Leaving beautiful Innsbruck after a filling breakfast…some little extras packed away in my front panier including chocolate cake! Yes, from breakfast.

We had left the traffic of the city behind after perhaps 1.5 km and started climbing…quite steeply..up those mountains.  The climbs were up around 9 percent until we had reached Igls.  The views back over Innsbruck were great.

We kept climbing for a long time today..some 30 plus km heading to Brenner Pass, which is on the border with Italy. After Igls, we left the main road and rode in cycling tracks again. Whilst they are invariably slower, they are safer. They also travel through man more villages.

Just above you can see the main motorway. Incredible infrastructure that went for so many kilometres.

Do you remember the photo in yesterday’s blog of a heavily laden bike that included a guitar? That same guy was walking his bike up Brenner Pass, and when I got to him, he was scrounging through a rubbish bin on the side of the road. Sad, perhaps he was looking for food…?

A few km before the top of the Pass I stopped to eat my banana. Nice views back down the valley.

Brenner Pass was not what I expected at all. It is quite heavily saturated with discount shopping stores, a railway station, truck depots and the like. So we did not stop until I found an Italian flag to photograph.

Looking down into Italy.

The cycle tracks from Brenner Pass were amazing. Wide, great condition and through great forests until we arrived in Vipitono. It was so inviting we decided to stop for coffee and apple strudel.

Despite now being in Italy, the area is still very much Austrian and German speaking.

We were now only about 30 km from our destination. Rain threatened, but again we were lucky and only scored a few drops. We rode further down the valley, eventually arriving at our destination, where the sun shone, and it was now about 26 degrees.

We found our accomodation…and there was a party out the front, complete with a band. The party was to celebrate vespa’s. We created quite a scene trying to get through the crowds with our bikes, and into the hotel.

A couple of men grabbed my arms to indicate ‘strong’ 😂😂😂

Many also wore these Austrian leather pants.

A really nice little village…still buzzing with partying as I write.

Todays route and climbs.

The wifi is really poor in this hotel.  As I write, I am sitting on the stairwell, just above reception, trying to get a strong enough signal. I have had company….now I know it looks like I am strangling him, but I’m not…trying to rub his neck as I take the photo.

So another day done and dusted.  Tomorrow is the Dolomites!