5 Of beautiful Dolomites and a woman with a very firm handshake

Day 5: Tuesday, 27.08.2019

Route: Munich-Venice cycle path

Start: Niederdorf
Destination: Longarone

Distance covered: 100.0 km
total cycling time: 5:24 h

8:25 (Nico)

We are packed up and ready to go. Well, almost. Everyone still needs to take a bathroom break and Anna needs to braid Krissi's hair. Max is currently paying the bill, including the 5 shots that each of us had last night. Despite the ban, we successfully smuggled in breakfast. And by the way, we spent 200€ on food and drinks yesterday. Alex and I treated ourselves to a bottle of wine for 21€ … oops … but we also had some shots. But we paid 100€ less for the room. After all, there were six of us in a four-person room. Very comfortable and definitely funny.

12:07 (Anna)

Today is such an awesome day! The Dolomites are very beautiful. We can't stop taking photos. Right now, we are taking a break: Max is eating, Alex is on his phone. Everyone is happy.

Quote from yesterday: "Wow, we really need to get there slowly, my legs hurt!" - Quote from the ONLY e-bike rider!!!

14:08 (Julle)

Stopped in the middle of the path just before a tunnel, still enjoying the beautiful Dolomites view. Everything is perfect as it is also sunny and warm. Today, in my opinion, is the coolest stage! Now, here are some bullet points because it would take me forever to write it all down:

- Cars honking and waving at us

- Small towns, old houses with gray paint, often in decay, but idyllic

- Smell of hay

- Lots of cyclists, more than anywhere else

- Max is eating

- Red mountains

- "real" Italy, moving away from South Tyrol

- Downhill, we let it roll

- It becomes more Mediterranean in terms of houses and people

- Fir forests replaced by mixed forests and ferns

- At the highest points, there are stones everywhere on the path -> flooding/avalanche?

- Path built on the edge of the cliffs, right next to the abyss

- Often tunnels, with muddy ground

- More damaged asphalt roads than in Germany, but better gravel paths - mostly

I thought of or noticed so much more while cycling, but now I don't remember.

(Krissi)

Guys, today was exhausting. The climbs were fine, but the sun and the wind at the end really got to me. But the route was breathtaking. Truly beautiful. To be honest, I had hoped that the path would always run alongside the mountains. But it's logical that the landscape becomes flatter as we head to Italy. Oh, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, we'll still see a bit more of the Dolomites.

By the way, Anna's bed and breakfast booking was a complete success and Jacqueline welcomed us warmly with a mix of German and English. I tried Spanish and was disappointed at how difficult it was to understand - let's see what we'll have for breakfast tomorrow ^^. By the way, Jacqueline shook our hands so firmly that not only did our hands hurt, but Anna's wound from Friday reopened and started bleeding!

20:55 (Alex)

After our improvised dinner with bread, Zazicki, fresh cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, bacon bits, and pickled peppers on the terrace of our B&Bs, we decided to go into town. There, we all treated ourselves to some ice cream. And there is also a beautiful modern concrete church there, but it still looks open and very "playful". You can walk all the way around the church and there is a "small" open-air concert venue or something like that at the top.

By the way, we ate our ice cream at a square where we let our feet dangle in the air at the end. Here's a snippet of our conversation: We're talking about TV shows and Anna throws in a very fitting and qualified comment: "Hey, I've got dog treats in my pocket!" And with this beautiful quote, my entry ends.