July 31, 2023
Merano -> Mareo
5000 year old Ice man, and some Pizzas
I woke up this morning around 6:30 to the sound of car traffic. The hostel was situated on a main road, and Italians seem to like their loud motorcycles. Even with my earplugs, the motorcycle traffic was extremely disruptive. At 7:00, the church across the street began ringing its bells for what seemed like 5 minutes straight. I got up, got dressed, showered, and headed down to breakfast.
Breakfast at the hostel was basic, but free and all you can eat. There was unfortunately very little available protein besides yogurt. I had some broetchen with butter and jam, 2 bowls of yogurt, a coffee, and some muslei. I ate by myself, but I enjoyed people watching the others at the hostel. Mostly older folks, some families with kids. One group that looked like they had just graduated high school.
I packed up my bike and hit the road around 8:45. I wanted to make it to Bolzano around 10:00 as this was when the South Tyrol Archeological museum opens. In that museum lays the remains of Oetzi. Oetzi is one of the best preserved mummies from the time period (3000BC). A day prior I had been in the Oetztal range, where Oetzi was found, now I wanted to see the actual remains.
As I pedalled toward Bolanzo, I was on a Eurovelo route along the Adige River. It was a perfect bike path on the top of the river levee. It provided sweeping views of the whole valley and surrounding orchards. It was already getting a little bit warm, but I wasn't complaining. I would take heat over cold on a bike any day. It also looked like Apple season was nearing as the trees were sagging with bright red apples.
After about an hour and a half of pedaling down the flat river valley, I made it to the museum. I locked my bike out front with dozens of other bikes and changed into some street clothes.
I got my glasses so I could clearly read all the fine print on the exhibits, and made my way inside. There were signs all over the place saying not to take pictures, so I respected that. If you want to see what I saw, you can read Oetzi's wikipedia page. Pretty much everything in the museum is on there. I saw the mummified remains of what I would have guessed to be a middleschooler. Oetzi was small in stature, only 5'3". People lived hard lives back then. From the mummified remains they were able to deduce the area he grew up in (Tyrol), and what he ate. Archeologists also determined that his cause of death was blood loss from an arrow wound in his shoulder. He also had a deep wound on his hand that happened about a day before he was shot. They guess he got into a fight with someone, tried to flee to the mountains, but was then ambushed. The one part of the museum that struck me as funny was watching the 1994 interview with the German tourists who found the body. During the interview, the husband of the couple had a beer stein in his hand and was drinking a beer. All of Oetzi's belongings were also on display at the museum. Some of it very intricately swen. It was amazing how well preserved everything was. I spent about an hour at the museum, then pressed onward.
I continued up the Rivelaunbach along the eurovelo bike path. I was going to follow this path for a little while before turning east into the Dolomites. I was headed for Sella Pass. However, when I turned down the road to the east, it was a high traffic road through a 3km tunnel. I turned around and figured out an alternate route. I continued a few kilometers down the Eurovelo route before turning off again. This time there was no tunnel, but lots of car traffic and no shoulder. I turned around again. I finally scrapped my idea of riding Sella pass, and isntead chose a pass that only had a gravel road over the summit: Sennes Pass. That would for sure have less car traffic. The approach, however, was longer. I would not be able to summit today, so I instead booked a campsite near the base of the pass.
By now I was extremely hungry, so I stopped at the first food place along the route: a pizza place. I ordered a pizza with ham, artichokes, mushrooms, and tomatoes on it. It was delicious, but they didnt cut it into slices. You are served a whole pizza and expected to eat it with a fork and knife. Wild. I also ordered a 1/4 liter house wine that came in a tiny glass pitcher. It went great with the pizza. I filled up my water bladder in the town fountain and pressed on.
It took me about 3 horus from the pizza place to reach my campsite. By the time I arrived, I was ready to be done for the day. I headed to the pizza restaurant at the campground and got another pizza with a mini-pitcher of wine.
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Today's ride: 80 miles (129 km)
Total: 1,862 miles (2,997 km)
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