September 7, 2022
Day 5 - Prutz to Nauders
We made it up the big climb!
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Today we had a big climb and some help. We had arranged in advance with West.taxi in Prutz to carry our panniers to tonight’s hotel in Nauders.
The Hotel Post kept up its class act with a magnificent breakfast buffet. We left our bags and payment for the taxi service at the front desk, and rolled off about 1000.
Rain was predicted for the afternoon, and it was a bit chilly, so we were in our rain gear for the start of the ride. But the sun was out and the views continued to be stellar.
Not to mention the beautifully decorated and maintained Austrian houses along the path.
We climbed a bit at the start as we got out of Prutz and rolled toward Pfunds, the next town up the valley. The valley was surprisingly wide for being so far up in the mountains.
The unloaded bike felt livelier, but we really noticed the difference when we had to climb those short, steep rises that occur on the path. We could punch our way up with much less difficulty. There were still some “sit and spin” hills, though.
The bike route played tag with the river, crossing back and forth, climbing away up the sides of the valley and then dropping back alongside. We just love the crazy blue tint of the water.
And did we mention the scenery?
The route was almost all paved, but we did have a few gravel bits to navigate.
Above Pfunds, the valley narrowed substantially and the track got rougher. At the narrowest point, we descended down some gravel/dirt roads and arrived at Altfinstermünz castle. It’s a medieval castle that sat on the Via Claudia Augusta and served as a customs house. The setting is spectacular! We’ll let Robin’s pictures speak for a bit.
There was a small cafe in the castle, and a sign advertised home-made blueberry cake. While Robin was elsewhere, Rich cleverly ordered 2 portions to go with our coffees. This move was met with disapproval, but she managed to choke most of it down anyway.
We pushed the bike up the steep trail that led up to the road above. The new road on the other side of the canyon took all the traffic, so we had a whisper-quiet run into Martina on beautiful road surfaces along the Swiss side of the canyon.
In Martina, Rich bought a Toblerone bar to serve as a motivational aid. We WERE in Switzerland, you know?
And so we shed our rain jackets tackled the 6k climb to Norbertshöhe.
It started off with a bang. Grades north of 7 and 8 percent right from the start. There are 11 switchbacks, considerately numbered in decreasing order. We went into our lowest gear and concentrated on conserving our energy.
There were two sections where roadwork was being done. The flag man let us right into the first one, so we didn’t even slow down. On the second one, we hit a red signal. So we used the opportunity to take a quick break. We continued on when we got a flashing yellow.
Occasionally we looked back down the hill to see where we had come from.
The road was wide, in great shape, and almost un-trafficed. A very low-stress way to get to Nauders. Somewhere between switchbacks 5 and 4, we pulled over and had some motivational Toblerone. With the promise of another piece at the top, we forged onward.
Robin was pretty focused on the switchback numbers. We have several pictures of them, :) but one example will do.
And then, suddenly, the top! We had done it with one real break and no walking! We were pretty proud of ourselves. A Swiss bike tourist going the other way took our picture for us. Some celebratory Toblerone was consumed.
From the top, we zipped down into Nauders.
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A little climbing was required to get to the hotel, the Hotel Berghof. We arrived around 1330 but checkin was at 1500, so we settled down at a bench outside. After a few minutes the manager popped out to tell us that our room was ready, so we checked in.
Unfortunately our baggage had not checked in. After its promised time (1500) of arrival had come and gone, we checked “Find My” To see that our bags were still in Prutz! A phone call was required to remind the taxi service of the confirmation they gave us this morning at 0900. Our bags finally showed up around 1630.
In the meantime we enjoyed the fantastic views from our balcony.
In the late afternoon, rain started falling. After such a challenging day, we weren’t in the mood to trudge around town looking for food. The menu in the hotel looked appealing, too. So we stayed cosa and went downstairs for dinner. The house white was our favorite, Gruner Veltliner. The veggie and chicken burgers were awesome, and we shared a grappa to celebrate our victorious day of climbing.
Gute nacht!!
Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 276 km (171 miles)
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More importantly: congratulations on making it up the hill! It was hard enough work coming down…
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