Lake Garda

We left the aire in Brescia after a quiet night and drove towards Lake Garda.

There was a dusting of snow on the tops of the nearby Dolomites.

I had been calling many campsites on the lake to try to get in but they were all booked solid for many days. There was however an aire in Monzambano only 9km from Pechiera on the south of the lake.

We arrived and got in easily. It was lovely next to a lake with geese and lots of other birds. It’s also more like a campsite with an attendant and toilet, shower, shop - and only 20 euro per night - less than half of the price on the lake.

We then got on our bikes and cycled down the bike path on the river for 9km to Pechiera. It was very peaceful - and flat - cycling down. Unfortunately there was a closed bridge keeping us on a gravel track - not bitumen as on the other side - but it was fine.

We soon arrived in the very busy Pechiera and locked up the bikes outside the big walls with a lion over the gate. The lion had been partly destroyed by Napoleons troops so a local sculptor had replaced it- now looking good.

The town had originally been a fort with huge walls and a moat and with Lake Garda on the other side. There are many buildings that were barracks - now used as a police school.

We arrived in the lovely port area lined with many restaurants and bars.

It was lunchtime so we had a couple of tapas washed down with a very nice white wine from the Dolomites and a local beer.

We then walked around the town checking out the lake and the marina area. The water is a very milky blue colour - probably from the snow melting from the mountains. The lake ferry comes in here too. Excuse the bike helmet hair!

We found some Roman ruins - of course.

And a little train!!

We went up on the walls getting good views of the defenses and the town.

We then found our way back to our bikes and had to wend our way to the other side of town to get to the better bike track. It was a little tricky through car parks etc but we found it.

It was a quicker cycle home slightly downhill with a wind behind us. There was only a big hill getting up into town that we managed to cycle up with some effort. We then had nice warm showers as it was getting cool - it’s only around 21 degrees in the middle of the day at the moment and cooler at nights. We had a warming salmon red curry and settled in for the night.