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Tour date: 1-17 June 2005. Total distance: 1400 km.
Bicycle Tour: Eastern Europe (Italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Hungary - Slovakia - Austria - Czech Republic)
Thomas Driemeyer2005-10-16 14:37:51
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ITALY
This tour began in Venice because it has an airport where direct flights from Berlin go that are large enough to carry bicycles. And I like to visit the place even though I had been here three times before. And, for the first time, we found time to visit the island of Murano, a quiet and unpretentious little copy of Venice proper where world-famous glass blowers create and sell mind-bending kitsch.
The ride from Venice started where we had parked the bicyles, in a small motorcycle lot in an alley that connects Piazzale Roma with the Vaporetto boat terminal. Bicycles are not allowed in Venice. The ride begins with a narrow and dangerous section of the bridge to Mestre, but soon a wide bike path begins for the rest of this 4km bridge. Then we followed the airport signs to get on S14, which is quite busy until the A27 freeway turnoff, and then quiets down a little. After about 24km we took a side road through Caposile, Passarella, Eraclea, S. Giorgio, and Latisana. It's not one of the most scenic routes, but quite nice and far better than S14. In Latisana we rejoined S53, which is S14 under a new name, but here it is quieter because it parallels the freeway.
In Cervignano we left S53 (ignore the first sign, it leads to the freeway) to follow S351 to Gorizia, a border town. Although quite small, the traffic picks up considerably for the last few km. We stayed at the International Hotel, a little away from the center but cheap, modern, and convenient. After a 145km ride at 30 degrees C, cold showers were far higher on our priority list than hotel hunting. The hotel is on Via Trieste, about a km southeast of the train station (take two rights at the first two stoplights). Up to here the terrain was basically flat. There weren't a lot of stores or good restaurants along the way, and they follow the usual annoying opening hours in Italy - after around 14:00 it's hard to find food, so plan
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See photographs from:
Slovenia Gallery
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Slovakia Gallery
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Italy Gallery
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Hungary Gallery
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Czech Republic Gallery
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Croatia Gallery
,
Austria Gallery
