Downhill (almost) all the way: St. Sigmund to Bolzano

September 3, 2022

Today was supposed to be, and (amazingly) actually was, an easy day: a short and almost entirely downhill spin to Bolzano, and an afternoon of gentle tourism.

My hotel in St. Sigmund produced a very good Austro-Italic Fusion Breakfast (which is to say: meat and cheese and lumpy bread, but also good coffee and fancy pastries), I retrieved my bicycle from their snooker (!) room, and rejoined the cycleway. It had rained during the night, but the cloud was lifting out of the valley by now.

Some early morning clouds in the Pustertal.

The short climb out of Mühlbach provided the only real exertion of the day, as well as nice views across the valley.

From there, it was smooth sailing, on a sequence of well-organised bike paths, sneaking their way between main road and river.

At irregular intervals, this turned to direct its full force at the bike path. Getting past without a soaking was a sort of radweg russian roulette...

Coming through Brixen, the apple trees started to appear.

Other than a quick stop for coffee and (supplementary) pastries in Brixen, I kept straight on to Bolzano, particularly enjoying the sequence of tunnels just above the city (and also enjoying the signs telling motorists about the huge delays on their roads: fahrradschadenfreude, I guess could be the German word for it?).

Bolzano felt like a bit of a shock to the system: it seemed suddenly to be very much more Italian than the parts of Südtirol I'd passed through so far -- though this might just be because it was surrounded by crazy traffic and beeping horns. The cycle path carved a way through the madness, though, and safely to my hotel. It was too early to check in, but I left my bags and bike there, and set out to do some Tourist Chores: an accidentally gigantic lunch, some browsing of the shops, and a visit to the (really excellent, I thought) Ötzi-the-Iceman exhibition.

Patriotic dumplings. It's a good job I don't need to cycle anywhere else today...

The new reconstruction of Ötzi looks disturbingly like a former colleague. I don't think I'll tell him.

All of that, washed down with an evening drink in the hotel garden, made for another really good day.

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Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 437 km (271 miles)

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Scott AndersonWhat a great neologism: fahrradschadenfreude! I’ll have to remember that one.
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonI love your writing!
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1 year ago