September 2, 2022
Cycling heaven: Lienz to St. Sigmund
A wonderful day of cycling: perfect trails, perfect weather, glorious scenery.
I'd stayed the night in a slightly odd, but very friendly, hotel in central Lienz. It was a bit big and echoey, and had a slightly retro 70s vibe -- I think achieved by simply not updating anything since the actual 70s. But it provided a very respectable breakfast, and a comfortable and quiet night's sleep, which is all I need, really.
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From there, it was a quick scoot back to the riverside radweg, which I followed, more or less, for the rest of the day: gently uphill for the first half, gently downhill (with occasional bumps) for the second.
The section from Lienz to the border included some of the best bits of cycle path I think I've ever encountered -- and yet, much of it was almost deserted. I'm torn between wanting to tell the world about this patch of cycling heaven, and keeping it a secret for those in the know...
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Closer to the border, the path started to get a bit busier, with lots of families on rented bikes, presumably out for a day trip -- very cheering to see, even if it did mean having to keep hands close to the brakes, in case of Unexpected Manoeuvres.
At Sillian, I detoured briefly into town for a really excellent apfelstrudel (my first of this trip -- very remiss), and then sailed onwards and smoothly over the border.
Other than a change of name, and in the colour of the signposts, the Italian section of this bike trail was as good as the Austrian. If anything, perhaps even a bit more scenic -- especially as the Dolomites started to appear on the horizon.
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After Toblach/Dobbiaco, I was retracing, in the opposite direction, a ride I'd done before (in 2019, en route to Cortina). On that occasion, though, the weather had been abysmal, so it was even nicer to be enjoying it in sunshine this time -- not least because I could actually see the views.
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2 years ago
Oddly, some bits of the route seemed vividly familiar from that earlier ride (the picnic bench in a wooded section where I'd stopped for a soggy sandwich, for example), and some bits had left no imprint on my brain at all (I'm sure those tunnels above Bruneck didn't used to be here...). I'd also managed to airbrush out of my memory the sequence of non-trivial climbs on this stretch, though they definitely felt less painful in this direction. I think I managed to get briefly lost at exactly the same spot in St. Lorenzen, too -- impressive consistency (in a way...)
My goal for today was St. Sigmund -- chosen fairly at random from the map as a place in roughly the right location, with a reasonably priced hotel, and easy access from the bike route (which is mostly on the other side of the river from the -- busy -- main valley road). It turned out to be a pretty sleepy place: a church, a bus-stop, a few houses, and the hotel. This last was, once more, very friendly, but completely flummoxed by a UK passport: my German was stretched to its utmost in trying to suggest which information belonged in which box of the registration form, and then failed completely when it came to explaining how UK postcodes work. In the end they just photocopied everything and sent me up to my room: I hope they worked it out eventually...
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Today's ride: 93 km (58 miles)
Total: 371 km (230 miles)
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