Author: Steph

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Italy on Monday, 30th-September-2013. Vittorio to Trieste. 86 miles. What a miserable day! It’s been raining on and off more or less all day. And there’s been a strong wind driving the rain straight at me. I was glad to finish tonight. Although one good thing today is that I seem to have left all the mountains behind me, I’ve had a relatively flat ride compared to the past few days.

I realised tonight that it’s going to be my last night in Italy, tomorrow I should be in Slovenia, country number five. I’ve also made it back to the coast, and apparently, my hotel is on the beach overlooking the Gulf of Triest. So the leaflet in my room says! It was dark when I arrived, and I’d had enough of the rain, so I never bothered going to look.

It’s a bit of a trendy hotel tonight, which you’d never have guessed from the outside. But who cares? The rooms were nice, and the shower was nice and warming. Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn’t open, so I had to venture back out into the rain. But luckily, I found a takeaway pizza just along the road.

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You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Italy on Sunday, 29th-September-2013. Valdaora BZ to Vittorio Veneto. 86 miles. What a miserable day, it’s been overcast and raining on and off all day. And of all the days to be miserable, today is one that I could have done with it being sunny. I came through the Dolomite mountains today, but with it being so dull and overcast, I couldn’t see a thing. I kept getting the odd glimpse but never a complete view. But what I did see looked pretty spectacular. I just wish I could have seen it all.

I spent much of the morning climbing up the 1500m Cimabanche pass, and there was me thinking it was going to be all downhill after the Brenner Pass yesterday! Mind you, it has been downhill more or less since the Cimabanche Pass, and that was about fifty miles ago.

I ended up on the wrong road this afternoon, or rather it was the right road. It’s just I shouldn’t have been on it. I could see the road I should have been on far below me as I cycled high above it on the new flyovers, which wasn’t a good place to be! Cars were whizzing past me, and I was being blown from the hard shoulder into the main carriageway by a strong sidewind. And things didn’t improve when I had to go through some scary Mary tunnels, with no hard shoulder!

I was glad when an exit came, and I could get off that road and get onto the quieter road that I should have been on in the first place!

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Austria on Friday, 27th-September-2013. A day in Innsbruck. Decided not to go anywhere today, as it’s another wet day. And there were one or two bits that I wanted to do but couldn’t whilst moving.

The first was a trip to the hospital! My back went again about a week ago, which then, in turn, started my sciatica off again! I’m fine all the time I’m riding. I’m not in any pain at all. It’s only when I stop and start to walk or at night when I try to sleep. I don’t normally have any trouble sleeping! I’d only brought a few of my painkillers, thinking that I wouldn’t need too many, which I soon used up. Paracetamol just isn’t strong enough, and they won’t give you anything stronger at the pharmacy, hence the trip to the hospital!

After an examination by a doctor at the hospital, they gave me a prescription or a recipe, as they called it, for some stronger stuff! Looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight, hopefully! What with my sciatica, I’d also picked up an eye infection and had to get some antibiotic eye drops in France. But that’s all cleared up now. Let’s hope that’s it now for all my ailments! The joys of getting old!

Whilst I was here, I decided to get a haircut which proved a bit harder than I thought! Despite there being loads of hairdressers, I couldn’t find a barber. Well, not until after I’d had a haircut. All the hairdressers I tried were just too busy and couldn’t fit me in. I did eventually find one with only a half-hour wait.

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.