August 13, 2024
To Bolzano
Our Tyrolean experience of the past few days was enhanced by last night's hotel stay. The Wohlfühlhotel Mei Auszeit in Plaus had a wonderfully calm, efficient atmosphere about it. The super-friendly receptionist, who was in Tyrolean dress, congratulated me on my English skills and was surprised to learn that most New Zealanders could also speak the language as well as me. (I always genuinely compliment the service people we meet on their English and always regret my corresponding lack of fluency in a second language.) So, thank you, My Time Out Wellness hotel, for that vote of confidence! Dinner was a Tyrolean menu, again served by multi-lingual wait staff in regional dress - an interesting experience.
After yesterday's highs and lows, a border crossing, Strava misdirection and emergency bike repairs, we're expecting a very straightforwad and short downhill ride to Bolzano. So we act accordingly; sleeping in, lingering over breakfast and generally faffing around.
It's after 9.30 before we roll the bikes out of the lock-up and bike the couple of hundred meters back to the Adige River cycle path. So far, so good. I forget to mention in yesterday's journal what a presence the Adige had on our ride. It began south of the Reschensee as a babbling brook, as I noted, and was a constant chattering companion as the day progressed. When we stopped at a riverside cafe mid-afternoon, the Adige's rapid downhill flow drowned out nearby conversations.
This morning, the river maintains its fast flow but without yesterday's youthful enthusiasm. Mostly. After a few idyllic kilometres of downhill through the ever-present apple orchards, marked only by increasing numbers of cyclists on the path, we reach a bottleneck. The path moves away from the river and suddenly drops some 50 metres in a series of switchbacks. Everyone is on best behaviour, slowly descending in single file - until a young boy cuts a corner and somehow entangles himself with his dad in a pile-up. His parents are not impressed. The rest of us move on in stately procession and make it safely back to the river. The Adige must have had its own descending drama at this point but I'm none the wiser.
There's another deviation as we near the biggest town so far, Merano. We turn and follow the Passer river at its confluence with the Adige, continuing to skirt around the town until re-joining OUR river. We've long left behind the dramatic narrow valleys of the Reschensee and upper Adige but it seems we're fated to ride through apple orchards for ever - even through busy Merano and, later, Bolzano.
It's now late morning. Failing to find somewhere to sit down for a coffee on the path, we take ourselves over the river to Lana, finding a bakery/konditorei on its outskirts.
Getting back on the cycle path after coffee proves to be a challenge. We re-cross the river at the next motorway bridge but find ouselves on the wrong side of a high fence.
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That last pic also shows that preparations for apple harvest are building. We've seen a lot of these green crates on the move. The mind boggles at the logistics of harvesting and processing five billion apples
It's lunchtime, and Bolzano is in view. Check-in at the B&B Bolzano is not until 2pm so we execute our plan of finding a place not too far away for a decent lunch to fill the gap. As predicted, the temperature has reached 30 degrees. We're on the outskirts of the city. With the best will in the world, we cannot motivate ourselves to explore Bolzano further.
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,009 km (627 miles)
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The whole apple thing is mind boggling!
3 months ago