Balkans Holiday Revisited - last days

Homeward Bound

On leaving Berto we were presented with a string of dried figs from his garden. It's a bit like string beans, if you grow them you have a glut and give them away to all and sundry. No problems with the bowels this holiday!

After a slow start through Rijeka's rush hour we soon left the Adriatic Coast and crossed into the green wooded valleys of Slovenia. By mid-day we'd reached Italy and headed up into the Dolomities. We finished the day with the rather nice Falzarego & Valparola Passes before finding a B&B in the ski town of La Villa. The next day we rode over 200 miles to travel about 65 milesto take in plenty of passes.

First the lovely open Gardena Pass



Then the green Mendel Pass



The Tonale Pass came next, followed by the surprise - the Gavia Pass! This didn't show on our maps and was quite a shock, steep, very narrow, tight hairpins, rough tarmac and no barriers! At 2600m it was a big one! We didn't manage to stop on the way up, it was too scary! This nice lake was at the top though.



Next was the main object of the day - the Stelvio. This was a doddle after the Gavia. We stopped to take the classic views looking up and down the north side.






We overnighted in nearby Silandro & the following morning did our final pass, the Timmelsjoch into Austria. We'd struggled with this a few years back when new to biking but yesterdays practice paid off & we found it easy. It was rather foggy at the top which limited photo opportunities but we managed a few







Finally saying goodbye to the mountains we crossed Austria & into Germany to to Stuttgart to stay overnight with relatives. The D roads of France provided our final rather chilly route home.

Altogether a great trip with a wide variety of different roads, fabulous scenery and interesting new cultures. We can heartily recommend it to anyone considering venturing in that direction & would be happy to share advise with anyone who wants it.

Elvie