Finally arrived in the Balkans

My youth hostel roommates last night were an Italian music student, a french guy who was cycling to Greece and a dutch guy who was cycling to Thailand……seriously! He was taking 10 months to do it and was just 2 weeks in. I set off towards the dolomites, missing my chance to see Otzi's body in the museum and the passage of the Giro d'Italia through Bolzano later today. With the sun shining, fluffy clouds and the steam rising from the road, it was a fantastic start to the day.

I rode on through the Dolomites with a big grin on my face. They are truly spectacular and the pictures don't really do them justice. This lump of rock here (Latemar Massif) is a 240 million year atoll which was created as the sea floor sank and the reef kept building to stay near the surface eventually reaching over 500 meters high. These mountains are like no other I have ever seen and definitely worth a visit. Cortina d'Ampezzo, the big town in the middle of it is not. A big sprawl which doesn't really seem to have a heart or any life in it. It has good pizza though but at 23 euro for lunch, it should have been.



I passed over the Giau pass at 2230M just before Cortina and the camper vans were already gathering for the big mountain climb of this years Giro which goes over tomorrow. It is a long hard climb with 26 switchbacks and I don't envy those guys who have to race up it. It will be a cold night tonight with snow covering the pass but the crowd were getting the BBQs going….

Still not having any luck with mountain passes when they also are at borders. My attempts to get into Slovenia tonight were thwarted by an unwilling pass so I had to go round it and take the 7km motorway tunnel through the mountain for the princely sum of 7 euro. Tonight I am in a bar in Kransja Gora watching the Eurovision qualifying……don't think this would happen in the UK. I feel I have finally crossed the some sort of taste border as well as into the former Iron  Curtain.