ich-fahre-rad: Venice to Karlsruhe

Since Venice it was a bit more difficult to update the blog as there are not so many internet cafes in Europe - that doesn't mean there is no internet here. It is the opposite - everybody has internet at home so there are few places like internet cafes and if you happen to find one it is really EXPENSIVE. In Venice they asked one EURO for 15 minutes - I answered "I don't want to buy the INTERNET" - but they didn't get the joke. So now I am in Freiburg im Breisgau, 150 KM from home.

But let me explain how I got here and how to continue. I arrived in Venice Tuesday morning - it was raining and I had real difficulties to get my bike to the youth hostel. You are not allowed to cycle in Venice which makes sense with all the water, but it is also difficult to just transport the bike on one of the water buses and that doesn't make sense. Anyway, that was my first impression. Venice is a strange place - why build a city on the water? It is doomed to sink within the next 100 years as the sea level rises. The whole place feels like a huge Disneyland, very unreal and the hords of tourists do not make it more attractive - only more expensice. Everything is just a complete rip-off.

So although it was still raining on Wednesday morning I left Venice happily - always heading north towards the mountains - the last real mountains on this trip - the Alps!! I decided to take a route that I have never cycled before - this time of the year you have to be careful in the Alps. Already there is snow on the mountains, some passes are closed and it can be seriously cold as the sun only warms up the valleys for few hours. It is also getting dark early so you have to make sure you find accomodation well before sun set. Crossing the Alps in November is something for the experienced cyclist, hahaha.

I was crossing a very famous and beautiful part of the Alps, called the Dolomites. From Venice I cycled to Feltre, up the Valle Vanoi in the Bellunese Dolomites. The Campolongo pass (~1.800 m) crosses the mountains east of the Marmolada and west of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Then down the Gardner- and Pustertal to the Eisacktal. I cycled up to the Brenner Pass which is the main crossing in the eastern part of the Alps and also the border between Italy and Austria. Both sides of the border people speak a kind of German so it almost felt like home.

But home was still quite far away. Down the Brenner I reached Innsbruck in the valley of the river Inn. I followed the Inn upstream to Imst - then up the Hahntennjoch a little, beautiful and tough passage to the Lech valley. Up the river Lech I reached the Hochtannbergpass - I know this pass from my hiking trip in the Alps two years ago. On the other side of the pass it is going down more or less constantly to lake Constance through the Bregenzer Wald. At Lake Constance I reached Germany for the first time again in Lindau, Bavaria. I continued to Konstanz that day when it started to rain heavily and I decided to have half a day rest and plan the rest of the trip.

As I want to arrive in Karlsruhe next Friday I realised that I have plenty of time left - so I decided to visit some friends on my way home. My next stop was in Zug where Steffen and Nadja live, then yesterday I was in Basel staying with Markus & Mirjam. Thanks for your hospitality and the conversation!

This morining I crossed the Swiss-German border and cycled the short way to Freiburg where I meet Florian a old cycling hero and friend!

And then? Tomorrow is Thursday and I will be able to reach Baden-Baden and visit my parents there and then on Friday I will cycle the last few KM to Karlsruhe.

I will write again once I am at home. Maybe I can detail some of my thoughts about reducing the traffic in Europe, especially in the Alps.
Basically my first idea is to abolish all motorbikes: I hate the bikes and the riders and I think the best idea is to throw all motorbikes into the atomic disposal zone in Gorleben....