Glurns - Finally, a real downhill! - Poking Around Europe 5.0

September 3, 2018

Glurns - Finally, a real downhill!

Nauders to Glurns

What a day. We had sunshine and a fantastic beginning, a fantastic ride, business to conduct in the Italian fashion in the middle and a happy ending. We were just a teeny bit worried for awhile.

Breakfast at our hotel was an eight jammer complete with starched linen and impeccable service. Keith made a one point deduction for a lack of croissants. I felt the apple strudel should have compensated for that. We explored Nauders before leaving town. It would make a fantastic spot to spend a week, but even then you would barely be able to cover the hiking and biking available.

The stairs down to the bicycles. A bit difficult for me, so Keith carried both up.

This would make a perfect place for a base for a hiking biking trip where you spoke out each day.

Pictures are not downloading tonight. This time I am not sure what the problem is as the wifi signal seems fine. I will tell the story and keep my fingers crossed that I can download the pictures later.

The ride out of Nauders was actually uphill until we were over the Reschen Pass. Nothing dramatic in terms of elevation, and a fantastic surface. There were bikes and hikers everywhere, and we had to be careful if stopped to check both ways before we started again. Once over the top the downhill the CN has been promising started. We rode to Graun, on the Reschen Reservoir. The iconic church steeple rising out of the lake is quite a sight. The story is tragic, with many people displaced, their land expropriated with no compensation.

Our first look at the Reschen reservoir.

The bike path is amazing. No wonder there are so many cyclists here. We were having an amazing ride when we came to the first detour. We met a man and his son Jacob here, and followed them along the detour, down the highway and back onto the Via Claudia Augusta. There we came to the second detour. This time we decided to ignore the signs and we had a fantastic ride downhill for several km. Absolutely first class riding. Until we came to the heavy equipment completely blocking the path. There were two ways out. One was back up the hill (and it was a long hill), the other over the farmer’s fence with the bikes, through the pasture, back over the fence. We chose the pasture. By now there were six of us, so I didn’t actually have to do any heavy lifting. Unfortunately though, we both stepped in fresh cow pies...with both shoes. Unbelievable. Our shoes and clips may never be the same.

These cows weren’t at fault. It was others just like them 😜.

I went through the fence. Everyone else went over.

Jacob is fast, loves to jump over things on his bike and was having fun.

Then it was on down the track to Mals where we knew there was a Vodaphone. We had forgotten though, that Italy shuts down between noon and 3 PM. We spent the first hour pleasantly, waiting at a cafe eating not one, but two apple strudels, with cream of course. Then off to the Vodaphone shop. Buying a SIM card can be a confounding process in any language. Compound the situation with a sketchy and twitchy character hanging around the bikes and we felt we couldn’t leave them unattended. I sat outside with the bikes, valiantly using a toothpick I found on the ground to try and remove some of the cow pie. After some time the CN appeared, completely baffled, then we reversed roles. We are still a little confused, but the phone is working so we should be good. We found it hilarious that we could have bought a coffee maker, LED light bulbs and a washing machine or two among many other things at the same spot. Welcome to Italy 👍.

Unfortunately the SIM card took some time to be activated so we arrived in Glurns at around 5 PM not sure about accommodations in Prad am Stilfserjoch (yes, I looked up the spelling) our planned stop for the day. Glurns is the smallest city in the South Tyrol, with fully intact city walls. We decided to inquire at a hotel in Glurns as it is such an amazing medieval town...and the hotel was fully booked. So was the next one. Hmmmmmm. We headed to tourist information and decided not to chance continuing if we could find a room here. We are in the attic of a family run hotel with skeleton keys. It is charming. The lovely Julia who checked us in has stolen the CN’s heart. She has also stolen the heart of everyone else in the tiny main floor bar.

The bar scene. People playing cards in one corner, these gentlemen gathered around the proprietor (not Julia, who was done for the day) and plenty of smoke wafting in the door. We are pretty sure it is like this every night. It was the locals and us and great fun. It reminded Keith of his favourite bar song.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFky0YcGAQ

We have had our first Italian dinner of the trip and gelato of course. We are having a drink in the small local bar on the main floor of the hotel and it has been a great day. Again.

Here is the Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/1816675820

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 382 km (237 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	8
Comment on this entry	Comment	4

Steve Miller/GrampiesThe route down from the Reschen Pass is a strong contender for the best we have ever seen. The apples must be amazing right now?

About the croissant - the thing that puzzled us was that while South Tyrol seems Austrian -e.g. bakeries look like backereis - the baking actually leans to the very weak Italian, and will get weaker the deeper into Italy you get.

How cruel not to have a photo yet of Julia!
Reply to this comment
6 years ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesKeith is crushed he didn’t get a photo of Julia. He left her a note this morning as today was her day off.
Reply to this comment
6 years ago

Scott AndersonStelvio!! Our waiter at dinner tonight asked if it was in our plans, and we said we hoped so if the weather cooperated. He whistled appreciatively, and waggles his fingers. So there’s a sign.
Reply to this comment
6 years ago

Keith ClassenTo Scott AndersonHi Scott - it was a perfect day today so we thought we would at least poke our nose up the Stelvio. We made it to the top and it was undoubtedly the hardest climb ever for both us. We dropped our panniers off at the hotel in Prato and only took the essentials. There are options though. There are couple hotels on the way up so you could go up part way check in and go to top the next day. The views are fantastic. Very busy with roadies, some electric bikes and of course hundreds of motorcycles. Passed a couple of bike / motorcyle incidents but fortunately nothing serious. We replaced most the calories burned today with a great dinner at the hotel.
Keith
Reply to this comment
6 years ago