Innsbruck - The Last Hurrah. Brenner Pass is in the Bag. - Poking Around Europe 5.0

October 11, 2018

Innsbruck - The Last Hurrah. Brenner Pass is in the Bag.

Klausen/Chiusa

What an amazing final day of cycling. We enjoyed our breakfast and the cappuccinos before heading out for what we knew would be a big climbing day. We were jumping on the bikes when Keith realized he didn’t have his phone. There was much searching, the breakfast room, the bike garage, our room. It turned up in his pannier in the pocket of the shorts he wore to breakfast. That was a relief.

Looking back from the bridge at Klausen/Chiusa.

We started out without too much elevation change between Chiusa and Bressanone. The quality of the bike path was excellent. We stopped briefly by an elementary school coming in to Bressanone. Keith always asks if I wish I were still teaching. Nope. I loved my job, and I love children but when we stop by a school I remember what a noisy environment my workplace was!

An obvious difference between Canadian school kids and Italian ones. There were hundreds of bikes. A bike for every child. This line of bikes wrapped all the way around the playing field. This picture just shows a small number of them.

The Bressanone old town is beautiful. Right off the bat I sent Keith into the cathedral with clear instructions to look right. He did. It truly is a stunning church. We wandered the streets and had a happy encounter with a group of young athletes posing for a photo shoot for the company that sponsors them. They were promoting a snack apple of all things. The man who was in charge has been in Summerland BC, and since my Dad had an orchard across the lake from Summerland we had a happy conversation about apple varieties. We ran into him again before we left town and he warned us if we met a third time we had to go for a drink or it is bad luck. A new tradition! I like it 👍.

These young athletes were just gorgeous, gregarious and healthy.

After Bressanone the climbing gets more serious and there are some ups and downs, although not many downs. We did a total of 1611 m of elevation today. The scenery is great though, and there is lots of time to enjoy it. At one point I looked at my GPS and I was doing less than 6 km an hour. That is slow.

I survived the brief gravel section with no problems. I think I am getting my confidence back.

Here is where we stayed last year. It is in Mittewald. We highly recommend it.

We are finally seeing fall colours as we head north. Still summer temperatures though.

We bought two cold drinks at the hotel and had our picnic lunch here.

Traffic on the bike path. He looks like he is not quite ready to share it with bikes. His parents were laughing. He wasn’t going to smile. Driving is serious business.

For my girlfriend. Mom and kittens enjoying the sunshine.

Dueling castles coming into Sterzing. Here is the one on our side of the valley.

Here is the other side. I wonder if they sat and glared at each other back in the day?

When we arrived in Sterzing we didn’t linger long. There was a funny moment when Keith had trouble parking his bike. He told me he had been watching me too long. I really laughed. I find leaning my heavy bike a challenge, more often than not, and he just shakes his head and comes to my rescue.

We also discussed exactly how far we had to go. Based on the signage on the trail I was guessing 14 km. Keith was looking at Galileo and said 24. I went into Tourist Information and she said 12. We just shrugged and started up. Almost immediately we passed a bike path sign that said 16. Then the km signs started...24, 23, 22. Why do I ever doubt Keith and his trusty app? The route is consistently up, but about 8 km before the end it levels out to rail trail grades. I put my classical music playlist on (think William Tell Overture not Brahm’s Lullaby) and just put the hammer down. It was brilliant. There is something about music that is so motivating and mood enhancing and my classical list leans to the joyous side. We just admired the views, stopped a few times for photos and had a fantastic final ride of the tour.

Beautiful Sterzing. It deserves more time.

An Aperol Spritz at the bar would have been nice.

Autostrada in the distance. We would be way up above it by the end of the day.

Autostrada, railway tracks and our very own bike path.

This doesn’t get old. The engineering in these roads (and the amount of concrete) is staggering.

We were having such a great time. I almost had to tackle the CN to allow me to take his picture.

It was such an amazing ride. We would do the whole route again tomorrow if we could. We had such a stroke of luck when we arrived in Brenner. I was doing a silly little happy dance (I really was) and the CN pulled up and told me to cut the antics and pedal like a fiend to the train station. We had no idea of the schedule except that there is a train to Innsbruck approximately every hour. We arrived at 5:29 PM. The train left at 5:33 PM. I was staring in alarm at the ticket machine when a young, strong guy went by. Keith asked him which track, he told us and told us we could buy tickets on the train. Then he carried my bike, fully loaded up and down the stairs and practically threw us on the train. He did give me a funny look when he picked the bike up and said “heavy”. Yup, I know! We just made it. I felt like doing another happy dance 😜. The route from Brenner to Innsbruck is all downhill, but on a busy road and not recommended. We sat back and enjoyed the ride and the views and a real sense of accomplishment.

Once at the Innsbruck train station we secured our tickets to Zurich (direct train! no changes!) and then checked into the Hotel Zach. We have stayed her before and really like it. Then out we went for a celebratory drink and snack. Even though it was 8 PM by this time it was a balmy 20 C and we wanted to enjoy sitting outdoors. Those pesky smokers though, so we headed inside. We had forgotten, smoking is allowed indoors in Austria too. So frustrating. So crazy. It is like going back 40 years. Back out we went, to at least inhale the second hand smoke mixed with fresh air. It is such a tragedy. It really is. At any rate, nothing could spoil our evening and we relaxed and looked back on the last eight weeks. We wish it wasn’t ending so soon, but this weather can’t last forever and so we start the trek home tomorrow.

Almost at the top. This photo sums up our last day of riding perfectly. We have really ended this tour on a high.

Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 2,267 km (1,408 miles)

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Suzanne GibsonCongratulations! A great ride, and pictures, up to the Brenner. Hopefully my husband and I will be doing it next year - but in the other direction. :)
I've really enjoyed your rides and have got some good ideas for our summer next year. Thanks for sharing.
Suzanne
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5 years ago

Kathleen ClassenYou won’t be disappointed. Take more time though 😀. We had to boot it because of our flight, and the area deserves more time. We highly recommend taking the side trip to Arco too, and Lago di Garda and oh my, I could go on and on. So many possibilities! I want to go back and do it the other way 😜. Thank you so much for your note. Start planning 😎.
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5 years ago

Keith ClassenTo Suzanne GibsonThank you for your comment Suzanne. Smart people go the other way. Now two years in a row we went the wrong way. You would think we would learn! Needs more time than we spent for sure. Keith
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5 years ago