Day 51 - Bolzano to Naturns - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

May 31, 2025

Day 51 - Bolzano to Naturns

Tuna Turns

Today was another short and pretty easy day of cycling up the Adige valley to Naturns. There was a punchy 200 m climb just past Meran and then it was back to perfect old paved rail trail cruising alongside hundreds of other cyclists all the way to Naturns. No worries though, there was room for everyone.

We made great time to Naturns, our end point for the day - it’s the closest town to the Juval Messner Mountain Museum - the focal point for today- and we arrived just after noon, well before the stated check-in time at Hotel Lamm.

Again, no worries, the lovely folks at Hotel Lamm had our room ready and we got checked in, cleaned up and were soon on our way to castle Juval.

The whole experience at Hotel Lamm was great; lovely room, fantastic staff and a really good restaurant. The only flaw was the pretty crap internet and that was only an issue because for the first time we can recall on this trip, we also had a weak cellular signal (we are starting to get ‘remote’, for Europe), so our phone data was equally useless.

As a result trying to get this blog published was a bit of a nightmare. I finally got all of the pic’s we wanted uploaded (sorry, there are a lot, Juval was a beautiful place) shortly before my head was going to explode. This meant that the narrative for this day, 31 May, (i.e all this drivel) is actually being written up the next day in Gomagoi (1 June)

In order to try to remember all the exciting stuff I wanted to write about, as we were pedalling along the still generally flat and still very much apple orchard filled Adige valley west of Naturns this morning (i.e 1 June) I thought I would be clever and use the ‘dictate’ feature on the Notes app on my phone.

So, like almost every other teenager we’ve seen pedalling along this bike routes, I fired up Notes and was talking to my phone while I pedalled away. I did keep my phone attached to my bike and both hands on the bars though, unlike most of the folks we’ve seen using their phones while riding.

So, dictation turned on, ‘New Note’ … a new blank screen appears, looking good!. Next, I say ‘To Naturns’ … a pretty logical name for the note … and what shows up on the screen?? ‘Tuna Turns’.

I decided not to fight it, and I thought that actually sounded pretty good, so henceforth, today will be known as the ‘Tuna Turns’ day.

So what happened on this momentous day? Well as I noted above, it was a pretty easy and beautiful day. The route was continuing up the flat Adige valley on some of the best dedicated cycle trails you could imagine through seemingly endless apple orchards. Looking either left or right, above the apple trees, were the low mountains of the South Tyrol Alps, and looking further west, the direction we were headed, we started to see ‘the big guys’, snow covered and rising to well over 3000 m.

You could almost go on autopilot but for one small thing …. the hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of other cyclists riding along with us. It was Saturday so there were a lot of roadies out on club rides, but we were pretty amazed by the number of older folks (ie about our age) on what looked to be organized multi day tours, riding along with matching bikes and panniers in groups ranging from a handful to over 30 (yes, that large), and 99.8% on e-bikes.

I guess it’s a good thing that more folks are getting out and ‘travelling by bike’ and it afforded me the opportunity for a little sociological research. There were enough participants in this research to make it apparent that the world of ‘organized tour’ cycle people were neatly divided into two coteries .

First are the Grimace’s. You’ve seen the type, head down, mouth twisted into an odd shape or scowling, panniers stuffed with stolen milkshakes, pedalling like mad but seemingly going nowhere. Not sure I’d want to spend a lot of time on a tour with these folks.

The second group are the Guy Smiley’s. Pedalling along, looking around, great big grin on their face, and sometimes the odd fly stuck on one of their teeth, but they don’t care ‘cause “It’s just great to be alive”! They usually give you a wave and a ‘Gruß Gott or Ciao’. Probably fun to be around …. For a while.

With my hypothesis neatly developed and detailed research done to confirm, I shared this with K at the next mutual stop we had. As we’re discussing the merits of my research, a couple came riding by …. Head down grimacing guy and his smiley laughing female partner! K was now convinced.

With that done, we were at Meran just before 11 and it was time for a break and a coffee. We still wanted to keep up the pace to get to Naturns in good time as we had the Juval Messner Museum still on our agenda, so we pulled into the first cafe we saw on the outskirts of Meran. We got our coffee and a classic cultural experience too. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a cafe/bar like this but they are classic. It was pretty full, it was 99% men, most ‘older’ (ie like us again) and 100% of them sitting or standing in small groups with their long time buddies, smoking (100%) and having a drink (equal split of coffee or beer). We were outside, so the smoke was bearable, and the coffee stop was Italian style, I think we were in and out in less thats 10 minutes and it was quite entertaining..

Next up was the short climb into the higher plateau where Naturns sits and before we knew it, we were checking into the hotel!

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Pretty nice ride up the flat Adige valley heading to Meran. Endless apple orchards!

I remember seeing this in Polly Low’s 2022 journal ’Around the Alps’. It was in better condition and facing the other way in the pic in her journal, so obviously it moves every once in a while. This was just coming into Meran

Leaving Meran heading west. The big snow covered Alps are getting closer!

Nice covered bridge over the Adige. The bike trail didn’t go through here, it was for walkers / hikers to access paths on the other side of the river.

There were two big Muskoka chairs about halfway up the climb just west of Meran …. So we had to get this pic. It’s a tradition!

Looking back east on Meran and the never ending apple orchards (most covered in netting to keep the birds away). A beautiful almost cloudless day.

Once we got checked in (once again a big thank you to the wonderful folks at Hotel Lamm) we were on our way to the Juval Castle Messner Mountain Museum, our fourth of the six museums. Looking at the map, the Juval castle is only about 1 1/2 km’s west of Naturns, a nice walk … but a little closer inspection showed that it was also 0.6 vertical km’s away!! Not so nice to walk or bike!

Turns out there was a shuttle bus service to the castle and a regular regional bus to get us to the shuttle. The hotel gave us complimentary day bus passes (as did the Hotel Ander in Bruneck … seems to be a South Tyrol thing … and a good one) and our timing was impeccable. The regular bus ran on a hourly schedule and was due at the stop right bedside the hotel in 5 minutes! We had the same luck on our return from Juval several hours later!

Juval Castle is not only a Messner Mountain Museum, it is actually where he lives. Both K and I really enjoyed this place and had the feeling that it was quite different from the other ‘museums’. Sure it had a lot of artifacts and ‘stuff’ that he collected during his travels and expeditions, but it was really like going to someone’s home, even if that home is a partly renovated centuries old castle high up on a mountainside.

The general theme of Juval was ‘exploring the religious and spirituality of the mountains and the peoples that live in them’. We did get that feeling here, and it helped that it was a beautiful day, and we were almost alone (we saw two other couples). It was quite magical and I’ll let the following photo gallery lead you through it.

Reinhold Messner now refers to himself as a ‘farmer’ and these may well be some of his goats grazing in a mountain side pasture near Juval Castle

Looking down on the Adige valley from Juval Castle. It’s a long steep way down!

There were farmers cutting and bailing hay on this steep pasture above the castle

The inner courtyard. Many parts of the castle were very ‘organic’ … partly renovated, partly ruins.

Many of the public rooms were filled with religious and spiritual artifacts, most from the Himalayan regions. Here are Tibetan tapestries

An outside wall of the castle with a very ‘organic ruin’ feel to it

Rather than try to convey Messner’s thoughts and words … It’s better just to read them

Since this was his house, there were parts that gave in-sight into his life. This is one of his ‘gear rooms’. Pretty cool place (ground floor … literally) of the castle.

More of the public rooms that are all used by Messner and his family … lots of artifacts from around the world … like this!

… and these! The castle was full of ‘the sacred’ and ‘the profane’ … another gear room organized like it was used yesterday … what was on the boot shelf? An old pair of Sorels (with the maple leaf) that everybody we know had at one time or another (there’s at least three pair just like this in our boot room!)

…. And a number of images that gave us ‘the feel’ for Juval … a very good and peaceful feeling (truthfully)

Nice touch at the exit with prayer flags made by local kids

We had an excellent dinner sitting outside on the large sheltered patio at Hotel Lamm. Traditional but seasonal South Tyrol food, spargle soup (it is spring!) schnitzel and goulash and a bottle of Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir) from the Juval winery! There’s enough pic’s in here already so no foody pics tonight.

With that, it was a great day.

SOTD

The Mystic’s Dream, Lorena McKennitt

… Moorish, not Himalayan, but this song fits the feeling K and I had as we explored around Juval. Enjoy.

A very good night from Naturns (aka Tuna Turns)

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 2,246 km (1,395 miles)

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Suzanne GibsonI really enjoyed your write up on the Messner castle/museum!
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2 weeks ago

Gregory GarceauI liked your Grimace vs. Smiley analysis. I'm not a group rider, but if I were, I'd proudly be 100% in the Smiley camp.
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1 week ago

Annette SchneiderHi Lyle and Kirsten... Fantastic blog of the day!! Your narratives and photos are so happy, without fail... thanks!
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1 week ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Suzanne GibsonSuzanne I highly recommend you visit. The views are astounding, art work beautiful and such a serene atmosphere.
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1 week ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Annette SchneiderSo happy that you are along for the ride. We are enjoying ourselves and it is pleasure that others can take part vicariously.
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1 week ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Gregory GarceauKeep on pedaling keep on smiling. It makes life so much more fun. 😊
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1 week ago

Karin KaarsooWas confused when I saw the date. May 24th!
Looks like a perfect day.
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1 week ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Karin KaarsooI think it was a case of fat fingers! Thanks for letting us know.
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1 week ago

Rachael AndersonWhat a beautiful place!
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1 week ago