For almost a week we enjoyed the hospitality of Kristina and Dirk in Innsbruck. The view of the mountains from their living room is phenomenal. You would like to stay and live here forever. 🙏🥰
Linda's Cinq 5 has been repaired by the bicycle shop Veloflott. Linda can now also charge her phone and power banks by cycling. 😁
Through this repair visit we experienced that Innsbruck is a true cycling city. There are scenic bike lanes on both sides of the river Inn. Not even a single car will bother you. We also faced the fact that you are not allowed to take anyone on the luggage carrier in Austria. This is a habit in the Netherlands. Abroad it’s prohibited: “far too dangerous”.
During our rest week we wrote a first blog for Blanche Dael: Austria has a very rich coffee culture. And a second selection of our stuff has been sent home. Ben got rid of 5 kilos of load and Linda 3 kilos. In Greece we will see if it is necessary to send more stuff home.
The route continues
Patsch is very tough. The Brenner pass isn’t any easier. At the top of the Brenner pass we cross the border. We are in Bella Italia. Then we go downhill on a beautifully laid out cycle lane. The Passo Montecroce (1,636 m) is heavy with increases of up to 12%. Then it becomes less steep: Linda can also cycle up the mountains with some breaks. The view at the top of the mountain is beautiful. After the steep increase of 10% at Sappada di Cadore, it’s going downhill. The descent is great. We have a beautiful view of all kinds of mountains with nice hairpin bends.
Next we go through the countryside. The cow bells are replaced by thousands of cricket noises. The mountains through meadows full of sunflowers. At the end we are treated by the first beach on the Adriatic sea: Miramare, where we spend the night.
We leave the coast via Trieste and enter unnoticeably a small part of Slovenia on an old tramway. There is no end to this tramway. Cycling on the gravel path with a slight rise exhausts us. The Bora wind makes it even harder.
At the border of Slovenia to Croatia we have to show our passport. The cars are in a traffic jam. Fortunately we can cycle on. Many people raise their thumb and encourage us when they see us cycling. 👍💪
After the border we head towards Motovun. That’s the most beautiful mountain village in Istria. Thanks to this detour, we achieved our record in terms of altimeters.
The route gets tougher
After the Limski channel, the route becomes more rough and the heat increases. We cycle through a beautiful forest: we are grateful to the trees for giving us some shade. Finally we arrive in Rovinj. That’s such a lovely town! Large marble stones cover the street and we are surrounded by many old buildings of all colors. The view over the sea is fantastic. The cycle lane goes right along the water through an old pine forest.
We go further south towards Premantura. It’s heavy: large stones and sand on the road. Passing cars leave us in the dust. This trail is nice for a mountain bike, but it is not a great cycling lane as indicated.
It’s getting even harder
After Premantura we go to the islands through Brestova. There’s nothing on the island of Cres except for beautiful nature and Cres goats. Pag is even more extreme. Not a single tree can be seen, only a few barren thorny bushes. It looks like we're on the moon. The great thing about these islands is little traffic. Only the cars from the ferry pass in a row every 2 hours.
Cracks and holes in our rims
After the islands we head towards Skradin. We cycle through a beautiful nature reserve. During a break at the side of the road, Ben notices some cracks and holes around the spoke nipples on his rear rim. Linda's rear rim has the same issue. 😱 We have to repair the rims to prevent a wheel stroke. This sucks! 😫 We expected these rims could carry the load.
De Vakantiefietser has never experienced our problem with the rear rim with an Idworx bicycle before. If overloading is causing this they recommend a stronger rim. Our wheel with new rim must be spoked in Croatia or sent to the Netherlands to have it done over there. The latter will take far too long for us.
We email and text a few bicycle shops in Split. We check our email at a nice coffee shop in Šibenik Azimut. Unfortunately, there’s no reply from the bicycle shops yet. Let’s give them a call! Two bicycle shops say we have to call a different shop and another says that he only has time in about 15 days.
A big applause for Idworx
This is not working out well. We are advised by the waiter to go to Iljadica-Rapo nearby. We email Gerrit Gaastra from Idworx and wait for a solution.
Antonio from Iljadica-Rapo says he can fix anything. That’s good news. And he has time to do the repair. Even better news! 😁 After consulting his engineers Gerrit has a solution for us. He will send us 2 new fully spoked carbon rear and front rims! 😁😁 We will test these for Idworx. 😎 We are very happy. Now we have the assurance that the wheels are properly spoked. The bicycle shop in Šibenik only needs to change the brake disc and rear sprocket.
Waiting for the new carbon rims
According to the track and trace code, the new rims will be in Šibenik in one week. We have to wait a lot longer than we wished for. 😕 After sleeping on the beach for 3 days, we want to stay in a hostel for the remaining waiting days. We find a hostel Barone 4 you on the outskirts of the city.
During our stay in Šibenik Ben planned the next route and Linda took care of the social media. We also adjusted the website: WWF is one of our new partners in our goal to discover the world and pass it on as green as possible. During our world tour we visit various nature conservation projects of WWF which we will support.
Did our message reach you? Geef has a new platform on which you can start your own collection for a good cause. In this way you can collect online for our foundation.
Positive message UPS
Friday afternoon, July 31, we receive an unexpected message from UPS: the rims have been delivered. That's great news! We can go to the bicycle shop for the assembly at 5 pm. In principle, we can be on the road again on Saturday morning. We decide to stay in Šibenik for a few days for the already planned day trips to National Park Krka and Kornati. Next Tuesday we will continue our world bicycle tour.