June 7, 2022
Day 56: Villach to Tarvisio
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We have given up photographing the great breakfasts on this trip, but the Goldenes Lamm threw in some extras today that had me reaching for the camera. First there was a table of antipasti, with types I had never tasted before - like marinated figs. Then there was a big bowl of fresh fruits, including sliced oranges and pineapple, plus blueberries. There was very tasty bacon, plus sausages. And finally a Turkish espresso maker, with labels in Arabic. Despite some English instructions provided, I never did give it a try.
We are quite proficient now at getting out of Villach, and we again took a bit of a shortcut - past OBI and McDonald's - before jumping from the Drau onto the Gail radweg. The Drau would have been our ticket to Kalgenfurt and ultimately Maribor, in Slovenia, but it was time to veer off to the south an head down to the Adriatic. We will come back to the Drau by shuttle in a few days, but then we will be heading west, to finally make our way to Innsbruck and then Germany again.
We stopped off at the pink St. Jakob church, because we had failed to go in yesterday, but in fact the door was locked. All we could do there was to observe this saint's obvious discomfiture at being sat on by a pigeon:
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The ride along the Gail was flat and pleasant, but it had us wondering. We had left extra early, to avoid threatened rain for later in the day, but it looked like we had the potential for arriving in Tarvisio at mid morning. We thought the planning of the stages for the Alpe Adria questionable, for likely causing us to twiddle our thumbs after too short a ride.
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Six km beyond Arnoldstein we and the gaggle of other cyclists hit the former Italian border post. Many stopped for a photo by the "Italia" sign, then we were off into the land of pizza and pasta!
Despite the lack of any border formalities, the border did mark a change in a number of areas. Of course, the familiar road signs changed language:
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We also saw a difference in the building styles:
But the main change was that we immediately went from the flat into a section of ups and downs, with gorges of small streams, and quite a closed in feeling.
Dodie has been playing it safe and smart on this trip, making sure to descend hills slowly, or sometimes just walking down. At one fairly sharp hill she met a kindred spirit, and the two of them walked down, while the husbands just snorted and charged off ahead. Dodie's new friend was concerned that her husband/group were not waiting for her. Their ultimate destination was Bled, in Slovenia. I guess they were eager to get on with it.
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We did roll in to Tarvisio, the end of today's stage, awfully early - at 10:30 a.m.! It seemed to have only one commercial street, so not too much of interest. There was a poster from 2013, though, mentioning this as having been a stop in the Giro Italia. OK.
We went to our hotel and got laughed out by the reception lady, who said to come back at 2. Seeing that Slovenia was rather too far for us to run off and cycle toward, Dodie pointed out that with rain coming we would need somewhere covered and with a place to sit, to wait out our penalty period at the hotel. We had a look at the church and around town, but covered seating did not exist anywhere other than at restaurants.
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Dodie remembered that we had come into town on a rail trail, and on there was a defunct station, with a roof and a bench. So we headed back there and ate our sandwiches.
Since we were parked on a rail trail with time to burn, we did what came naturally and took off down the trail. We went about 5 km down the trail before turning back, partly because it was now raining. When we reached our station again, in the rain, we still kept going for while, before turning around again. Can you see the Grampies as caged lions, prowling back and forth in their Alpe Adria cage?
Looking down from our rail trail, we spotted not a market but at least a fw vendors parked beside a road. One of them had fruit, and we remembered our quest for cherries. I volunteered to descend the hill and to see if there were any cherries on offer. Dodie cautioned not to get too many, if in fact there were some.
When I got there, I found lots of cherries, in plastic tubs labelled 1 kg and 7 euros. It seemed like a lot of cherries and also a fair bit of money, but I was resolved to get some. The only thing, there was a lady ahead of me, and while she was not exactly just passing the time of day with the vendor, she was buying a number of items at a very slow pace. I stood patiently by, but finally got fed up, and took my bike off its stand, ready to leave. This got the attention of the vendor, who in Italian said what must have been the equivalent of "Hey Mister, don't go away mad. Listen lady, can you hang on while I deal with this yellow bicycle dude?" and the lady said to me "Ok, go for it".
I already had my 7 euros in coins ready and told the man what I wanted. By now Mrs. Vendor had appeared from somewhere, and she took over my case. She took the cherries and weighed them, and came up with the price of 8.81. But I "explained" that I had fixated on 1 kg and 7 euros, as shown on the sign. (While thinking that clearly I could have avoided having too many cherries by getting a weighed 1/2 kilo). The lady looked at me and I looked at the lady and we both looked at the 7 euros of coins, and she said the Italian equivalent of "Ok, fine, you got 'em for the 7 euros".
I returned up the hill to Dodie, toting a plastic bag with really quite a pile of cherries. "What took so long?", she said. This earned her a preview of this blog story, as we cycled back toward "our" train station.
At 1:30 we resolved to send Dodie in to see if our room was ready. Not that we would have a lot more to do once inside the room, but at least we could get the blog done or take a nap.
Yes, we were in, and together with other German riders we stashed our bikes in the garage and made our arrangements at reception. I was impressed that the reception lady was yattering away on the phone in Italian, and excitedly pointed that out to the stolid man from Frankfurt standing beside me. His response was the German equivalent of "Well, duh, this is Italy, eh?". Yes, it IS Italy!
What gave Meaning to Life today? Life was a bowl of cherries.
Bonus Addendum: Pizza and Lasagna Review
We were very excited to go to the restaurant in our hotel, for our first try of real Italian food in many years. I am always trying to perfect pizza at home, so it was my logical choice. And Dodie went for the classic, lasagna.
I had borrowed a menu earlier and we had a look through it. It was in Italian and German, which made things fairly easy. Sometimes Italian can give an English speaker more of a clue. For example, funghi is clearer than pilzen, though not as appetizing.
One place where any form of reference to a known word did not work out, was when we ordered Gingerino. This turned out to have no relation to "ginger ale" nor even to Almdudler. Rather, it is a bitter aperitif, and one serving is just a few ounces.
Here is what we got:
I thought the pizza crust was just right - chewy, and clearly baked quickly at very high heat. The other ingredients were flavourful, though the funghi were canned, a big no no. Dodie gave the thing a low rating, especially compared to what I make at home. (Thanks, Dodie!). To Dodie, the crust was too thin and soggy, and the cheese not enough.
On the lasagna were were in agreement: mushy, not very refined meat sauce flavour, a lacklustre restaurant staple, much weaker than Dodie's home version.
And Gingerino - too bitter- we'll bring our water bottles from the bikes next time.
Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 3,170 km (1,969 miles)
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Yes I did that little steep S curve on the bike path. I had loaded 60 lb bags on 60 lb electric bike so was cursing like mad! Hahaha! I was going to take highway but an man told me it was too dangerous & not allowed, so I told him 15% grade was too hard for me. He told me only very short segment & I could make it up. I didn’t think I could push the bike so put on highest power level and lower gear & just pedalled hard. Had to use my mountain bike skills to maneuver through it. Aaahhh!!! When I got to Traviso I went to Jesenice & over to Croatia in 2019. In the ebike section on CGOAB journal.
I also made it to Salzburg but went to Radstadt, took bus 11€ to St. Michael Im Lungau up the Obertauern pass & next day took taxi up Katschberg pass 25€ and ride down to Villach. If I go that way again I will take your route.
I plan to fly into Amsterdam to Arnhem, then Eurovelo 2 across to Berlin, down the Elbe to Dresden. Maybe into Prague then across on Eurovelo 4 to Hammelburg, Germany.
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