If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
Ken slept most of the night and woke feeling much better. Not 100 percent, but well enough that he wanted to ride to Salo.
We cleaned the apartment, saddled up the bikes, and headed out around the lake.
The first 20 miles were fairly flat and mostly followed the shore of the lake, passing caravan park after caravan park. The trails were congested with bikers and walkers. Near Peschiera del Garda, at about mile 12, we passed a half-dozen or so large bike rental shops. We went past amusement parks and go-kart tracks and every kind of shopping and entertainment business you can think of for families with kids camping on a lake.
We passed the ferry dock in Sirmione, where we had played tourist a couple days ago.
We got hungry about halfway through the day, and stopped at a busy restaurant a block or two off the bike path. As we were waiting to be served, a guy pulled up on a nice road bike, looked around and found no empty tables, and was getting back on his bike when Ken got his attention and invited him to join us.
That's how the chemist from Germany became our lunch guest. He spoke excellent English, so we could actually talk. He lives in northern Germany with his wife and dog and large collection of premium bikes (he's lucky to have a big house with a big room for them, he said). His company is located a few hundred kilometers away in Mainz. He works from home part-time, and has a flat outside Mainz for the days he needs to be in the office.
Service was slow, and by the time we had gotten food and eaten it, he was late for meeting his wife, who was waiting in a park on the lake for him with their dog. He took a selfie with us to send to his wife so she would know he had a legitimate reason for being late.
Ken ate a good lunch and said he felt ready to finish the ride.
We took off again. In a couple miles, we turned away from the lake and started our 13-mile climb up over the peninsula on a regional route called the Brescia-Salo Ciclovia, BS02. We were routed on narrow farm roads, mostly paved but with a few stretches that were rocky and steep. We walked a few times.
Ken started to fade. We stopped for water more frequently, rested in the shade a few times.
At the top of the hill, with 5 miles of descent ahead of us, we checked in with our host, who said he was not feeling well and his colleagues would meet us. We rolled into Salo and pulled up in front of the apartment exactly when we had said we would, the colleagues helped us store the bikes on the main floor and carry our bags to the apartment on the second floor, and we were home again.
We found a pasta restaurant just steps from the harbor, an 8-minute walk from our apartment; had a great dinner; and were in bed early.
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| The riva outside out apartment in Garda was pretty quiet when we left at 9:00 in the morning. |
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| More vineyards. No wonder Italians drink so much wine: they grow so many grapes! |
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| Another old castle. |
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| The harbor in Salo is very small, and so is the town. After the last ferry leaves in the evening, there are few tourists. As we ate pasta at an outdoor table at the edge of the main square on the lake, we completely enjoyed the silence, the soft fall air, the yellow evening sunlight. |
