Bremner – Pass !

Worst of the rain seems to have gone, so time for a bike ride. Idea was to get as close to the Italian border as we could, heading south along  the official ” München – Venezia ” cycle route.

Mostly it was on quiet small roads, on the far side of the valley from the fancy new Brenner Pass highway. It was very up and down, which kept it interesting. We got chatting to some serious Swiss cycle tourists who were travelling from Germany to Italy , carrying  what looked like less gear than I take for the day !

We got within about 5 miles of the border, but turned back -partly owing to being knackered, largely because after Staffach the route joined a main road with no cycle lane protection , and we just didn’t like the look of it.

Cracking views along the way –

And yes,  there was the inevitable opportunity to snigger at foreign place names:

And after we turned back, we found the real wimp’s way out : local buses cater for lazy cyclists as well as pedestrians :

A very nice driver showed us how to release the bars which go through the front wheel, while the rear wheel rests in a brush-lined slot. Most effective ! The bus took us most of the way back to our start point – after 550m of climbing, it didn’t seem too much of a cheat.

The buses have been great – especially as we get a free visitor pass to use them right across the Innsbruck area, through our whole stay, courtesy of the campsite.