September 3, 2022
Downhill (almost) all the way: St. Sigmund to Bolzano
Today was supposed to be, and (amazingly) actually was, an easy day: a short and almost entirely downhill spin to Bolzano, and an afternoon of gentle tourism.
My hotel in St. Sigmund produced a very good Austro-Italic Fusion Breakfast (which is to say: meat and cheese and lumpy bread, but also good coffee and fancy pastries), I retrieved my bicycle from their snooker (!) room, and rejoined the cycleway. It had rained during the night, but the cloud was lifting out of the valley by now.
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The short climb out of Mühlbach provided the only real exertion of the day, as well as nice views across the valley.
From there, it was smooth sailing, on a sequence of well-organised bike paths, sneaking their way between main road and river.
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Other than a quick stop for coffee and (supplementary) pastries in Brixen, I kept straight on to Bolzano, particularly enjoying the sequence of tunnels just above the city (and also enjoying the signs telling motorists about the huge delays on their roads: fahrradschadenfreude, I guess could be the German word for it?).
Bolzano felt like a bit of a shock to the system: it seemed suddenly to be very much more Italian than the parts of Südtirol I'd passed through so far -- though this might just be because it was surrounded by crazy traffic and beeping horns. The cycle path carved a way through the madness, though, and safely to my hotel. It was too early to check in, but I left my bags and bike there, and set out to do some Tourist Chores: an accidentally gigantic lunch, some browsing of the shops, and a visit to the (really excellent, I thought) Ötzi-the-Iceman exhibition.
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All of that, washed down with an evening drink in the hotel garden, made for another really good day.
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 437 km (271 miles)
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