September 7, 2022
Inn the mood: Scuol to Imst
After a couple of rather strenuous days, today was (mostly) a bit more gentle: following the Inn downriver for almost the whole day, other than a few Swiss Special uphill detours (for the views!) in the early stages, and an ice-cream earning climb at the very end.
My hotel served up one last slab of nusstorte for breakfast, to see me out of the Engadine in style (perhaps best for my arteries that I was moving on...), and the cycle route initially lulled me into a false sense of security with a blissful, gently downhill, smoothly tarmacced run down the valley.
Obviously, this didn't last too long, and it was soon back to the more usual (for Switzerland) mix of gravel and climbs -- all, though, in such a spectacular setting that it was impossible to get too grumpy.
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There were a few last frescoed houses, too, to enjoy along the way, before passing the (quite serious-looking, by the standards of the border posts I've crossed so far) customs point at Martina.
I was listening out, here, for the tell-tale 'ping' of my mobile phone -- the text message from my provider telling me that I'd arrived in another country was usually the most reliable way of knowing that I'd crossed a border -- but it didn't come, and finally I worked out that the border was still a few kilometres away: this was the extended duty-free zone (but the duty-free shops all seemed to be uphill, and my commitment to cheap toblerones doesn't go that far).
In fact, this (commercial) no-man's land was quite dramatic riding, as the river flowed through a narrow, gorge-like stretch.
I was back on tarmac, too (and decided to ignore encouragements to detour onto gravel), and mostly heading downhill, and it wasn't long before the (equally serious-looking) Austrian customs post came into view.
After the border, things became more consistently downhill (which I guess the Austrians can't really take credit for) and more smoothly surfaced (which I suppose they can). The Innradweg merged with the Via Claudia Augusta, too (which had come over the Reschsenpass), and suddenly there were a lot more touring cyclists around again.
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On the approach to Pfunds, I passed a sequence of signs urging me to visit a combined bike and cake shop. To be honest, I didn't need very much persuading, and the outcome was both excellent apple cake and a new set of brake pads: double reward. I also passed a couple on a tandem bike friday, and thought, gosh, that's a coincidence: I was just reading a cycleblaze blog about a tandem bike friday trip through the Alps. Only some time later did it occur to me that the authors of that blog were probably, in fact, the people who were sitting on the tandem. (Sorry, Rich! I think all the blood which should have been powering my brain had been diverted to my legs...)
From there it was a lovely ride down the valley. A few lumps before Landeck justified a stop for a (safely tripe-free) lunch at a sunny cafe there. After that, other than having to backtrack a bit to work round the path closure at Zams, it was very easy riding down to the outskirts of Imst.
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The last couple of kilometres were very much not easy riding, but brought their reward in the form of a particularly excellent ice-cream in the town centre, which provided the boost needed to get me up the last bit of climb to my hotel for the night. One more pass to go!
Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 718 km (446 miles)
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