had. That was more appreciated than usual because the views of the mountains in all directions were even more notable with the perfect visibility. The town of Niederdorf looks like something from a postcard or a set for a play. It's a 4-layered scene: The boxy Italian homes and inns, cream-colored and outlined in dark-brown painted wood with flowers in flower boxes on every terrace, set against the steep sloping green hills with evergreens at the higher points, which in turn are set against the granite-colored mountains set against the blue skies. Lots of color and yet a simple style.

We were all down early to make sure we had time for one of our now-expected wide ranging and filling breakfasts, before setting off at 8:30 for our 33 kilometer bike ride preceding our adventure hike in Cortina. (Yes, we're metric now).

The ride quickly joined up with the beautifully maintained bike path that hugged the bottom of the hills as we rode the 5 km to the outskirts of Toblach. Once past the town we started a climb up a wide path, that toggled between paved, dirt foundation mixed with gravel, and sometimes rocks and looser sand. We were biking through a forest and along a river for much of it. The path head straight up toward the Domomites. At one we have the impressively vertical 3 peaks (Tres Cime?) on our left while we biked up with the snow and sand covered peaks directly in front of us.   Some of us found the climb challenging, but the gradual incline was a much less extreme than some of our other, but admittedly shorter, stretches. We were able to maintain a decent pace and not stop too often. Plus, the path was well-marked without too many opportunities to turn out or get lost. 

When we hit 20 kilometers,  cimabanche at 1527M,  we started the descent down, which truly lasted all 13 kilometers that remained to the hotel. We'd heard about the tunnels and had already done a couple - There was one that particularly stood out on the downhill portion - There were no lights. We were travelling down hill in high gear, suddenly in the dark, gradually realizing that there may be bikers heading toward us (or potholes, or anything else), and none of us could see. Of course, it didn't occur to us to turn our bike lights on. 

We arrived in town at 11:30, having enjoyed the quick dash through the forest, and headed straight for the place that rents the equipment for hiking while harnessed to a cable. 

Have I mentioned the views?

After checking into Hotel Olimpia -- where our luggage had miraculously arrived just as we were checking in! - 7 of the group headed up the trail we just came off of to do the adventure hike, complete with waterfalls and ledge walks. Two others of us head back up the same bike trail, about 6 km, where we went to the river to sit, eat, relax, and stare at the very large nature all around us .The light aqua-colored river moved quickly and was too cold to do more than wade in, but it was cool to watch it move over the rocks and past the Fiames Hotel and Campground. Meanwhile, Donna was off on a ride up the mountain, taking full advantage of her really light road bike. She was a little sad that it wasn't yellow and didn't say "FunActive Tours" in big green lettering, also that she didn't have a rack to carry a 8 kilo panierre, but she had a good time, anyway.

Everyone arrived back around 4:30+.

At 5:00, Jon and Donna joined their friends who they met during their Cortina trip last year for a drink.

We're looking forward to a nice dinner in a highly-recommended restaurant (all camin). We've done pretty well with food so far - We've had filling and impressive tasting meals mixed with local color and good experiences, but this will likely be the first night that we'll be going out to a particularly nice place.  51km.

7/12 toblach

Our first stop today was only 2km from mulbach - a medieval castle through which the road used to go.  A nice morning of riding along a river, to the town of brunico for a good lunch stop.   Besides the requisite church visit, we also went to the meat museum. More river riding, mostly up - but not steep - to Toblach in the afternoon, and our first views of the dolomites.  So spectacular to see these white mountains, with their sheer cliffs in the afternoon/evening light.  A nice Italian dinner in the square near our hotel.  Despite the signage, we didn't get lost at all today.  50km under sunny skies, with an extra 11km to pick up Donna's new bike.

7/11 Muhlbach, italy

Today we learned about shortcuts.  We got an early start through the towns of Wattens and velders, the latter with the challenging church door.  Nice flat ride along the inn river to Innsbruck where Jason and Leiter climbed up to the brenner pass, while the rest of us toured around the old town - and took the train shortcut to avoid 40km and 1000 meter climb.
Stunning views all around on the mostly free ride down to mulbach (max speed 56 kph) - except for the 2nd shortcut through aicha/aicha.  Cost us an extra hundred+ feet of climbing, to save less than a km.  Highlight town of sterzing, except for getting lost.   93km of paved paths, and 2 more low speed crashes - lowenstein alone,and leiters taking each other out.