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September 20th, 2015
View day 14 route on Google Maps
Today’s a day for museums. I get to the first one shortly before 10 a.m. The area looks a bit shady, so I put the chain on my wheel when I leave the bike on the parking lot. The museum is located in the old harbor railway station, right on Lake Constance. This is the spot where the world’s first Zeppelin airship took to the sky with 5 people on board.
The museum was opened in 1996 and it houses the world's largest zeppelin collection. In the middle of a great hall hangs a 33-meter reconstruction of a part of the deck of the LZ 129 Hindenburg, and right underneath it is a beautiful Maybach Zeppelin, manufactured from 1929 to 1939. It’s a 12-cylinder machine with an 8-liter engine. In its heyday, it could go up to 170 km/h.
Going through all of the museum’s rooms takes me over an hour. One of them houses an exhibition of artists like Mac Ackermann, Karl Caspar, and Otto Dix. As I leave, a zeppelin flies several dozen meters above the museum. Back at the campsite, I saw a flyer about zeppelin flights, but price and availability proved to be too high a barrier: more than 350 euros for a 45-minutes flight. On top of that, you need to book it weeks in advance. After having lunch on the market square by the museum, I move on to the next attraction.
This museum named after Claude Dornier exhibits a number of items related to the history of aviation. It’s in a huge hangar, with a long runway right next to it. You can see the largest flying machines of their time.
Apart from aviation, some of the exhibits showcase military and space technologies. It’s really interesting to get a close look at drones, satellites, and military rockets. You can actually enter many of the exhibits and check them out from the inside. You exit the hangar onto a square with several planes parked, and on the opposite side of the airstrip is the hangar that’s used for parking zeppelins. I finish my tour just before 3 p.m. and I head southeast to the day’s final attraction: the Rolls-Royce Museum in Dornbirn.
Founded in 1982, this private museum owned by Franz Vonier has the world's largest collection of Rolls-Royce vehicles. Three floors of a former factory house over 70 cars. Some of them were owned by people like John Lennon or the Queen of England. Back when mileages of more than a million kilometers were par for the course for these cars, wealthy families often bought one that would later be used by generations of the family. The top floor of the museum also has a collection of antique motorcycles, with makes like Sunbeam, Tomax, Rudge, or Condor.
After going through the museum, I head back to Bregenz, do some shopping, then return to the Lindsay campsite. I make some sandwiches, lubricate the bike’s chain, and get myself ready for the long ride ahead of me.
September 21st, 2015
View day 15 route on Google Maps
It looks like it’s going to be a rough day. 550 kilometers to go, with no highways along the way. In the evening, I want to see the sunset on the Mangart Saddle (2,072 m. a.s.l.) in Slovenia. In the morning, I stop by the Lake Constance pier to take one last photo; I leave Friedrichshafen around 8:30 a.m.
I enter Austria in Oberjoch, I turn south in Innsbruck, and enter Italy in Brennero. The southern section of the Alps is much warmer than Austria.
I rest a while, around 4 p.m., on the shore of Lago di Anterselva (Antholzer See).
Going east over the Staller Saddle (2,052 m.a.s.l.), I enter Austria again. There aren’t many vehicles on the road, and it’s a very picturesque pass. You can take it easy and enjoy the views. The pass is very narrow in many places, and only one vehicle can go through these bottlenecks. Italian bikers don’t really care, though, and overtake others — even on bends.
I pass Lienz, and keep going south; I return to Italy, this time through the Nassfeld Pass (1,530 m.a.s.l.). In the town of Chiusaforte I turn east, and for a few dozen kilometers follow a pretty valley along the Torrente Raccolana stream. The road is uneven and full of potholes, but I’m the only one around.
I get to Lago del Predil, and minutes later I’m in Slovenia. The sun is low over the horizon, so I need to hurry to make it to Mangart Saddle for the sunset. The last time I was here, the pass was still covered in snow, and I couldn’t reach the top. I’m riding on a narrow road to the top, when all of a sudden a small deer jumps out on the road in front of the bike, falls down, gets back up, and jumps into the nearest bushes. The whole thing takes a fraction of a second, and it takes me a moment to even realize what sort of animal it was; I wasn’t even able to react.
I reach the top at 7:30 p.m., set up my tripod, and quickly take my photos before the sun hides behind the mountains.
Time to find a place to sleep. Looks like I’m in for a night of camping out in the wild, but it’s already dark, so it’s tough to find a good spot. I consider a side road, or even a side passage in the tunnel that leads to the top. Eventually, I ride up to the highest section of the route, pass a few signs that forbid camping, others that forbid driving there, and reach a clearing, where other tourists have already set their tents. I put up mine, a bit wary of strangers, and go to sleep. The night is really cold. I wake up in the small hours, put on all the clothes I have in the tent, and try to go back to sleep.
September 22nd, 2015
View day 16 route on Google Maps
Sunrise over the Mangart. That’s another one of this trip’s objectives achieved. After breakfast, I ride up and down the pass a few times, take some photos and film a few videos. Around 8, the first tourists come up, and begin their hikes up the mountains.
I leave Slovenia, and ride through Italy back to Austria. I pass Tarvisio and, several kilometers north of Villach, I stop by Landskron Castle.
I begin by taking my lunch with a good view of the area.
This medieval castle located on a hill that’s 658 m.a.s.l. dates back to the 14th c. There are crowds of tourists strolling inside the walls, but in comparison to other Austrian castles, this one doesn’t make as much of an impression. A predatory bird show takes place as I tour the castle; it’s really similar to what I saw a few days back in Hohenwerfen. Just after 1 p.m. I ride east again.
It’s one of the most impressive structures I’ve seen so far during this trip. The fortress was built on a rock that’s almost 200 meters high, and you can see it from far away. In order to get there, you need to climb up 620 meters of a step road, and cross 14 gates. If you’re lazy, you can take an inclined railway — and by the time I reach the top, I begin to regret not taking that option. The fortress was supposedly never sacked. It takes about an hour to see all of it.
30 kilometers further east are the small ruins of Griffen Castle, built in the 12th c. From the top of the castle you can see the Alps, which at this point in my trip are quite a bit away.
I return west, pass Hochosterwitz Castle, and a few kilometers further north I stop at the Camping Wieser Längsee site. There’s no one at the reception desk, and it takes about 15 minutes before a staff member comes around. I take a hot shower, then go through my photos.
September 23rd, 2015
View day 17 route on Google Maps
It’s cloudy from the very start of the day. As I leave the campsite, it begins to rain. After just several kilometers I stop and put on my rain suit. As I reach the Nockalm Road, the rain turns into a downpour. At the toll gates I learn that the pass is closed due to bad weather. I change my route and go around the pass from the south. I turn north west in Gmünd, and head to the Malta High Alpine Road, and it begins to snow right there and then. This road is likely to be closed, too, but I want to double check that at the toll gates. The woman working at the gates shows me the camera feed from the pass — all you can see up there is whiteness.
I check the weather forecast, and it looks like the next few days are supposed to be exactly the same. Since these passes were the last stops I planned on the way, and since looking at castles in the rain doesn’t make sense either, I spend some time weighing my options. After a long while, I decide to go back to Poland. It’s 2 p.m. and there are about 800 kilometers to Krakow. It’s going to be hard, but staying here and waiting for the weather to improve is pointless.
A snow storm hits me on Katschberg Pass (1,641 m.a.s.l.). It’s slippery and cold; way too cold to even take off my gloves and take a photo. I stop under an overpass and wonder if I shouldn’t rent a room somewhere and wait out the weather. But in the end, I decide to keep pushing on.
I put on all the clothes I got — two pairs of socks and plastic bags go on my feet, because my boots are soaked. Other than that, it’s two sets of thermal underwear, a thick fleece, and two pairs of gloves. Still, I’m shivering as I ride. Every few moments I brush a layer of snow off my visor. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it far if things don’t change.
Only 700 kilometers left to Krakow. At one of the fuel stations, the cashier gives me two pairs of plastic gloves. I haven’t seen another biker all this way. When I reach Vienna, I know I’m close to home. I think my GPS got too wet, because the screen has some weird blotches. I enter Czechia at 11 p.m., and the rain finally stops. Hours later, before sunrise, I reach Krakow. I made it.
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