So the Cycling Saga Begins...

We finally set off on our cycling journey after spending a great evening at Albert and Ingrid's place in Ingoldstadt, where we had bought paniers and carriers from Albert's shop and got some good tips about where we should go. It was pouring with rain and the forcast wasn't good for the rest of the week.

We managed to pick my bike up from the lady I bought it off on ebay and it looked ok, pretty old, but hardly used. We caught the train through to Hausham, which was the town South of Munich where Chris's bike was. We arrived in the pouring rain and headed off to the house navigating using our little google earth printed map. Using my somewhat limited german I managed to converse with the people selling the bike, and we finally had 2 bikes! Unfortunatly we had some serioous mechanical problems getting carriers and things on and spent most of the day huddling outside this funny little bike shop in the pouring rain and snow getting all our gear sorted. Eventually we did, and we biked into a wee foresty spot and camped in the bush (with some huge slugs!).

The next day it was pouring and very cold and we were really wishing we didn't send so much of our warm gear off to Scotland! We biked for a couple of hours, then warmed up in a cafe for about 4, then biked a bit more and camped beside a very beautiful lake in the mist. (more ginourmous slugs!)

Again we woke to rain and cold, and set off with the goal of making Fussen, the famous German town where the fairytail Neuschwannstein castle was built by King Ludwig. We spent some more time in a cafe eating hot chips trying to warm up, before we arrived in the town just on dark and camped hidden behind some trees in a paddock just below the castle.

The next day it wasn't pouring! So we cruised up to the castle and decided we should do a tour. So we took lots of photos and wandered around the spectacular grounds, then continued through to the next town and found a cool spot to camp beside the river...but it was still freezing. We had crossed the border into Austria.

And finally it stopped raining! We woke up and continued down river with the plan of climbing our first big pass today, 1900 metres. It was sunny and warm and we cruised happily down some wonderful cycle paths. We went through the town of Egg, and Chris had the ingenious idea of attching a bungy tow rope to my bike (see photo for demonstration) so that way I was pulled (and pedalled) to the top of our first pass called Steinjochen. The downhill was great and we continued through Imst, and camped in a spectacular valley up in a clearing that a friendly Austrian guy showed us.

The weather was steadily improving as we continued the next day up valley into Solden, then on up to Vent at 1900, a high mountain town where we found a really neat place to camp, but it was really cold, again. In the morning it was what Chris termed our 'rest day'...ha! It involved biking up to an Alpine hut at 2400 (me on the tow rope cos it was really steep!) then we climbed up to the Kreuz Spitze at nearly 3500 the biggest peak I've ever climbed! It was really cool, a really beautiful day and a fun walk. We sped back down the valley to Vent and our nice little camp spot. We ate pizza in town and then went to sleep after a wonderful rest day!!

In the morning the weather was a bit colder with fresh snow on all the surronding peaks, and it was spectacular as we headed down valley to Solden. Unfortunatly Chris's gear cable broke so he only had three gears! There were no bike shops at Solden, so we continued up and over a massive pass, 2500 called Timmelsjochstrasse. It was so freezing on top, and the downhill was unbelievably long through several large tunnels, and we crossed the border into Italy. We eventually found somewhere to camp on the grassy patch on top of one of the big tunnels!

It was lovely and sunny in the morning and we continued over the JoufenPass, a mere 2100 after the previous days effort. We sat on top of the pass in the sun and ordered two big cappuchinos, mmm. Then we enjoyed a warmer and wonderful gradiented downhill into a nice town called Stezing. Here we camped in a campground so we could have a hot shower and clean some of our very smelly gear. We also got Chris's bike fixed, and some new brake pads cos we have already worn ours out! So, that's where we are at now. Apologies for the hasty blog, the internet is very expensive here so I've written this as fast as I could! Hopefully when we get into a slightly bigger city I'll hav some time to email and blog a bit more at a slightly cheaper rate! Today we cross another pass back into Austria, and then I'm insisting on a real rest day!