Here are some pics from my recent ride from Munich to Venice Mestre! Solo ride over five days, just got back a week and a half ago.
I owe thanks to this sub for finding out about the government-funded long distance route (Google München Venezia bike route and you’ll find it). It was a great ride overall and not especially difficult, except for the fact that a tiny part inside my shifter broke about 45 miles into my first day and another separate issue with my front disc brake. Local bike shops (I tried three) couldn't fix it without a long wait (new part needed to get ordered, brake apparently needs to be replaced entirely) and I couldn't afford to lose time, so I pretty much rode single speed the rest of the entire way. Which made this trip substantially harder, lol. Right when I got to the Brenner Pass there was a rain storm, so I hopped on a train for about 40 minutes to skip that part. I have an ultra race coming up in October (which I signed up for on a whim and frankly am terrified about, haha) so I'm trying to think of all the challenges I had on this trip as part of training.
I was traveling light and stayed in hotels each night. This was a little harder than anticipated, as this area of the Dolomites is in peak tourist season in July and most rooms are booked. Still, I managed to find a place each night, and I usually waited to book until I was about 10-20 miles away. It also rained nearly every day, usually in the morning, although it was never too bad (I was carrying zero rain gear). I flew into Munich (from NYC) and flew out of Venice; in Munich I sent my big bag ahead of time to my hotel in Venice, which was happy to receive it and hold it a few days. This was a little pricey but worth it to me for saving time (I didn't want to go back to Munich), and it was still cheaper than a train ticket back. I also work as a professional tailor and made all my own gear.
Any questions let me know! My usual trips are to much less touristy places (mostly in the Middle East and Asia, you can see past trips in my post history) so this was a funny/pleasant/surreal contrast to what I'm used to. It felt like bike touring on "easy" mode.
by durianbae