We returned over Brenner pass again .... by train! Very nice and relaxing, and a different way of seeing the country, but we still think we prefer to see it from a Brooks saddle.
Andrea very kindly picked us up early Friday morning and took us to the station where we caught the direct train from Verona to Munich. Five and a half very relaxed hours later we arrived in Munich and checked into the Holiday Inn conference center. I went to work, at the IBU (International Biathlon Union) Congress, representing Biathlon Canada, and Kirsten took off to play tourist in Munich for a few days.
The beautiful fall weather we had when we were here two years ago at about the same time had returned, and it was a very good couple of days here. My time was mostly spent inside at meetings and presentations, but kirsten got out a bit, and we did have Sunday afternoon together to poke around the Old Town.
This morning we reversed the process and caught the 9:30 train back over Brenner pass, giving us the afternoon for a quick tour in Verona ... we will have to come back. It is a beautiful city with Roman to Renaissance architecture, lovely bars serving up Prosecco ... and gelateria everywhere!
We are now back in Italy full on and really looking forward to it. We are going to spend one more day off the loaded bikes here in Peschiera tomorrow, and then it's back to pedalling.
We have planned out a route as far as the middle of Tuscany for the next week and a few of the days going over the Apennine mountains look like they could be gruelling. We are thinking another repeat of our days in Croatia from 2017! However I think the food and wine will aid in our recovery each day!
Song of the Days.... Romeo & Juliet by Mark Knopfler (solo version, not the Dire Straits original). Could have been a lot of other things. While we were in Munich we saw a busking pair doing beautiful work on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons ..... also saw the same Soviet busking duo we saw in 2017 doing Russsin accordion folks songs .... unfortunately we also saw many street people which put Alison Krauss’s Never Got Off the Ground into my head. However, we ended this 4 day mid term break in beautiful warm and sunny Verona, the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. And what Williams work is to literature, Marks song is to music IMHO.
Me at work! My colleague Heather kindly brought some ‘work clothes’ over from Canmore for me so I didn’t have to attend the Congress in Spandex bike shorts!
