Seis am Schlern

June 12, 2025

The Slow Bike Tour

If you you’ve noticed the distances we are covering on this tour, you will surely see how short they are, especially in this area. The simple reason is that I wanted to take the time to explore this amazing area on foot. I even brought walking shoes along, for the very first time. It’s been fantastic and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone considering visiting the Dolomites by bike. There is so much to see and we are loving the slow travel. On that note, there are as many ways to travel as there are people. Some people, when we asked about their itinerary, list off the countries and major cities they had already visited. Or, in the case of the Backroads biker guy, he didn’t know. Each to their own, but this formula has sure worked well for us.

Today, we are moving out of the Val Gardena to another location with great access to the Alpe di Siusi from the western side, near the mountains known as the Schlern Sciliar. We are headed to the small village of Seis am Schlern, the German name, or if you are Italian, it’s Siusi allo Sciliar.

We did a repeat performance at the breakfast buffet and then said our goodbyes to Bernadette. What a lovely lady. It’s been so much fun chatting with her. As were about to head down to the garage with our gear, she grabbed my panniers and said, ‘let me help’. My water bottles were under my arm, along with my front pannier and I inadvertently flexed and squirted some water on the lobby floor. I apologized profusely and told her it was water with electrolytes, to which she replied, “Are you sure it isn’t gin and tonic? That’s very popular these days”. We all laughed.

We pulled the bikes out of the storage room and her eyes grew big and she broke out in a huge smile when she saw my bike, exclaiming, ‘How cute!”. She and I are similar heights and she thought it would be a good fit for her. Most bikes ridden by tourists in this area are e-mountain bikes and they are huge! She probably hasn’t seen a small bike in a while. We then explained we had ridden down Seceda on them and she acknowledged us with “Chapeau!!”, the ultimate compliment for a cyclist.

Back to the names of places in this region. It’s all very confusing because there are both German and Italian names and they are quite different. The big one is the name of the alpine meadow, the Alpe di Siusi. That’s the Italian name. In German, it is Seiser Alm. So, the gondola in Ortesei (St. Johan, in German) is called the Seiser Alm lift and it makes you to the Alpe di Siusi or the Seiser Alm, whichever you to prefer. The last one I will mention is Kastelruhe which we passed through on our ride today. It is also called Castelrotto. And finally, most people we meet here speak German, not Italian. Phew! It’s only taken a week to finally get this all sorted out.

We finally got rolling at about 9:45am, but it didn’t take long for the first stop. In fact we only made in about two blocks whan we came into the vendors booths for the Hero Marathon. The coffee truck was all set up, the music was blaring from the loudspeaker and the wares were being flogged by all the big name vendors. Hero, Cannondale, Trek, Selle Italia, Muc-off, and so many more. We needed to stop to look for a map anyway so we took a couple of minutes to enjoy the atmosphere.

For the first time on this tour, we had a glorious, downhill start. And, it was on a fully fledged, well marked bike path. Hallelujah for that. Bike infrastructure is something they do very well in this region. This trail is a converted steam train track that was de-commissioned in 1960. Built in record time by 6000 Russian prisoners of war in 1915, it was inaugurated in 1916. To commemorate the history, there are information panels along the route.

In addition, there are sculptures relating to the history of Val Gardena. The Val Gardena Ski Club originated in 1908 and held the first ski race that year. Gradually, runs and lifts were built and in 1970 the spotlight was in Val Gardena as it hosted the World Cup Downhill ski race. Every year, a Men’s world Cup ski Race is held here.

Along one of the curves of the trail, you can see just how much or how little has fallen annually in Selva since 1950.

A metal bar for each year, representing the total annual snowfall, stands against the stone wall of the bikeway.

The installation is very long! I didn’t realize what it was till we reached 1950, the last one.

Snowfall in 1955 was about midway between the least and the most snowfall on record.

Model and info plaque for the Castel Gardena across the valley.

The castle dates back to 1622. Since 1926, it has been privately owned. I would not want to have to maintain a home like this!

The trail passes through an original tunnel built for the steam train in 1916 by labourers from the prison camp. It’s a well built tunnel, restored and made accessable to the public in 1917. It’s about 250m long and has a very high ceiling. There are info panels all along the tunnel to educate passersby about its history.

The tunnel is spacious and has panels along its length to explain its construction.

The trail passes through an original tunnel, built for the steam train in 1916.

The rail trail came to an end for us at Ortesei. From here, we headed uphill to the summit of the Passo Pinei.

Bridge across the Gardena river in Ortesei.

Crystal clear waters rush down from the mountains of the Sella Ronda.

The Passo Pinei, although peppered with 15% sections, was a very nice climb, as it also included short recovery sections of 3-4% grades along the way. It was only 200m of elevation gain and as we turtled along, Ortesei slipped away behind us and we entered a beautiful forest. The chiffchaffs, which have replaced the cuckoo birds, chattered at us the whole way.

From that point on, we cruised downhill on nice smooth pavement all the way to Kastelruhe.

We have been intrigued by the style of timber framing in this area. The historic style is repeated in today’s construction.

Our dreamy downhill section was interrupted at Karlsruhe with a short uphill blip, then we coasted the rest of the way to Seis am Shlern.

We checked in early at our B&B, then did a stroll through the village, stopping for a sandwich and lemonade at an outdoor cafe. It’s a quiet town, but perfectly placed for our planned trip up to see the meadows one more time. The gondola is about 200m from our B&B.

For dinner, we headed to the gondola, where there’s a great pizzeria. I had a pinsa and David had a schnitzel. Great food, service and prices.

Tomorrow, we are off to see the meadows from a different vantage point.

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Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 607 km (377 miles)

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Anne AnastasiouAnother great day! Love those tunnels. xx
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19 hours ago

Mike AylingYes your Bike Fridays are petite compared with some of the monster ebikes.
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19 hours ago

Patty BarronNothing better than a bit of boogey shoe to start the days’ ride 🎶
Gotta love those tunnels too!
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13 hours ago