Cortina D’Ampezzo to Lienz
The morning greeted us with light rain but we decided to stick with our plans and push on to Lienz. After breakfast, we jumped on our bikes and proceeded to go the wrong way right out of the shoot. We climbed a rather steep hill, then figured it out and headed back down. The radweg (bike trail) was right across from our hotel door. Oh, well, we only added another 30 minutes to our ride...
The ride over the Pass from Cortina to Dobbiaco was not difficult at all and we were fortunate to have seen the mountains 2 days earlier. Today they were shrouded in clouds. The trail was washed out in one place from yesterday’s rain and an Austrian Angel helped Johanna carry her bike across the debris. We rode along to the tune of cow bells who were sharing our route.
It was 30 km to Dobbiaco and another 8 km to Inn San Candido where we wanted to stop for lunch. It had been a little cold over the Pass so some glueh wine, Cafe Americano and hot chocolate warmed us up nicely. The left over pizza from the night before was delicious. Now ,only 50 more km to go!
The trail was mostly downhill along the Drau River and through this lovely Sudtirol valley. Beautiful Tyrolean homes adorned the highest hillsides on slopes as green as golf courses. We sailed along this perfectly paved trail passing one classic Austrian village after another. Chantal commented that this ride felt like we were on e-bikes. We only stopped at the site of an enormous land slide and then to watch a robot machine cutting the grass on the local soccer field.
In Lienz, the first person we asked for directions led us to her shop and called a nearby hotel for us. We got settled in, rested and were off to fill our bellies again. Life is good.
This was our longest ride, 88 km from Cortina to Lienz. Of course, from Dobbiaco it was mostly down hill.
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