October 9, 2018
Trento - Gorgeous Day, Gorgeous Track, Gorgeous Scenery
Verona to Trento
What an amazing, amazing day. I wanted to title the blog Happy! Happy! Happy!
Last night at dinner we had pretty much decided we were taking the train to Innsbruck tomorrow. I was feeling blue about it. It really signals the end of the tour. We have ridden the Claudia Augusta bike route before (last year actually) so it seemed the best decision was to head north by train rather than do a repeat and then sort things out.
By the time we had walked back to the hotel after dinner we had changed our minds. This section of the Via Claudia Augusta is probably the most amazing riding we have ever done anywhere...why would it be a mistake to do it twice? We made the decision to ride to Innsbruck and then just train it straight to Zurich rather than doing a disjointed train/bike route. It was a fantastic decision. We have had one of the best days of biking ever, and we really love being on the bikes so that is saying something.
The ride was brilliant from the beginning. We were leap frogging an elderly roadie and he made sure we went the right way at every turn. Then shortly after weaving our way through a market in a town just outside Verona we met Jeremy, who is touring solo on his recumbent. We had a great visit trail side and discussion of routes He is headed in the opposite direction, lucky guy, and started just south of the Scottish border.
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After saying goodbye to Jeremy the route kicked things up a few notches if that is even possible in terms of scenery.
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I spent much of the day making memories. It was just so special and I was really living in the moment and wanting to remember it all. How lucky are we to be able to do this? The joys that were ours today were so many. Incidentally, on top of stunning weather, scenery and bike path, we had a tailwind. We were just so happy to be riding. This joy in the ride is a huge reason we travel this way. Today was very, very special.
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We just rode and rode and laughed and enjoyed. We were both amused by how little we recognized. There is so much to look at it is hard to take it all in. The mountains on either side of the valley and the vineyards provided never ending views. Some places were familiar though. We stopped for lunch in the same place as last year and it was full of supported tourers, just like last year, and just down the road was a large set up with another supported tour, again, just like last year.
Keith started to worry he was taking all the same pictures...it made me laugh. Here are few to show you why this bike path is so spectacular.
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We were slowly but steadily gaining elevation and climbed 955 m today. One hill was a bit of a brute. I appreciated the two roadies who went by and said ‘respect’. Keith and I are both feeling so good!
There will be more of the same amazing track tomorrow. It is so well marked it is hard to believe. Every km there is a signpost which gives the distance from the last community and the distance to the next. I will get the CN to take a picture of one tomorrow. We will go through Bressanone and are so delighted. Last year when we were there Keith went into the cathedral first, and it wasn’t until we were some km down the road and were talking about it (it is a stunner) that I realized he had missed the open air frescoes. Now he gets to see them, and they are worth seeing, believe me.
We are in Trento, have had a great dinner and are really, really looking forward to tomorrow. We love this route.
Today's ride: 106 km (66 miles)
Total: 2,097 km (1,302 miles)
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