Italy - Lake Garda

Early morning at Riva del Garda

I jumped off the night train from France at Verona, the large town south of Lake Garda. I then took another train and a bus to get to Riva Del Garda at 8am, Riva is a small town at the head of Lake Garda and it is surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. I checked into a great Hostel right in the centre of town, I then headed straight for the lake as even at 9am the temperature was over 30 degrees. I spent the morning at the beach swimming in the lake and then in the afternoon I met up with my Uncle and Aunt from Denmark, Bjarne and Lene who were spending a week in town nearby.

The town of Ville del Monte

Riva is known as the mountain biking mecca for northern Italy, and it is easy to see why. As a bit of mountain biker I could not resist hiring a bike and taking in a ride. I opted of an easier ride up to Lake Tenno, which was only about 10km away and a 400m climb from Riva. Lake Tenno was highly rated as a brilliant spot and the idea of being able to go for a swim was very attractive especially given the temperatures were up around 40 degrees. The route I took passed through some classic villages, luckily many of them had water fountains around every corner.

Lago di Tenno

This was a great sight to behold, I dumped the bike and went straight in for a swim. The water was fantastic, it was about 20 degrees and I could not get enough of it. I decided to go for a mission and swam right across it to some cool looking cliffs on the other side, the swim took about 15 mins.

The cliffs on the other side of the lake were good for a bit of fun


Learning to fly...





I was joined by some German guys and we spent a couple of hours doing all sorts of wacky jumps and dives into the lake, we all got pretty wasted when some jumps went wrong.

Another cool town called Calvola

I ended up staying at Lake Tenno for 5 hours and I would have stayed more but I had to get the rental bike back before the shop closed. I jumped on the saddle again and head back towards Riva on a cool little country road which wove through classic towns and vineyards.

Vineyards along the trail

I had two and a half days at Riva and that was definitely not enough. I could easily have stayed another 4 days as there were many more mountain bike trails and hikes to do. It was great to have the lake so close to the hostel as you could just shoot out for a refreshing dip many times a day. Riva is a top spot and certainly one I will return to.

France - Biarritz

Biarritz, the perfect day to arrive

The night train pulled into Biarritz about 7am so nice and early. I jumped on the bus from the station and headed towards Anglet, the beach town north of Biarritz where I was booked in at the campsite. As the bus wound around the town high on the cliffs above the beach we got some wicked views of the Atlantic coast. The wind was a light offshore easterly and the waves were a nice 4 foot, in other words perfect and I could not wait to get off the bus and head straight for the beach.

Great waves on the beach out from my campsite

After checking in at the campsite I went straight for the beach, stopping only for a breakfast of 4 croissants at the bakery (cos there is nothing worse than hunger out in the surf). I rented a board on the beach for €20 for 4 hours and hit it. The water was a warm 21 degrees so you could have got away without a wetsuit, I got a spring suit with my board though. I could tell I was out of practice and after a couple of hours I had to crash out on the beach for a break, especially duck diving of the powerful 4 foot waves became a bit of a struggle in the end. The waves were hard and fast, they broke pretty well but as the tide dropped the bigger waves started to closeout. I had some awesome rides at the beginning but towards the end fatigue caught up with me and I had a few good wipeouts. It was so great to get into the water and very refreshing after the unrelenting heat of Barcelona and Madrid.

Biarritz town
I surfed the first two days but on the third day the winds turned to the west and the waves got pretty ugly. After the full on two days of surfing I was happy to stay on land so I went for a walk into Biarritz to check out the town.

Ben and Anthony

The Anglet campsite was a great place, it was packed with young people and there was lots of fun to be had day and night. Staying in the tent next to me was Ben and Antony a couple for frenchies from Quiberon in Brittany, they were a both body boarders and a top pair of blokes. In the tent across from us were a nice couple of french girls called Mélanie and Dominique both nurses from Toulouse. We had a couple of good nights drinking at the campsite and ended up at the local bar both nights. We all hung out on the beach, the girls sun bathing and the boys in the waves.

Mélanie and Dominique

I was hoping to stay longer at Biarritz but the surf died away by the third day and the conditions looked poor for the next 4 days so on the end of the third day I jumped on another night train and headed towards my next destination, Lake Garda Italy. The train left at about 4pm and headed east along the line of the Prynees through the famous religous town of Lourdes, the scenery was spectacular until it got dark.