4th day
We get up at 5.30 after windy and rainy night. As usual we want to cover a longest distance before afternoon heat. We packing fairly phlegmatically and go. From morning we have to ride against the wind. After 5 kilometres from camp in Banan's bike brakes down the carrier. In that situation Janusz can't go on. We start to search someone who could help us. One of inhabitants informs us of bicykle shop situated nearby. From that shop we have to go to another located in the next city ' Wiener Neustadt. In makeshift way we fasten a carrier to bike, than we take part of luggage from Banan and slowly ride to Wr. Neustadt. Then we look for the shop for a while. I the middle of searching there take place a funny situation. Janusz asks someone 'Do you speak English'' and the answer is ' 'Sorry, no. I come from Poland', so Janusz says 'Ja te'' (in Polish ' what means: 'Me too'). Man from Poland, a little bit disorientated asks him about what are we doing here, from what part of Poland we are, where are we going to, etc. We find the bicykle shop. Janusz pays 20 euro for new carrier. I and Wojtek have to take part of Banan's luggage becouse he's afraid that the new carrier could also brake down. Finally we go on. We pass the place Neukirchen. Instead of using map, we follow our nose in searching the right way becouse there are not enough road signs. We just don't want to get on a motorway. To make sure we often ask passers-by about right way. We approach slowly to our first pass, to our first serious uphill ride. More and more clearly we realize that we are in the Alps. We ride for the first time through the Alpine villages. Everywhere amazing silence, we are under impression that no-one lives here. The road begins to climb higher and higher. Heat. But after 15 minutes the weather changes completely. It starts to rain. Janusz and Wojtek who are a little bit in front stop and hide under a tree. I pull over, put on a raincoat, cover the luggage with a foil and... it stop raining. I go uphill for a while. We take a break in Maria Schutz. After next 3 kilometers we reach the pass Semering (985 m. above sea level). And from there long downhill ride with a small slope, and farther down the river. Now we have a chance to ride faster. We buy food for Sunday and ride to Bruck an dem Mur. After pass it we plan to find a place to sleep. But by the river there is not enough space and what's more, it starts to rain again. So we try to ask local inhabitants about possibility of pitch a tent in their garden. Unfortunately in the country it's hard to find a person who speaks English. Moreover only I speaks German, and not so well. But finally we manage to stay for the night in one's farmer garden.

5th day
The watch rings at 5.00. It's hard to get up, it's raining. I get up as first. I get dressed and make a breakfast for me. Wojtek and Janusz are still lying in their sleeping bags. It's still raining. It looks we're going to have cold and rainy day. Zadek and Banan get up. We pack, then bustle about aimlessly for a while. We think what should we do if it will be raining all the time. But luckily it stops raining so we can go on. We ride in raincoats and luggages are cover by foil. But the weather starts to improve. And rest of the day we ride in the sunshine. At the evening we pitch a tent by the Alpine stream, where we take a cold bathe.

6th day
5.00 ' wake up! It's cold, we don't want to leave our sleeping bags. Wojtek do it as first, half hour later me and Banan. We pack two hours again and about 7 o'clock we set out. The beginning is gently and easy ' along the river. Janusz notice that we encounter road under repair for the first time in Austria. The Alps are more and more visible on the horizon. We pass Villach. In the distance we can see ski jump. We ride straight through Slovenia. After moment we will have to cover our first difficult uphill ride today ' it results from map, where it's mark as a slope of 18 % of inclination. It is confirmed by the road sign. Before going uphill we take a break for eating. It starts rather easy. Wojtek is a little bit nervous becouse he wants to ride uphill some serious and difficult slope at last. It turned out that real slope is only just before us. And when we see how road climbs higher ' we terrify. But we have no other choice ' we have to ride. Everyone changes gears to the lightest ones. We ride from right to left and from left to right side of road ' this makes inclination smaller and ride a little easier. We curse this road and wait for the ride downhill. Car's and motrcycle's drivers wave to us and applaud. Ride uphill is incredibly hard. Sometimes we almost fall. We are drenched with sweat. After 48 minutes we reach the top (pass 'Korenske Sedlo' ' 1071 m. above sea level). In that time we manage to cover just 7 kilometres. On the pass there goes a border between Austria and Slovenia. We take a break there, go to the toilet, eat. And downhill ride! At last! Unfortunately road is winding and awfully full of holes so we couldn't 'sow our's wild oats'. Everywhere spread beatiful view to the Alps. We are surrounded by the mountains. Only our way down below. We turn to Planica and ride straight to 'skakalnica' (in Slovenian) ' 'mammoth' ski jump. Wojtek and Janusz climb to the top of it. I stay down. An hour later we go on. After while we leave Slovenia and ride to Italy. All of us in a good mood we continue riding. We reach first Italian place ' Tarvisio. At once we can see that it's not Austria, not Slovenia. Small town, but full of life. A lot of people, in caf's, bars, restaurants. Through the town leads us narrow streets full of people and historic tenements. It starts to cloud over slowly. But clouds cover the sun for our relief. A short stopover by the bar. We take a water, pour it to the bottles, drinking. Local inhabitants watch us attentively.
Now we regret that we don't have any Polish flag, or even just 'Poland' inscription ' then everything would be clear. We move on. Pass a short tunnel. We encounter road repair and we have to turn right, and after 15 meters turn left ' back to main road. We turn right. I say to Wojtek so that he turn left. At the moment a heavy lorry blows behind us. Janusz turns around, he doesn't notice Wojtek turning left in front of him and BOOM. Fall. They get up quickly and move over from the road. Luckily both just slightly injured them legs. But worse matter with the bicykles. In Janusz's bike we have to straighten handlebar, and the cable from cyclocomputer burst. In Wojtek's bike ' twisted front wheel, fork, handlebar and front cogwheel. So we decide to find somewhere to spend the night. In spite of completely ignorance of Italian Janusz manage to induce someone (speaks by signs) to make his garden available for us to pitch a tent. While we doing this some old man watch us attentively. We hope that he won't think that everybody in Poland lives in that way J. It starts to rain. Our host try to sweeten us today's hard time and gives us juice and a bottle of Italian dry wine. Moreover he offers us using his cooker in garden. We eagerly make use of this ' we heat more than usual tea, instant soups etc. We repair our bikes to the night.

7th day
It's 10 o'clock and we still haven't set out. Troubles, troubles and troubles. Everything caused by yesterday's accident. The fault of Wojtek's bike is more serious than we thought. Twisted fork make safe ride impossible becouse bicycle turns left by itself. Now Janusz and Wojtek ride to nearby town Tarvisio to find some bicycle shop. But will they manage to make them understood' Tough night passed. Rainstorm has awake us a few times. I was worrying about our safety at night. All the time the thunderbolts clap frightfully and the tent was pitched by a tree. It was pouring down so hard that our tent leak. We planned to get up about 5.00, but we couldn't becouse of rain. So we get up only at 8 o'clock. Today pass first week of our expedition. Despite of seven days spent out, I don't miss home food or warm water. Now I'm just afraid a little about future. It's just 7th day of trip and so much troubles: broken carrier, an accident. In addition we were exhausted after yesterday's uphill ride. And before us the Dolomites, Hochtor... When it comes to money ' it's better then I supposed. So far we spend not much money. Particularly me and Wojtek becouse we took a lot of food from Poland. Here we buy mainly bread, which is unfortunately very expensive and not too tasty. Few minutes earlier I had a chat with some little old lady. She said that she commiserate with us over conditions that we have to sleep (rainstorm). She brag about 'knowledge' of Polish and in the end she said just 'Dobre jutro' (English translation: 'good tomorrow', but this phrase is rather used in Slovakian and Czech, certainly not in Polish). We set out at 12 o'clock. Unfortunately in Tarvisio there wasn't fork to buy in any shop. We ride to Gemona del Friuli. There should be more bicykle shops probably. The way to Gemona is wonderful. All the time downhill, through the valley. Amazing views. Mountains around us. Huge differnces of height between our road and tops of the mountains. Average speed 30 km an hour. Bad luck again! A nail sticks in Zadek's tyre, result ' puncture. However, rapair is very quick, last only 5 minutes and we are back on road soon. We reach Gemona and here we start to look for place where we can buy fork. We visit two shops without result. In third one salesman/mechanic helps us and try to repair fork - after 30 minutes of working and with hammer we pay 5 euro. It's a ripp-off. Initially he wanted even 10 euro. We ride back to previous shop becouse in my bike's connecting rod (support) takes a clearance and we want to repair this fault. We enter a shop and we find it empty ' no-one's inside. All bicykles and equipment leave without care. If we want to we could carry away everything from a shop. We call 'hello, hello' but nothing happens. We think if we are not in 'Just Kidding' tv show. So we want to go out. But Janusz blows the small bike trumpet and this caused some men appear. He gave us tools. Unfortunately we were unable to unscrew some part. So support has to stay as it was. We try again in another bike shop, but without effect. We ride to Lidl supermarket for shopping. We are very hungry. It's 16 o'clock and not counting breakfast we haven't eat enything from morning. We go shopping and have lunch by the shop. We are a huge attraction for the shoppers. Some person starts to speak to us. He speaks English very well. We are full up so we go on. Now it's flat terrain, mountains are behind us. We start to ride through 'Padova Lowland'. We count kilometers remaining to Venice, that pass very quickly. Average speed again about 30 km an hour. We search a place good for having a wash. In spite of this we are on lowland it's hard to find clear river. We decide to sleep in someones garden, as yesterday. We try in some house looks like the rich people lives in. But we are out of luck this time. The host advises us to try in nearby church. But the garden around the church is too close to the road, moreover there's no fence. So we look for another house. We choose one and ring the doorbell. The door opens about fifty-year-old man. When we ask him 'Do you speak English' as usual we hear the same answer: 'A little'. The host agrees so that we could spent night in a tent in his garden. But that's not all, he proposes us spaghetti for a dinner and using the bathroom. We are impressed! Our tour should be a 'survival' and now the conditions are rather like in a high class hotel. Dinner is ready. We sit at the table and what we see' ' spaghetti, asparagus spears, vegetable salad with olive oil, ham with melon, sticks-shaped bread, juice, wine, cheese. What's more our host goes for ice cream, especially for us. He surprises us once again when he brings poems of Wislawa Szymborska (Polish famous poet, she won the Nobel prize in 1996) in Polish and Italian language version. We are proud a little at this moment. We take a shower after all and go to sleep.

8th day
Watch alarm rings as always at 5 o'clock. After while I glance at it once again and... it's 6.10. Well! We wanted to get up early but again it came to nothing. We find a cooker in garage, we almost feel at home so we use it without asking. House owner proposes us coffee with biscuits for breakfast. It is akward to refuse. At 8.00 we are on the road. The sun beats down from early morning, it's 25 degrees Celsius. We ride straight to Adriatic Sea. We turn a little from route planned in advance. After hour we reach seaside-resort ' Carole. And in a moment we are on the beach. But this beach is completely different from these by Baltic Sea. Whole covered by sunshades and deckchairs, paths lined with some plastic mosaic. Showers, dressing rooms, fields for playing in 'boules' (Italian name ' 'bocce' ' fascinating game for us, becouse we completely don't understend the rules), fields for playing volleyball ' literally, there is everything. We drow lots who will stay by bikes as first. Wojtek loses so I and Janusz enter the sea. Water is warm (in comparison with Alpine rivers ' it's hot) and salt. We spend over an hour and a half at the seaside. The sun beats down extremely. Unfortunately we have to go on. So we ride. The road signs irritate us a bit becouse they show contradictory informations. First we pass sign 'Venezia 45' then 'Venezia 50'. When we spot a stall with fruits we stop. We buy a 6 kg watermelon. We split it into three parts and eat in hiding, becouse eating by the wayside stalls is supposedly illegal in Italy. What a blow-out J. We pass San Dona d. Pieve. We start to be sick of this sun. We console ourselves that there left not many kilometres to Venice. We pass yet busy town Mestre and we are on a dyke leads to Venice. The view is stunning. In front of us ' Venice, on the left and on the right side ' Adriatic. The thought of being so close to Venice sent shivers down my spine. Yes, we are! We pass a 'Venezia' road sign. We ride for a while and stop. Now we have to get off the bikes, becouse of obstructions ' the stairs placed over the canals which Venice is crossed by. We walk through the streets full of people come from all over the world. Amazing mixture of cultures and languages. On the way we encounter a lot of Poles. But the way is long and tiring. We want to get to the 'Piazza San Marco' (St Mark's Square), but it's not easy. Slowly we start to be nervous about this way. We manage finally. Thousands of tourists on the square. Really there is a lot of things to admire. We realize that now we are only cyclists in historic part of Venice. We make a huge impression on tourists. Especially when we utter the magical word 'Poland'. We see the square but after all it's time we have to leave. We inquire after this how to get out in the easiest way. We have to cross 'just' 6 bridges. When we carry in the bridges our bikes loaded with luggages we can see astonishment, admiration and smiles on many faces. After 30 minutes we find our way ' road out of Venice. We head to Padova. Accidentally we ride for a short distance on a motorway, what is prohibited and we fear about paying ticket. Luckily we don't encounter the 'polizia' or 'carabinieri' patrols. After a few kilometers we stop out of Venice. We choose one great house and ask owners if we could pitch a tent on their lawn for a night. As a matter of fact we try to ask, becouse they don't speak English. Their neighbour helps and interpret for us ' the owners agree. Later we communicate with hosts with the help of their son ' Riccardo. We can use the toilet and take a shower again. We get Italian plums and peachs.

9th day
Wake up, breaking camp, packing. We eat Italian breakfast ' coffee and biscuits. We set out after 8 o'clock. Just half hour of riding and we reach Padova. We visit historical city centere and we head to Vicenza. Italian sun make our life miserable, heat is intolerable so in Vicenza we make a 1,5 h stopover. Then we go to Verona. And here we decide to ride on a hill towers over the city. The way is tiring but it was worthwide. The view from here is amazing, the city panorama just below us. We hit on an idea to search nearby an overnight stay. It would be great to sleep in such place. We ask people in several large detached houses. But we are out of luck. We give up. After whole day of riding in heat I'm exhausted and I think only about going to bed. But first we have to leave Verona. What's more it's late, after 20.00. Luckily just out of Verona we manage to find place for overnight stay. By the way we talk with some women from Poland who is a friend of people whom we have asked about staying for night. Excellent choice. We are invited to supper ' spaghetti ofcourse, chicken, bread, watermelon, beer, wine, juice. Moreover we can take a shower. Wonderfully!

10th day
We are on our feet extremely early ' at 5.30. We pack slowly. Hostess invite us to breakfast. But things she prepared exceed our all expectations. This wasn't simple Italian breakfast. We could help ourselves and eat bread with butter and jam or chocolate cream and drink coffee, tea and juice. What's more we get peaches, plums and bananas for the road. Super! We are full up and we set out. Banan's full stomach cause a little problem, he complain about stomach ache. Way is very exotic - around just kiwi plantations. After 20 kilometres we reach lake Garda. It's really sensational, not only enormous but also situated among mountains. Moreover clear water. We start a ride of 30 km lenght along Garda's shore. We stop in some place by the bicykle shop. Unfortunately problems with Zadek's bike again ' brake handle broke. All that becouse of earlier accident. We have to wait until repair ends. And what is waiting for us today' MALGA PALAZZO ' the most difficult (steep) climb all over the world. I can't wait to see it. The repair will cost 15 euro. But Janusz not to give up, he haggle with man from bicycle servis and thanks to this we pay 10 euro. We can go on. All the time along Garda Lake. We can't resist, the tempation is too strong so we make a stopover and walk into the water. It's warmer than in the Adriatic Sea. Afterwards we eat fine cake which we were given today morning (if I speak Italian i would ask for recipe). After such a great rest we can go on. Today Wojtek and Janusz haven't a lot of eagerness for riding, probably it's caused by our breakfast. On the way we ride through several short tunnels, then we leave Garda and turn towards place Roverto. Tiring uphill ride. Although pass is situated only at 300 m. above sea level we waste a lot of vigour to get on top. Some downhill ride, while over a flat road and we are in Roverto. We go to Lidl and think about Malga Palazzo, it's a little late so we are afraid that we will not have enough time to reach it today. We decide to find a place for sleeping in Besanello and put off plans of reach Malga Palazzo to the next day. We will be 'attacking' the most difficult climb tomorrow early morning. Our choice for overnight stay is great. Strictly speaking - the owners of house are great. Real Italian hospitality. Supper, bathroom, we can take shower at any time we want. That's not all ' we sleep at home in beds! In advance me and Wojtek go for a little reconnoitre our tomorrow's uphill road. When we see initial fragment of climb (exactly we should say: face) we come to a conclusion that next day will be very, very interesting.

11th day
We wake up at 5:20, pack quickly and have breakfast. We leave the luggage and set out. It's 7 o'clock. The way is incredibly steep - exactly such as we have imagined. We ride on lightest gear with a great difficulty. We have to stop for rest every 50 meters. To make it easier we ride from right to left and from left to right side of the road. Unfortunately the road is very narrow. The whole trick is to start riding each time. We try various tricks: we start crosswise from the edge of a road or even we try to ride downhill a little and ride uphill again. We move forward with 'incredible' speed 4 ' 5 kilometres per hour. The only cars going there are with four wheel drives. We covered about 8 km distance and we are also 1300 m higher than at the beginning. What a way! In the worst situation is Wojtek becouse his road bike hasn't as light gears as my or Janusz's cross bikes. Our salvation is that it's early morning, if we chose to ride later... probably we would be dead yetJ. We reach the top, success! Now it's a time to ride downhill - strictly speaking - to go down. Road is so rough and steep that downhill riding in some parts of it would be extremely dangerous. We return to our camp at... 15 o'clock. Yesterday i told household members that we will be back at 10 o'clock J. We eat a dinner yet (noodles with meat, French fries, ice cream) Excellent! We have to be in nearby Trento before 17.00, becouse we are afraid that located in this place Lidl could be closed later - it's Saturday. We are by the supermarket few minutes past 17. Luckily it turned out that shop is open to 19. Hurrah! We can buy cheap food. We stay for the night in Solorno sleeping in... garage. We get spaghetti.

12th day

We start to pack at 5:30. I and Wojtek we have a good night's sleep but Janusz froze. We prepare breakfast on a camp stove, first I then Wojtek. Suddenly we notice that stove doesn't work ' it's out of gas! - despite of our friend from 'Duszak Team' assurances that there is enough gas till the end of our trip. Janusz is angry about this situation becouse he has to do without hot meal for breakfast. People whom we have already spent night are helpful ' they prepare for us not large Italian breakfast ' coffee and biscuits. We set out. We ride bicycle path placed parallel to main road, path is amazing - it looks like bicycle superhighway! It's only 7 o'clock and we meet cyclist on path all the time ' children and adults, men and women. All the asphalt bicycle paths in Bolzano are probably longer then in the whole Poland. Currently our worry is how will we manage without camp stove, how will we prepare hot meals. We hope that there will be possibility to fill the stove with gas on one of petrol stations. From Bolzano we ride up the river. In front of us start to be outlined first tops of the Dolomites. We turn into some back road and it starts ' first serious uphill ride in the Dolomites. It's a hard time for Wojtek ' becouse of his knee ache, uphill ride is for him enormous effort now. Road and river along which we have been riding earlier are far down below. We ride higher and higher, tired, in a sweat. Our way lead through switchbacks, which Alps are very famous for. We reach pass situated over 1400 metres above sea level. And now that what we like most ' downhill ride. A slope of 15-18 %. Yeah! Winding downward slope. We ride downhill with speed over 60 km/h. We reach St. Ulrich, and out of town we find another pass to struggle with. It's getting late but we decide to ride further. We can see enormous mountain face before us. Amazing way, a lot of switchbacks and fantastic view of places we passed earlier. We are higher and higher, closer and closer to the clouds. We reach our first pass placed above 2000 metres above sea level. 2121 metres exactly. It's very cold, 10 degrees Celsius merely! And the downhill ride just before us, so we put on the jackets. Unfortunatelly we forgot to put on the trousers ' this is ours great mistake. Low temperature and our very fast ride downhill caused intense knee pain. We decide to search place to sleep in first place just round the pass. Unfortunately this is not so easy, becouse it's hard to find any house without sign 'Zimmer frei. Rooms'. But we are lucky again ' we meet some old woman who receive us with great enthusiasm. We spend night in small room, for free ofcourse in spite of this the house is some kind of not big resort. We can use the kitchen too.

13th day

It looks we're going to have another tough day. It will be difficult as long as we won't leave the Dolomites. Day starts extremly interestingly. At the beginning some fast downhill ride and next pass before us. It is a drag to ride uphill. As usual the top reach first Wojtek and Janusz, I join them several minutes later. We are now at 2105 m above sea level, we reached pass 'Passo di Falzarego'! Downhill ride is excellent ' we ride at 60 km an hour easily. Janusz reached a maximum speed over 70 km an hour. We even manage to overtake several cars. It's interesting what the drivers think about cyclist riding faster then cars, surely we make a pretty good impressionJ. We reach the most known place of the Dolomites ' Cortina. There we go for quick shopping and try to fill with gas our camp stove, ineffective. 30 kilometres farther we are out of Dolomites, in place Toblach. From there we ride down the river. We manage to find a bicycle path, and we ride as fast as if we had gone crazy. We are in Austria already. The border between Italy and Austria in principle doesn't exist. Janusz realize that we are in another country 30 kilometres away from the border. We spend night in garden farm. Hostess gives us a small loaf of bread, butter, salami, ham, sausage, tomatos and a bottle of coca-cola.

14th day

The camp stove doesn't work still. Fortunately we may use a small cooker in glasshouse. Thanks to this we can prepare a breakfast. We manage to find place where we can fill the bottle with gas. Price ' 8 Euro whereas in Poland we should pay for this 1 Euro at the most. We share the luggages between us again. Unfortunately there's no chance for rest after tiring ride in Dolomites. Today we begin ride in High Tauras and what is more we intend to reach Hochtor pass. Day is a little more cool and cloudy than previous. After several kilometres ' unexpected downhill ride. We thought that we will be riding uphill all the time until we reach Hochotor. We start to fear that than could be large slope before pass. But before we could reach Hochtor we will have to reach Grossglockner ' the highest mountain of Austria. We want to leave the luggages somewhere but there are any buildings nearby. Finally we find a small wooden house, we turn into the field and leave the luggages behind building. And we begin to ride extremely beautiful rout - in front of us we can admire snow-covered tops of Tauras. Close to us a great precipice far down the valley. It's a little bit terrifying, becouse there are no railings by the road. We reach the top ' 2362 m. above sea level. Return - amazing downhill ride at speed over 70 km an hour. And what about night' The problem is - there are any towns nearby. And it's too late for trying reach the Hochtor pass. What's worse it looks like rain. We decide ride downhill about 8 kilometres back to the Heiligenblut. The worst thing is that our return will cause necessity of riding uphill 8 kilometres again next dayL. But we don't have any other choice and we ride. Fortunately during downhill ride we notice some wooden house so we ask its owners about possibility of spending night in tent nearby. It's very hard to make us understood, but finally we do it. They allow us to sleep in tiny hut on slope. It starts to rain. We carry in the bicycles and luggages on this steep slope. Inside the hut stinks, becouse normally it's probably used for sheeps staying, half of it is blocked by planks. We clean a bit and pitch a tent. The worst thing is that we are soaked and our things are wet, what's more we will have to sleep on sloping ground ' inclination seems to be of 40 degrees, roughly speaking. What a night ' two thousand meters above sea level!
TO BE CONTINUED


English version by Banan
( I'm not an expert so if you find any errors in translation please let me know ' mail to me )