Looks like a brilliant itinerary to me. Can’t wait to follow along. Some of this is similar to a route I’ve been mulling over for a few years but going the other direction, so I’ll be interested to see how it goes. Good luck!

Thanks Rachael - yeah, it's been a bit frantic, but I think will be worth it in the end! Best of luck with your journey to Croatia - in a couple of weeks' time we'll hopefully both be on the road!

Sorry to hear about all your adversities bu glad to hear you are still planning your trip. I hope everything goes well. We leave for Croatia on Wednesday.

Innsbruck by train to Brenner (super short and sweet and cheap) and then down the Claudia Augusta is your ticket to magical bike touring land. And pretty much downhill. We have done it twice (both times the other way, so climbing) but even then it is so manageable and our all time favourite route:
https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/pokingaroundeurope5/trento-gorgeous-day-gorgeous-track-gorgeous-scenery/
Of course we loved Slovenia too, and pretty much everything we have done. Since we are home in Canada we are so delighted to have your blog to read. We are really missing bike touring this year!!

I really recommend that route - the mountains are spectacular and it is not too steep -you go over the pass to the other side in a train (no road) We were both over 80 when we did it so that tells you about the difficulty. My blog about it is on cycleblaze - Munich to Paris the long Way Round
Wish we were cycling in Europe!

Thanks Tricia, very keen to learn about good routes - particularly if they avoid massive climbs!

It's a great place! Been almost ten years since I was last there, and keep meaning to go back.

Last year as part of our tour we rode the Alpes Adria We started in Munich and rode to Saltzburg Then it was a magical ride from there to Grado - if you love mountains its the ride for you and very manageable

We loved Slovenia when we were there!

It's a cycle touring re-awakening! Sounds good to me - I'm still sketching my route - it turns out I've got more time than I think, and it's not a wide country North-South, so I might well be in the area (if I can make it over the terrain...)

They often are - particularly with anything to do with transport. The Swiss are the same, arguably even more so (I was genuinely amazed when I first went to Switzerland as a kid, and the trains literally left to the second).

A cycle tourist trying to book a similarly complicated journey in the UK - while not speaking the language - would get zero help (and be charged four times as much ... and the train would probably be late). I suppose the only saving grace of the British rail system is that bikes always travel free, and (apart from some commuter services) can generally be put on any train. But it's a total free-for-all (I typically just jam mine in the corridor), and you'd have to have a lot of confidence to do it as an outside.

Hooray! Another tourist will be on the road at he same time as us. And we’ll both be in Europe at the same time! Let’s meet up at the Austrian-Croatian border.

I have always understood that the Germans are extremely efficient in most things that they do.