Cortina 2009

[John Armstrong]

Read the books, watched the on-line vidoes, read the reports, so 2009 was going to be in the Dolomites in June. June as it's not school holiday time and so the roads / shops / restaurants should be quieter.

The cunning plan, ride to Hull, ferry to Zeebrugge, stop at Wissembourg and Oetz on the way to Cortina d'Ampezzo, stop there for about 2 weeks. Return back via Ulm and Trier and then ferry back from Zeebrugge to Hull and then home

All loaded up, as we were staying in one place for two wweks we sent some essentials out by post before:

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Get to Hull in some rain showers and then it clears for all the way to Italy the top tip, make sure you don't get stuck behind a group of bikes as it overwhelms them at Hull

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And we're on our way after getting out from the dock:

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Next morning after a nights rest in the "luxury" cabin, nice and calm and getting close to Zeebrugge:

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Somewhere in Belgium and shorlty before a slight detour that meant we got to see the picturesque countryside near the Spa circuit:

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The nightstop, Wissembourg, very picturesque, in France but literally a stones throw from Germany

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[John Armstrong]

13th June

Wissembourg - Ulm - near Fussen, but avoid the Fern pass and enjoy the Hanntenjoch pass

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Hoards of cars queuing up for the €0.30 litre a cheaper than Germany. Then down to Imst and hop across the Inn river to Oetz. Some serious ice cream and cake eating places, with some serious eating going in them from Germanic speakers

Where we stopped;

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Towards Imst from the hotel:

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[John Armstrong]

14th June

Up over the Timmelsjoch, Jaufen Pass, quick motorway blast to Bolzano then head East to Cortina. But the view in the morning gives an idea of the weather we can expect:

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And paid the €11 for the privilege of avoiding the Brenner Pass:

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Still plenty of snow at the Timmelsjoch and the big car park was snow covered:
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Must be warm and sunny for it to be like this here:


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There were hundereds of bikes out, I've never seen so many, and we were lucky in going our way as most of the traffic was going the other way. This view is back towards the Timmelsjoch from the Jaufen pass:

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Who needs an oil cooler

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And it was getting hotter in the valley, about 30 degrees C then onto the twisties and Dolomites scenery. First stop is Lago de Carezza

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And forever onwards to the Passo de Fedia:

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And then the Passo di Giau

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The way up:

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And the goal, the appartment on the edge of Cortina:

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[davidgibson999]

nice photos...

 

[John Armstrong]

Cortina out of season

They wer getting ready to open the shops, Gucci handbag, Bennetton, clothes shops which have no prices, you get the idea Great as the prices were far too expensive but the Cooperativa is worth a wander around. Some Cortina piccies:

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And the early morning view from the appartment, appartment as it's a house but divided into 5 seperate appartments

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Down the valley to the south

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[John Armstrong]

After a few days rest, off to do a few bends

The Passo de Sella, beautiful scenery, photos hardly do it justice:

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And a happy pillion:

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And near the Tre Sassi fort / Pass Valparola a German magazine doing repeated passes with the bikes inches from the rear bumper which was open with the photographer

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Clouds seem to be increasing a bit

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and sure enough, it does rain in Cortina

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Wanted to gain some height, but not on a bike, so use a ski lift

This one: http://www.dolomiti.org/ita/Cortina/cmet/cam14b.html which gets you to: http://www.dolomiti.org/ita/Cortina/cmet/cam6b.html and some stunning views. These are towards the Drei Zinnen, in the 2nd photo if you look carefully you can see the road up to it

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[John Armstrong]

18th June

Nice weather forecast so decided to "do" the Grossglockner, sod the €18 expense.

Lago di Missurina, full of tourist coaches this view is back towards Cortina:

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and on the way up, looking back towards Lienz IIRC

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Approaching the top and the Edelweisspitz

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Lunch stop near the top, no ferking crowds for a few minutes:

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Over the top towards Zell am See

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And the views from / of the Edelweisspitz

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Then off to the Kaiser Franz Josefs Hohe:

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Back to Cortina, more 30 degrees C heat in the lower valleys, nice to get back to the cool of the hills.

 

[John Armstrong]

And a couple of arty night time shots

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[John Armstrong]

Did a few walks, nothing too strenuous, but some great views nonthless.Saw no bikes off the roads on the tracks but our appartment was on the first of the bends into Cortina so saw thousands of bikes and cars and quite a few coaches and cyclists.

The appartment, we were top right in this piccy of the house on the left

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The memorail near Pocol which looks out over Cortina, will be in some of the photo's looking out from the appartment too:

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[ebbo]

Thanks John, great pictures and a trip I still have to do... sometime

 

[John Armstrong]

After a few days of only getting up to 12 degrees C the day before we were due to head back looked slightly better, less cloud and almost 20 degrees C. So one more tick to do, the Drei Zinnen

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drei_Zinnen

Another toll road, but sod the expense again

Not that stunning on the way up, but once you get there, it lives up to John Hermans view on the views:

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And back up the hill from the Lago di Missurina:

<a href="http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/?action=view&current=IMG_0617.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/IMG_0617.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[John Armstrong]

After a few days of only getting up to 12 degrees C the day before we were due to head back looked slightly better, less cloud and almost 20 degrees C. So one more tick to do, the Drei Zinnen

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drei_Zinnen or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Cime_di_Lavaredo

Another toll road, but sod the expense again

Not that stunning on the way up, but once you get there, it lives up to John Hermans view on the views:

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And back up the hill from the Lago di Missurina:

<a href="http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/?action=view&current=IMG_0617.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/IMG_0617.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[John Armstrong]

The journey back tomorrow.

 

[Hairnet600]

niiiice

did val gardena in 07

got to bolzano from innsbruck then turned left instead of right

wasnt disappointed

the road over the border from fussen is ace

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Enjoyed that John, excellent photos

 

[John Armstrong]

The journey back tomorrow.

Which was to ride from Cortina, via the Brenner Pass, or do the Jaufen and Timmesjoch again, then head back north to Ulm.

Reasonable weather meant deciding not to pay the Brenner toll and Austrian vignette and do the scenic route again and once again the top of the Jaufen with a few less bikes than 2 weeks previously

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And over the Timmelsjoch again

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and then originally wanting to go back over the Hanntenjoch, but as it looked wet with low cloud it was the Fern Pass that got the nod

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Too much traffic to enjoy and with the autobahn not being complete north of Fussen, the Hannetenjoch / Oberjoch passes get a from me. Up to Ulm, and the hotel which was right next to the Munster. Betty got a bit confused as did we trying to make sense of the German signs and pedestrianised area around the Munster. Eventually it was ferk it, we're foreigners shortest route to the hotel please Betty! Checked in and had a wander, you could see where there'd been some rebuilding done in the last century, and some older buildings. Very impressive structure, but we saw this next to the Munster

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and the big one

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[John Armstrong]

Next day, Ulm to Trier along the A8, what a "fun" road with all the roadworks near Pforzheim, definite difference in the delays when the trucks were on the road today compared to when we went down on a Saturday.

A certain German village which has had a few mentions on the site was close by the route so we decided to have a quick shufty at it

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Seems fairly peacefull, best check the village's name

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Then on again so we could have a wander around Trier, little did we know that the gratefull inhabitants of Jochgrim would contact Trier and get a party to welcome us

Trier seemed to be getting the party ready as we arrived with just a few beer tents and industrial barbeques.

Towards the Porta Niagra:

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Quite a history to it, and great views from it

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A few bottles of drink, wonder what the people of Cuba would make of the Trier party

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Plenty of different music, plenty of beer, no agro, how nice

<a href="http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/?action=view&current=IMG_0738.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/John1411/Cortina%2009/IMG_0738.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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And one drinks tent seemed to have heard a certain monarch might be attending

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Didn't see him myself, maybe he was undercover

Top party Trier

Next morning, head off towards Zeebrugge and the ferry back to Hull. Weather not bad, but not as nice as it had been, so headed up the Autoroute through Luxembourg and filled up oon their cheap fuel. Cheap compared to Germany and Belguim. Lunch stop was in Dinant and next to the River Meuse overlooking what has seen a few unwanted visitors in the last century

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Then ontowards Mons and some WW1 sights to be seen. First of was the St Symphorien cemetry. I'd not been to one where there were German and our graves. Many of the dead are from the first few and last days of WW1. I noticed how the German headstones didn't have the age, date of death that the British ones had, this seemed to make their graves less personal to me.

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And a recipient of a VC's grave,

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And a German's grave amongst those who were once his enemy

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Then onto the bridge over the canal near Mons where the Germans were held up by a few Tommys, and the memorial to their action and a name we had recently seen

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And the canal basin near the bridge

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One last visit, where WW1 started for the British Tommys

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Then a quick dash and onto the boat for the return journey, which was nice and smooth again, which was nice of the weather man

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[Big Nick]

Lt. MJ Dease V.C.

Sidney Godley was the first Private to receive the VC in World War I, which was awarded as joint first with Lt. M J Dease who received the VC posthumously. The citation for Godley by Lt. Steele reads:
‘In defence of the railway bridge at Nimy, 23rd August 1914.
This afternoon Pte. Godley showed particular heroism in his management of the machines guns. Lt. Dease having been severely wounded and each machine gunner in turn shot. Under extremely heavy fire he had to remove three dead bodies to get to the gun’

 

[Deleted account Cooperman]

the Hannetenjoch / Oberjoch passes get a from me

We're on the Zeebrugge ferry today and will be dropping in to Oberjoch to see friends.

Great report

 

[John Armstrong]

We're on the Zeebrugge ferry today and will be dropping in to Oberjoch to see friends.

Great report

Ta Plenty of fuel stations a few miles into Austria btw.