Day 27 - Cortina to Bressanone - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

October 15, 2019

Day 27 - Cortina to Bressanone

Who Doesn't Like Tuesday?

Tuesday has become my favorite day of the week. There are no crowds, most places are open for business and the weather is always perfect.

There is absolutely no objective evidence for the last assertion, but these days that does not seem to matter. I'm sticking with it.

For anyone out there who's reading this after coming home from a day at work right after Thanksgiving, I'll offer some empathy, and sympathy. For folks who are sciving and reading this at their desk, come on ... face reality and retire. It's better over here.

Alright, my smug moment is over, but today was one of those Tuesday's that make retirement so sweet. Everything I said in the opening para was true today. We essentially retraced our steps from Sunday, but aside from the weather, the contrast of the (specifics) of the days was quite remarkable.

Both days were great, but today there was no traffic, either bike or car / trucks, and the real sweet spot ... today was almost all downhill. We felt like e-bikers! (couldn't resist that).

Although we basically did Sunday in reverse, we did mix a few things up. First, after gaining the high point out of Cortina on the hard pack gravel bike path, we switched over to the SS51 highway for the run down to Toblach. We were at the summit at around 9:50, 10 minutes before any traffic seems to come on any road, and also it was Tuesday ... did I mention that?... so there was no traffic on road. Perfect pavement and a 20 km gentle downhill cruise into Toblach. Heaven!

From Toblach we had the same (mostly) paved bike path all the way to Bressanone. However, to keep life interesting, there was a section that had been closed with with the only alternative route being the still reasonably busy highway. We, of course, ignored the closure barriers and continued along the path. We rode this 48 hours ago and it was perfect. What could be different.

About 4 km past the barriers we found out. There were a couple of mini-backhoes that were digging up the bike path and installing a conduit underneath it. Where this was happening was at a section where the bike path was on the opposite side of the river from any other roads. We were committed!

Luckily it was around lunch time and there were no workers in sight ( the backhoes were still warm though and there was a ~30 m long trench where the bike path used to be!). We unloaded our bikes, ferried our panniers and bikes past the trench and carried on. About 5 km later we came to the barrier on the east end where there were signs posted saying that the path was closed from 14 October (yesterday!) until April 2020. That's ok, we won't be back again until after that!

Not much more to add, other than the weather forecast was out by a few hours, in our favour. The forecast called for light rain throughout the day increasing to heavy at night. We had lovely sunshine all day long and the rain finally came when we were having dinner! The cycling was even finished at 4:30 ! K was very pleased with that. Check out the elevation profile on the map below and you will see why.

We had a small lottery win on our hotel and dinner place tonight too. The Hotel Traube is lovely and they have a restaurant in the Old Town (M. Michelin recommended too!) that we sampled . Both were excellent in every respect.

Could not have had a better Tuesday.

Song of the Day, what else ... Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones.

Don't question why she needs to be so free

She'll tell you it's the only way to be

She just can't be chained

To a life where nothing's gained

Or nothing's lost, at such a cost

Lot's of other stuff in the running for today too, but they will have to wait for another day.

Heart

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