Got up at a fairly decent time so we could have a cup of tea and a bite to eat before packing up all of our stuff and loading the car.

I’m very sad to be leaving Austria – I’ve really enjoyed being here – the area around where we’re staying, the beautiful city of Innsbruck, and the road races have all been just fantastic. The only thing that makes leaving ok for me is that we’re heading back to Italy.

We said goodbye to our hostess Lisa, who gave us each a present – a little jar of herbal salts that were made by a local lady – and got underway around 10:00 under pouring rain. We crossed into Italy via the Brenner Pass and headed south through Bolzano and Trento.

We stopped at an Autogrill somewhere after we crossed into Italy and had the best cappuccino I think I’ve ever had in my life – they make good coffee in France and Spain, but somehow a proper cappuccino seems beyond them.

We passed many lovely looking villages perched on hillsides, as well as quite a few forts and castles.

I must say that Bolzano was a big disappointment to me as I’d read about how beautiful it was and I know it’s a ski destination and also has excellent cycling paths – one of which goes all the went to Trento and beyond, mostly downhill.

However, all I noticed was all of the factories and warehouses – it didn’t seem quite the quaint little town I was expecting. But we weren’t stopping anyway and continued on south.

We reached Modena just after 3:00 and followed the GPS directions to find the B&B that Colin had booked online. We drove over 50 km out of town and into the hills before we basically dead-ended in a farmer’s courtyard. A boy came out of the barn to see who we were, and called for his father to help interpret – there were several cats watching the exchange, but they weren’t very helpful.

We realized that the GPS co-ordinates must have been completely wrong so input the street address instead – all the way back to Modena. We made a pit-stop at a bar – mostly so we could use the facilities, and found the B&B around 5:30.

It’s a large house and you go up to the bedrooms via the host’s kitchen. It’s surrounded by a very large organic farm that produces Parmigianno Reggiano cheese. We brought our bags in through the still-pouring rain, and then asked where we could find a store and someplace to eat. Our host gave us directions and Colin input it to the GPS – hoping we wouldn’t be driving 50 km to find the shopping centre.

This time we reached our destination on the first try – a large mall not that far away. We went inside and found a huge supermarket and picked up a few things. Then we tried to get a piece of pizza but the lady behind the counter was too busy chewing gum to give us much help so we went further to a tapas-bar type place.

We wanted a few of the tapas so each grabbed a little plate, but one of the girls said no no – we then thought that they wanted us to pay first. But that wasn’t it either – one of the other girls spoke a bit of english, and advised us that the tapas are only for those that order ‘the plate’, and she would bring it to us when it was ready, so that’s what we got.

We each chose a few things to snack on – they were good – then ‘the plate’ arrived – it was several kinds of thinly sliced meat and two small chunks of creamy cheese along with several bread sticks. I ate until I was stuffed – much more interesting than the pizza we were originally going for.

Back at the house the host invited us down for a glass of wine – he was preparing dinner for himself as well as a long-term guest that stays there four days a week while he works in Modena, then goes home every weekend to Tuscany where he actually lives.

We had a nice visit for a bit – we were also served more of the local cured meat to go with the white wine. Afterwards we went back to our room – I have my own bunk-bed, and it’s surprisingly comfy.

The next morning we were up at 7:00 for our self-serve breakfast in the host’s kitchen, then packed up and on the way around 8:20. The weather was a bit better – not exactly sunny, but not pouring rain either.

We stopped at another Autogrill and had another delicious cappuccino, then continued on south. We skirted east along the north shore of Lago Trasimeno to the edge of Perugia, then south to Papiano.

We were going to pop into the local store, but it was all chained up so went directly to the house. After we’d unloaded the car we walked down to the village to Poppy’s bar – when I asked about the supermarket the owner’s son told me it was closed for a couple of weeks then would re-open with new owners.

After a glass of wine for me and a coffee for Colin we went into Marsciano to stock up on food, as the fridge was bare. We had a fairly early night after two days of travel – it’s good to be ‘home’.

Got up super-early and were on our way by 6:30 to pick out our spot for the race. We went up the circuit from the opposite side so we could pick the best spot on the way down, which would be the way up for the race. There are quite a few large areas to park – most of them seem to be run by locals who charge a small fee for the use of their field. But there are quite a few spots with port-a-potties and other places with beverage and food tents.

We decided on a spot just outside the boundaries of the town of Aldrans, just over ⅓ of the way up the climb that the racers will pass by six times. We found a great spot that we backed into so the flags will be right above the road.

It was still only a few degrees above zero and the sun hadn’t quite cleared the mountain above so it was incredibly cold – I had about six layers of clothes on, including my merino wool sweater and a fleecy pullover of Colin’s. All I really needed after that was a hat, scarf and mittens, but a black blankie had to do instead.

We setup the table and chairs and got the water started for the tea. At one point Colin went down the road to look around and I checked the water – it didn’t look like the flame was on and I thought the canister was perhaps empty. I put the kettle back on the burner and turned around and then I heard a sound – they whole thing had fallen over, and the canister wasn’t actually empty but was still burning away. If it had been hot and dry out it could have started a fire! And almost all of the water spilled out of the kettle so I had to refill it and start the boiling process all over again.

Finally we got a pot of tea steeping, and had a bit of food to eat. We were really glad we got such an early start – the field we chose filled up pretty quickly and cars and bikes came up the road by the hundreds. The moment the sun cleared the mountain above us it got instantly warmer and the layering process was reversed.

I took a walk down a ways to find a clean port-a-potty – there was a space around the corner below us that had a large tent setup with food and drinks, as well as a pile of tables and chairs, and a large tv screen. Their biffies were very clean and had toilet paper and water for washing – pretty spiffy biffy!

Back at our spot more and more folks kept coming – they finally put a rope up to stop more from trying to come in.

The first riders appeared around 12:12 – a breakaway of about 10 or 12, including a Cdn – Robert Britton.

The peloton at that time was about 17 minutes behind. Each time they came around again the breakaway was smaller, and the peloton was closer.

By the third time around Peter Sagan, the world champion for the last three years, gave up and packed it in. After that it was a process of reigning in the breakaway and establishing a position.

I got some great photos – Cdn Michael Woods…

Irish rider Daniel Martin…

Local dinasaur…

Michael Woods and Alejandro Valverde…

Vincenzo Nibali…

Tom Domoulin and Nairo Quintana…

Fans high….and low…

After the race had passed for the sixth and final time we went to a campervan a few spots up from us and watched the end of the race on their tv. Spaniard Valverde, Frenchman Bardet and Cdn Michael Woods were in the lead, with Dutchman Domoulin trying to catch them, which he did. As they approached the finish it was a four-man sprint, with Valverde taking off first – the others were unable to catch him, although it was so close! Bardet came second and Woods came third, although neither one of them at the time seemed that happy to be on the podium since they weren’t on the top step. Valverde, on the other hand, was ecstatic, having come in second in the World’s twice before, and third four times.

The highland cows on the way home seemed just as unimpressed as the goats the other day were.

The sky was a bit overcast to begin with so we didn’t get out for a walk until almost 11:00. Mr. Rooster was walking his mini-harem around the yard as we passed, but Mo didn’t seem interested in them and they basically ignored her.

We walked down the path just in front of our apartment and headed north – this time we crossed the road at the bridge and followed the path on other side.

We passed a group of hikers along the way, as well as other walkers that were on their own.

Just before we got to the next village we crossed the road again and found our way to the path I’d ridden on a few days ago to make our way back home.

There are a couple of benches along the way that have a metal cutout naming the places that were involved in the Winter Olympics when they were in Innsbruck – 1976, I think.

There’s also a nice map and display of the local Camino trail – or Jakobsweg, as it’s called here. I must have ridden right past it the other day and didn’t even notice it.

Back ‘home’ for lunch, then we met the dog that’s staying in the next apartment – her name is Sally and she’s very friendly and has a lot of energy. We opened up the gate between our two balconies and Mo and Sally had a great time scampering back and forth between our two apartments.

We watched the Elite Women’s road race on tv – we actually had gone out yesterday morning and scouted out the part of the course that they’re doing loops of – there’s a really long, hard hill and the women today are doing 3 loops and the men tomorrow are doing six so we scoped out where we might want to park ourselves for the men’s race.

A Dutch woman ended up winning, and a Cdn came sixth – not too bad!

We took a little trip down into Telf to go to the store, then when we got back we drove into Gasse (which is very close) and parked the car so we could go for a walk further north. We cut across a field to get to the path, and started walking.

We passed a very nice hand-made fence, and some of the boards had the name of the kind of tree it came from burned into it, or burned into a small board nailed to it.

We went by some very nice small farms, and a house that had a very old pair of skies next to the front door, and a black cat that didn’t seem at all bothered by Mo.

We walked until we came to a large gate at the end of the last farm – we could have continued further, probably all the way to Germany, but decided to turn back.

It was a beautiful day and all of the animals were out enjoying the still-green grass, even a deer.

We’ve noticed that the whole area and everywhere we’ve been around here is very neat – the yards are well kept, houses and buildings are well maintained, roadsides are neat and trimmed, and there’s very little garbage visible anywhere.

And we assume it gets pretty cold in the winter – most of the houses have massive stores of wood piled up in sheds, etc.

Most of the houses are chalet-style, with balconies covered in hanging baskets of flowers – it’s just beautiful.

Back at the apartment we had stew for lunch and watched the Under 23 Men’s Road Race – won by a Swiss rider who didn’t do much work in a 3-man breakaway but was able to get away from the other 2 with about 10 km remaining. Good tactics, I guess, but I felt sorry for the young Belgian that came second.

Got up at a decent time and spent the morning watching the junior women’s road race on tv. A young Dutch girl won – it was only her second road race ever, and she’d won the world title in mountain biking very recently as well. A Cdn girl came third!

After lunch we went out for a really nice walk – starting along the trail I’d ridden on my bike the other day, then turning up and back along the Camino trail. The Camino in this area seems to be called Jakobsweg, and I don’t think it’s as old as some of the other ‘ways’.

We passed some very interesting looking mushrooms, but I wasn’t at all tempted to pick any and try them for a snack.

It was a beautiful walk that went up a bit, but not too steep, and at one point opened up into the nice wide valley that we drive by on the way to and from Telfs.

We passed a house that was made of logs, some with the ‘burrs’ still on them. There were a couple of hang-gliders floating around near the top of one of the mountains to the north.

The village was beautiful – both the houses as well as the little shops.

Rather than turning around and going back on the trail we kept going and in a short while were back on the road towards our apartment. We were only on the road for a bit, then encountered the bike path that we then followed home.

Before actually going home I crossed the road to the metalworking place that has sculptures of animals setup all around.

Right next door were some goats – three adults and two very little kids – so cute, but I wonder why there are so many babies being born so late in the season (we’ve seen a lot of very young calves also).

Relaxed for the afternoon watching the junior men’s road race – very exciting and won by a young Belgian fellow by a fair margin – I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of him in the coming years.

Made a nice beef stew, but it was a little late and neither of us was hungry enough to eat – but that’s ok since stew is almost always better the next day anyway.

We got up and were out of the apartment by about 8:15 to get to the climb we wanted to park it on for the ITT, but plans didn’t work out quite as expected. Many more roads were now blocked in Innsbruck as the junior men were practicing on what will be their road race course tomorrow.

As a result we were blocked at almost every turn and then backtracked quite a ways – we eventually got onto the motorway to bypass the city so we could get to the east. We turned north at Hall-in-Tirol and up to Absam where we stopped at the same supermarket as yesterday, then continued on to Gnandenwald and drove down the hill all the way into Fritzens, which will be the start of the climb.

We turned around and drove a little way back and pulled over to a nice wide spot we’d seen on the way down. We setup the table and chairs, then got the flags up – maple leaf in spot of honour on top of one – although it wasn’t very breezy so they didn’t furl out as nicely as they usually do. Two men walking up past us jokingly asked why so many flags? couldn’t we decide? We responded about Colin being British and living in France, me being Cdn, Italy and Spain for the other two Grand Tours, both of us liking the Netherlands, and the Celtic countries because it’s so interesting. They liked that answer, then asked who our favourite for today’s race was and I piped up that I liked Domoulin – they loved that answer as they told us they were Dutch.

We then settled in to wait a few hours for the first racer to come by – had a bite to eat and took a walk or two up and down the road to check out the other fans. By the time the race started our side of the road was one long un-ending line of cars all the way down to Fritzens. The day had started out beautiful but very cold – almost zero overnight again, but slowly warmed up to the point that I was able to change into my rah-rah skirt.

The arrival of the first racer was telegraphed as usual by motos and the helicopter. There was only one Cdn in this race – the other must have pulled out for some reason.

The final rider to pass was last year’s winner Tom Domoulin, although he was not the favourite to win again this year – we found out later that Australian Rohain Dennis won, and by quite a handy margin too.

The wind finally picked up a bit shortly before we took the flags down, packed up and left.

As we drove down thru the town of Fritzens we encountered hundreds of people all over the roads and crowding the sidewalks – there were beergardens open and folks were indulging.

Oh – we also found out that yesterday’s women’s ITT was won by the favourite from the Netherlands, one of the Cdns missed the podium by only 2 seconds, and the other Cdn came 8th – not bad! The goats on the hillside on the way home weren’t impressed, however.

It was a very chilly morning – not much above zero. I waited until around 10:45 to go for a bike ride while Colin stayed back at the apartment with Mo. It was still so cold that I put on my riding jacket with the hoodie and my full-fingered riding gloves.

The trail that runs right past where we’re staying led shortly to a bridge across the little river. At that point I opted to stay on this side of the road rather than cross and follow the trail on the other side.

The trail led to the next little village, then on paved paths to the town of Gasse. The whole way I was looking across a beautiful green valley surrounded by towering Alps.

I didn’t go much further before I turned around and followed a smaller unpaved path back. Along the way I noticed that on one of the many path-marking signs there was a blue scallop shell – this is part of the Camino trail!

Shortly before the path that goes back to our apartment the Camino trail heads up the hill above so I decided to keep that for another day as I didn’t want to go too far and be late getting back.

We left around 12:30 to find a place to watch the women’s individual time trial from. The drive from where we’re staying to Innsbruck is lovely – several really pretty villages/towns, and every so often you can see a ski-lift. The towns all look very well setup for the ski season – both alpine and cross-country, and hiking is also very big in this area.

The GPS took us through Innsbruck on a very confusing route in order to avoid all of the closed roads, and we eventually arrived at the town of Hall-in-Tirol where we turned left and up the race’s most difficult climb of the day.

We drove along the climb to the town of Absam, where we decided to park – there was already a crowd gathered, along with several policemen. They waved us on towards the west, but rather than going we stopped and asked where we could park – they pointed a short ways east and told us ‘by the policecar’. We pulled in right beside their car and decided to take a little walk down the main road as we still had some time before the first racer arrived.

We walked a couple of blocks, going into a health shop to use the WC – they didn’t mind that we didn’t buy anything. They had a fish tank inside that Mo was pretty interested in and outside there were several stationary bikes setup with folks having a go on them.

We walked back to the corner at the top of the climb,, picked up our chairs and went down the hill just a bit to pick our spot. We hadn’t brought all of the flags, but I did grab the maple leaf that Colin had bought – I pinned it to the back of my chair so it could be seen from the bend in the road down below us.

There were quite a few fans, some perched rather precariously on the roof of the house across from us, three guys on the wall, and several folks on the edge of a small fountain.

I almost missed the first Cdn rider as I was focused on the one from Great Britain – the Cdn was about to pass her and all I got was a photo of her back-end after she’d gone by us. I was paying more attention when the second one came along.

Once the last rider and all of the following vehicles had passed a couple of the ladies that had been watching from the fountain across the road came over and asked me about my earrings – they thought they were awesome. The husband of one of them had been watching the race just up from me on our side of the road and said he’d taken a photo of them earlier. I told them that they’d been made for me by a friend of Colin’s and they thought that was great.

We went back up to the car and instead of heading home we went a little further east to check out what will be the men’s ITT course tomorrow. We stopped at a supermarket that had a cafe and used their WC, then sat down for a coffee – well Colin had coffee and I had a nice glass of wine.

We followed the route backwards and saw quite a few spots on the one very hard climb that would be great to watch from. Back home we had a nice dinner of fish cakes with beets and coleslaw, and got a slightly earlier night.

Had a nice easy morning – it was quite chilly outside so I actually put on my merino woolly for the first time this year. Went down into Telfs to get some groceries, then came back and had lunch.

Got going to Innsbruck around 2:00 to meet Colin’s good friend Ann and her friend Ernie, who are on their way back from Corfu to England and happen to be passing through Innsbruck just when we’re here.

We managed to find a parking space on the street across the river, even though we couldn’t get quite where we wanted due to road closures for the races – all of the races for the whole 9 days end in the city centre so many of the roads are closed.

We walked around just a little, and I must say I quite like Innsbruck – there are buildings in all colours of the rainbow in places, and others have elaborate murals and scrollwork on them.

Colin phoned Ann to see where they were – he told her we were in front on the building with the gold roof, and she said to stay there – she knew exactly where we were and would come and get us.

Only a few minutes later there she was. She led us to where Ernie was waiting and we had a drink, then Colin had to go back to the car to retrieve Mo’s jacket as she was shivering. It turns out it was very fortuitous that Colin went back when he did – when he arrived there was a policeman just getting ready to write up a parking ticket, but was very nice and told him that he had 10 minutes to move the car.

We got the jacket on Mo and Colin went back again to the car to move it to a parkade. While he was gone Ann, Ernie, Mo and I sat down at a nearby cafe and had a drink, taking advantage of the cozy fleece blankets that were thoughtfully provided on some of the chairs. I wrapped Mo in one and tried to alleviate her shivering.

Once Colin returned we moved on to an Irish pub for another drink (or two) – they had really nice cider there. On the way we had to pass through a security check point since we were very close to the race finish point – they asked me to show them my pack so I just turned around and he opened the main zipper and told me to go ahead.

After that we went for dinner at a place that Ann was familiar with – it was a nice walk. I got the roast pork with dumplings and coleslaw – it was very tender and tasty, although I could only eat about half of it and got the rest to take home for breakfast. Ann’s dog Maggie and Mo both got to come right into the restaurant and were very well behaved.

We said goodbye to Ann and Ernie – they’re leaving in the morning for France, then onto England. Colin and I found our way back to the carpark then made the drive home to the apartment.

We got decent start out of Mansle on Saturday – were one the road before 8:30, with bikes on the bike rack and the car completely stuffed. We went generally north east, including the sheep-loving area around Mezieres-sur-Issoire.

We passed thru lovely countryside, many sheep farms, different kinds of cows, beautiful tree-covered hills. We turned more east a bit south of Dijon and ended up right around 5:30 in the town of Belfort, not far from the German and Swiss borders.

After breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning we hit the highway around 8:15. A little northeast and we passed by the city of Mulhouse, then it was over the Rhine River and into Germany.

We went north to Freiburg – there’s one whole area that has overpasses crossing the highway, and they’re covered with grass and bushes. Apparently they are so the cattle can cross from one field to another without getting frightened by the traffic – I thought that was so cool.

We then went southeast and past the beautiful Obersee Bodensee, a large lake that reminded me very much of home – nice wide valley, vines laden with grapes and trees heavy with apples and other fruit.

One of the towns along the edge of the lake must have been where the zeppelin was made or something – there’s mention of them all over the place, and even a statue of a child holding one in his hands.

After the lake we were getting more into mountains with fewer farms and more coniferous trees. We stopped in a village for a coffee – the building was just beautiful, with paintings on the wood everywhere – walls, doors, even the ceiling.

About an hour after leaving the ‘Gasthof’ we entered Austria, and we arrived at our apartment in the ‘village’ of Leutasch around 4:30. We’re up in the mountains off the main highway just up from the town of Telfs.

We checked into the apartment, unloaded our stuff and drove into the next little town to find a place to get a bite to eat. We agree that the place we’re staying is just awesome, and so is the countryside all around. Our apartment has a full kitchen and large balcony, and there’s also a small balcony off of Colin’s bedroom. There’s a creek right between us and the main road, and also a nice looking walking/cycling path.

Thursday was a bit of a lazy day – watched the Tour of Flanders that was taped back in April, then took a short break. We drove up to Ligne so Colin could let Madame Varley know that he wouldn’t be parking his campervan at her place anymore – on the way we passed over 50 cyclists on the road that must have been part of a group tour. It looked like they must have had lunch at the little cafe on the lake of the willows in Luxe as there were markings on the road showing them where to turn.

After seeing Mdm Varley we went on the campground to have a refreshing beverage at the bar. We then took Mo for a little walk along the river and stopped on a bench for a bit. The local kayak club was out on the water and we watched them for awhile – looked like fun. As each of the kids passed us for the first time they all said ‘bon jour’ – again, I’m struck by their courtesy.

Saw the duck family again – looks like there are still 3 little ones, so no more have been lost.

Next we headed up to the Penalty Bar for another beverage – it’s surprisingly hot today! Edith and Sylvain thanked us again for having them over last night, and we thanked them for coming.

One of the brits, Max, that we met at the campground bar on Monday night – when we had Willie with us – was there with some other brits. He came over to ask us how Willie was – he and Robin, the other guy we’d met on Monday, had told their wives about Willie and they all wanted to know how he was, especially since we didn’t have him with us.

We told him what had happened when we took him to the vet in Ruffec – his owner had been located and he was being cared for – they seemed happy to hear that. Max has a house on one of the main roads and mentioned that the large group of cyclists we’d seen had passed his house earlier also.

We had a little chat with the two tables of brits as we passed them on our way to the car to go home. Once back at the house we watched another taped race – this time the Gent Wevelgem.

Had a pretty early night – very tired.

Friday was sorting and packing day – what was staying in Mansle, what would be staying in Italy and what was coming home with me. Later in the afternoon we went down to the bar for a drink, and ordered donairs with chips for dinner from the kebab shop next door.