Family reunions

In the almost two months since we last wrote, from Puglia, we've been focused on reunions with our girls. Unfortunately we couldn't manage to meet them together, and unfortunately they couldn't bring their boys with them. But we did manage to spend some quality time separately with Laura and Ella.

We really have had a charmed couple of months, with virtually no rain while we've been on the bikes, and only a few annoying mechanicals to keep it interesting. Somewhere along the way, as the days lengthened and warmed, we have developed something of an aperitivo habit.

Our first goal, heading north from Puglia, was to have time with Laura in Milan. On our way there from Lecce, highlights included classic rides through the rolling Trulli country around Alberabello and along the azure waters of the Adriatic coast around Monopoli, and our meander around the Po Valley with nights in some of its great towns: Ravenna, Ferrara, Bologna, Mantova, Pavia. And in the weekend before Laura's arrival, we spent a rainy weekend on Lake Como.

We had a lovely 10 days with Laura, who flew in to Milan on her way home from a winter in Canada. After a few days in Milan (indluding a train trip to Lake Maggiore to visit friends, Margaret and Neil), we dragged Laura (she on trains, we on bikes) east along the foothills of the Alps, with stays in Bergamo, Brescia and Desenzano on Lake Garda. All gorgeous.

We saw Laura off on the train back to Milan from Desenzano, and turned our sights onto making it to Strasbourg in a couple of weeks to spend time with Ella.

The ride north from Lake Garda up the Adige Valley and over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck is magnficent, and surprisingly not that hard. Below the snow-capped mountains are more great Italian cities that we loved: Trento, Bolzano, Brixen. And, across the border, Innsbruck! Incredible place, where we stopped for a day, managing a lovely evening with Tim McMahon, who happened to be passing through. Heading west, we found that getting out of the (almost too picture-perfect) Inn Valley was a little too much of a challenge for us. So we took a short train trip over Arlberg pass for our final few days riding along Lake Constance, and up over the hills through the Black Forest, back into La Belle France at Strasbourg.

And we are currently having a lovely, lazy week in Strasbourg with Ella, who has joined us at the end of her two-month European work trip.

Next, we aim to spend some time exploring France. We'll start by heading west, including a short train trip detour back to Lyon to pick up our postal votes. Six months in for Chris and 4.5 for Maree, the gloss of the grand adventure has yet to start wearing off.

If you haven't clicked on any of the above links, do have a look around takeiteasybiketouring.org with lots of nice pics (and more boring text than you are likely to be interested in). The Puglia, Po Valley and Across the Alps pages cover the last couple of months. Chris has also been nerdy and added a map of our tour to date, with links to the relevant pages.