An overcast start to the day, looking back over Lake Lugano for the final time, before riding towards Lake Como.

Our route took us by this beautiful nature reserve lake.

From there, the bike path followed an old rail line.

Well sign posted. We were heading to Menaggio, a town on Lake Como.

Our first view of Lake Como.

By now the rail trail had fizzled out and we were on cruddy dirt descending to the lake road.

Looking towards Menaggio

We had plenty of time to kill today as our ride was shorter at only 68 km and we could not check in until after 2 pm.

Pootling around the town, the nicer vistas were unsurprisingly lakeside.

The lakeside road was quite busy, and narrow. Multiple times we had to stop as manoeuvres occurred for a truck and bus to pass in opposite directions.

We stopped at this church and the statue is further in at another church.

Stopped at red lights, this was a great graphic of the area we were riding.

We stopped to check this interesting building out on the lake foreshore.

It is the Tempio Voltiano built in honor of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electrical battery, who was born and died in Como.

The museum is dedicated to the scientist, and houses many memorabilia related to his life including the first version of the battery.

The building was opened in 1927, 100 years after his death.

Como itself was super busy. A tourist infestation and in many places they wandered so aimlessly taking over all free spaces without any awareness of surrounds or other people. We walked to safely pass through.

We had hoped to sit down and lunch at Como but given how densely packed it was we just snacked on what we had with us at a quieter spot on the lakes edge.

Heading out of Como involved four nasty little steep pinch climbs. The advantage is the view.

Our overnight stay is in Nesso, a lakeside village on the side of the hill. A 1.5 km climb got us in the general vicinity of the accomodation.

The instructions were then: find the striped house opposite the grocery store. Cross over at an angle and locate steps. Go down 7 steps, turn left. Proceed 30 metres and go down more steps….and there is number 26.

We knew rain was coming so we were keen to get out and walk…down countless stairs to the water front to the local famous attraction.

This bridge and the gorge behind it were made famous, apparently, by Alfred Hitchcock. The spot is known as Ponte Della Civera and the movie, The Pleasure Garden, shot in 1925.

It took time to have the bridge free of people as it is a popular photo stop. Water craft hovered to our right hand side, with passengers busy with their cameras.

Standing on the bridge, looking back towards the gorge and waterfall.

We then climbed far too many pebble steps back upm giving our quads and glutes more of a workout, as well as our lungs.

So this view is at the top looking back down, you can see how small the bridge appears.

Here is a zoomed in version of above.

Food for dinner was looking a bit scarce on our walk. There was the possibility of a restaurant opening at 6.30 pm further up the hill, but given a few were not opening Tuesdays, we took our chances with reheated pizza from the icecream shop.

It was actually heaps nicer than either of us expected and quite filling.

Heading back to our accomodation we noted the waterfall flowing under the houses.

The little shop near our accomodation had reopened at 5 pm, so we grabbed some fresh strawberries and yoghurt to finish off our meal.

Today’s route is below.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to ride to Bellagio, then climb to the iconic Ghisallo cycling museum before riding down past Lecco to Lake Garlate.

Weather warnings are out with solid rain the next two days leading us to plot Plan B. We will see what transpires.

Thanks for reading, hope to,catch you tomorrow and not be too soaked. 😊❣️

The weather forecast was not great but we have learned to just wait and see how it pans out in the morning. Meteorologists have been known to get it wrong before.

It was raining but easing up. When we left we had wet weather gear on and I would call it mizzle. Nuisance rain, enough to get your bike dirty too.

Leaving Ascona we skirted through Locarno.I think we picked the nicer lakeside town to stay in. Low level cloud hovered just above the lake creating an eeriness.

Switzerland do bike paths and signage well.

Back on the main lakeside road, we had a small verge. We stopped here for Tony to take some photos of the lake, oh and me!

The lake was majestic. I do think rain and overcast weather adds a different dimension. Trying to be positive here, but the lake is beautiful.

Lake Lugano lays between Lakes Maggiore and Como with an area of around 49 sq km. Part of the lake belongs to Switzerland, the other part to Italy.

It took us about 10-12 km of riding to leave Lake Maggiore and arrive at Lake Lugano.

The lake seems a lot quieter and less touristy. here are a series of photos taken as we traversed the lake. The lakes weaves around as you can see from our route map

We ride through the city of Lugano without stopping, except at red lights, it was busy traffic wise. We immediately went into a 2.1 km climb out of the city. Here I am below climbing, with part of the city in the background. It was a nasty little climb.

The advantage of climbing is a differing perspective on the lake below. I think these are really nice pictures Tony took.

With only 1.5 km remaining Tony entered a 1.1 km tunnel, that was enough to make me look at our map better and I could see there was a route for bikes around the side but he missed that.

I had two choices and decided I would follow him. That was a shite and very long 1.1 km.

Here is the tunnel exit, it was one of those WTF moments and a bad error of judgement on our behalf. The adrenaline was surging. Not sure what speed I did as the bike computers do not work in tunnels as they cannot access satellite. But I pushed it!

Thanking out lucky stars we got out of the tunnel unscathed, our hotel was only a few hundred metres away.

We wandered around the town to find dinner.

High above town another cliff church, with a winding path up. This is the Church for the Fit!

We have seen many old olive trees in towns, and this one is a good example with its thick and ancient stump.

Our last view for the night before we headed to bed. Tomorrow we leave this beautiful lake and head to another.

Tony’s healing but his thigh hurts the most. You can see why.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow 😊❣️

First question…how is Tony?

He slept ok but I could tell he was in pain with various sounds during the night. Apart from his sore and swollen lips, missing skin on his left hand, he also has significant swelling and bruising on his upper thigh. Those upper leg muscles were going to get a workout today, so not ideal for him with a 100 km ride ahead.

Leaving our accomodation it was back up the pot holed, dirt and muddy in places road heading to Oleggio, where we had visited yesterday.

We were on predominantly quieter rural roads for the first 30 km or so. We did pass through a few nice villages. A few shots from the early km’s.

We commenced our descent to Lake Orta and what a beautiful view. The lake is 13 km long and 2.5 km wide. I had read is was less touristy than the neighbouring Lake Maggiore and added it to our route.

Orta San Giulio is a very picturesque village, with narrow cobbled lanes, old stone walls and numerous little piazza’s (squares) dotted with craft and antique shops and cafes.

We could see it ahead, jutted out on a peninsula.

We turned off the main road past the ornate building, which is an expensive hotel boasting a three hat Michelin star restaurant. Only 20 rooms for guests, I had a look to see how much a room would set you back. The cheapest room in the next few days is around 1000 euro. Sure….

The tourist buses and cars park near Villa Conti. People either walk down or catch the mini motorised tourist train.

At the base of the hill, by the waterfront is a piazza dotted with cafes and a range of tourist shops.

Getting out of this village was not easy. I had tried to,route a traverse route but could not and once in the village could see why. Steep cobbled walk ways and steps were necessary to,find an upper level road. So we pushed our bikes up a 16 percent cobbled gradient until we found bitumen and headed back out to the main road.

Back on the main road we were heading to the biggest lake town of Omegna, passing through this roundabout, which is my roundabout of the day award.

Omegna was a busy town and we were on a just as busy arterial road out of town heading to Lake Maggiore. However we detoured to ride around the quieter Lake Megozza.

Two pictures of Lake Megozza.

Lake Maggiore is Italy’s second largest lake and is 64 km long by 3-5 km wide. We were now on a shared pathway filled with cyclists of varying capacity, walkers, families out and about as it was Saturday.

The hardest part were some of the older e-bikers who had no sense of their surrounds nor bike handling skills to match the electric power output, and weaved around the whole narrow path, somewhat a menace to other users.

We stopped in the main piazza in Verbania shore side to enjoy some cold refreshments.

Lake Maggiore has many lovely photo opportunities. Snow capped mountains to the rear.

We missed the right alley way to turn left and got caught up in a myriad of alley ways trying to get back on route.

From the alley ways we had to take our bike up 52 steps…..yes, I counted them.

The remains of Castelli di Cannero, near Cannero Riviera are ancient fortifications from the early 1500 ‘s, built over the ruins of an earlier castle.

Houses are built onto the high side of the road, with impressive access roads. I imagine they would have brilliant views.

More lakeside views as we edge our way closer to Cannobio.

Cannobio is a nice lakeside town with an old history. Many of the waterfront buildings are over 600 years old.

We rode through but headed straight to our accomodation as the number of people walking around the piazza made cycling difficult. After showering, we walked back to see the town and more importantly find food.

We ate early at an Italian restaurant on the shore front and we were in bed by 8 pm still adjusting our bodies post jet lag.

Photos from around town post dinner.

So here we are, done, 100 km, 542 m ascent done. The weather conditions were ideal. A mixture of roads and surfaces, many beautiful vista’s. For Tony less than ideal but hopefully tomorrow his leg will be more comfortable.

A magnificent day.

A lovely breakfast and blue skies greeted us as we departed and did a slight detour to the gorgeous Lake Jasna, which are two small interconnected lakes only 2 km from where we stayed.

Whilst man made lakes, it is very scenic and pleasant at the confluence of two rivers. In fact, they removed gravel from the rivers flood plains to create.

The lakes are in a beautiful valley on the main road to Vrsic Pass.

Vrsic Pass we did consider crossing, but we wanted to go to Lake Bled and Bohinj and it just did not work out. The route has 50 hairpin bends and closed for around 7 months a year due to snow.

Some of our photos from Lake Jasna.

We then headed back into Kransjka to a coffee shop recommended by my coffee connoisseur son in law. We needed a decent coffee as the breakfast coffee today was insipid.

We then got on our way, take 2.

We headed out towards Lake Bled following a lovely cycle path that headed to Jesenice, but we were to turn off before then.

Turning off the bike path, we were on a small country road that went through some villages. Whilst the ride had been cruisey we did have a nasty 2 km punchy climb that our legs did not appreciate.

We descended and noted a group of Backroad bike tour cyclists about to tackle the climb, from the steeper side, that was over 18%. Many were on super old bikes, not looking fit and we did question the merit of that, but they had no gear, and you can always push your bike up.

We stopped at this historic site that had a sad story.

It is all that remains of the Radovna hamlet.

In September 1944, as a punishment for a partisan attack on German soldiers a week before, the German army burned the houses with people inside, killing all 24 residents including a 7 months old baby.

A Hungarian family approached and asked if I could help them with directions to a gorge, which I had seen on maps and knew it was closer to Lake Bled so I sent them back in the direction they had come from. I do wonder what happened to them? What could go wrong? An Australian giving Hungarians directions in Slovenia!

This rock is known as Fat Stone. Local legend has it that one day a man heard a terrible noise. Scared stiff he turned to see where the noise was coming from. A snake slithered down the slopes, waving its tail, disturbing rocks, including Fat Stone. The snake slithered into the river, the rock stopped rolling, and here it is today.

More lovely views.

As we started to close in on Lake Bled, you can see Slovenia flatten out. Of course, we are not doing flat this trip in Slovenia ha ha and will be heading back to the hills.

Lake Bled is perhaps the most recognisable feature of Slovenia with its fairy tale island and church in the centre middle of Lake Bled. The Church of the Assumption is regarded as a sacred site.

Bled Castle is perched on a sheer cliff with magnificent views across Lake Bled. It was established int he 11th century as a fortress for the Bishops of Brixen who ruled the region until the early 1800’s. Today it is a museum and restaurant.

The lake is 2 km long and wide, and around 30m deep

We chilled on the shores of the lake near our accomodation, which is just out of the main Bled township. Tony cleaned the bikes and replaced his rear brake pads.

We are in nice accomodation, bikes are stored in a very secure small garage only used for bikes, we had a lovely dinner and walk along the lake side.

The light was nice, and these were taken in Tony’s phone, not camera.

A nice day today. Active recovery I called it as we only rode 41 km, but did a pinchy climb that got the heart rate up.