We left Hotel Rosengarten for what I’m sure will be the last time. We’ve had a fine stay here and enjoyed reminiscing over our previous visit but it’s time to move on. Our destination today is Bressanone/Brixen, forty-some miles downstream. We’ll be following a string of well developed, well marked cycle routes the whole way.
We begin following the same route we rode west on two days ago, before turning north up the Anterselva. It’s the same fine ride for twelve miles, but even better because there’s some added excitement: the Kartoffelfest (potato festival) is on this weekend in the neighboring village of Niederdorf. We stop by to share in the excitement a bit, buy some bread, cheese and prosciutto for the day’s lunch, and listening to Elvis croon Don’t Be Cruel over the PA system.
Wolff from Germany, our favorite fellow guest at the hotel. He’s leaving for home this morning, after a visit of about a week. He’s on his way to the train station with his bike and trailer. His bike weighs a ton!
Looking south for probably our last time at the valley that leads to Misurina and Cortina. It’s a bit of a bittersweet moment for me - we have a lot of strong memories tied up in this spot.
We’d love to stay here all morning, but finally we tear ourselves away and continue downstream along the Rienz for another lazy fifteen miles until we come to Brunico/Bruneck, another beautiful Tyrolean town with a well preserved historical core. If the time and distances had worked out for us, we’d have been quite happy to stay here for a night or two. As it is, we can at least spare time to enjoy our lunch here, leaning against the sunny south all of the Ursuline Church.
Riding west toward Brunico, we come to the Antholzer valley that we biked up two days back. The High Tauerns peek around the corner.
The second half of the ride, from Brunico to Bressanone, is a bit more challenging than what came before. The route tends downriver but it comes with more hiccups along the way, as well as a few extra miles that we weren’t expecting. When I scoped out the ride in advance I wasn’t faithful about mapping to the bike route, and the ride ended up being six miles further than I’d mapped to and included more climbing. It was definitely the best route to take though - I could see that the road I had planned to bike into Bressanone would have been at least unpleasant to unsafe - but at the end of the day, how many of us would get enthusiastic about an extra six lumpy, unpaved miles?
We’ll be in Bressanone for two nights before heading up to Ortisei and a few more days in the mountains. Rain and possibly even a bit of snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, so this feels like a good spot for a rest day. We’re due for one anyway. We’ll be staying in the Grauer Bar (grey bear), a traditional hotel in a building dating back to the 1600’s. The owner tells us has been in the family since 1919 - next year is their centennial. It’s an interesting year for the hotel to have started up - it’s the year after the Great War ended and South Tyrol became Italian. I wonder what the story is behind that?
Bressanone is a thousand year old city, and the oldest in Tyrol. It looks like a great place to explore, which we’ll do tomorrow.
Leaving Brunico, we cycle beside the Rienz, much enlarged since merging here with the Ahr.
