Day 31: Landeck, Austria to Glurns (Glorenza), Italy

August 21, 2015

Landeck looked a little better to our rested eyes and in the morning light, but not much, really. There is nothing actually wrong with the town, as with Imst, it's just that it did not strike us as pretty or interesting. There was one saving grace, though! A small market had been set up along the street, and it included two bakers. One had not only apple strudel but also Linzer Torte. We had missed out on Linzer Torte last time, in Linz (every bakery closed!) so here was our big chance. The strudel did not really have the expected thin layers of pastry, but somehow it was crazily, extremely, yummy. We saved the torte for later, and found it too was good, but oh, that strudel!

The other interesting bit was the possibility of taking a bus to Nauders. We were working with slightly confusing information about the pass or passes ahead. On one hand, the bus, which is supposed to take you over the "pass" goes to Nauders, but the Rechen Pass is beyond Nauders. On one hand, our friend Tricia wrote that the Rescehn Pass is not too bad, and one can cycle or push up it, while on the other hand, David and Maun Alston heartily recommended the bus.

We were able to solve the mystery of where to get the bus, even before receiving a photo of the stop in Landeck from David. We decided to cycle a little bit backwards, to the train/bus station 2 km further back. This would give us a chance to get on where the bus begins, which we hoped would afford a little more time to get the bikes and gear properly stowed.

The bus goes hourly, and has a rack on the back, but four times daily it is dragging a bike trailer. We were ready for the 10:05, which had a trailer.

As we waited, we noticed a young couple with hiking gear, and I snapped their photo since they seemed to fit the area so well. The fellow had a big bushy beard and the lady blond pig tails. After a while we got to speaking to them, and found that they had been hiking in the nearby mountains, but we bailing on it because of pain in the man's knees. I observed that when we have pain in the knees is when we start to walk, rather than stopping to walk. It turned out, of course, that walking was not what they had been doing. Rather they were climbing, and it was steep multi hundred meter descents that were causing the knees to play up! They pointed to the mountain they had been up, so I snapped that too.

The Alstons had praised their bus driver and described the ride to Nauders as a fun experience. We were open to that, but we had also been looking in photos at the bike racks on the trailers, and we were concerned that the short distance between our little wheels' road contact point and the bottom of the derailleurs would cause the bikes to not fit in the provided tracks.

When the bus arrived, the advertised jolly driver turned out to be one of those miserable, impatient ones. He grabbed Dodie's bike and set about trying to jam it deep into the wheel groove, coincidentally mashing the derailleur. Dodie cried out "Nein, Nein!", with which he threw his hands in the air and stomped off.

I figured out that if I put the gears so as to use the maximum amount of chain, the derailleur would be pulled forward and out of harm's way. With the bike already up on the trailer, this was impossible to do by pedalling, so I moved the chain and derailleurs by hand, getting my hands thoroughly greasy. I did this with the other bike too, but also saw that the bikes were unsteady, so we grabbed elastic ropes and tied them down.

Having ignored us and our bikes, the driver now took off without checking whether our bikes or us were on or off. Fortunately, we were all on.

We were naturally eager to see just what this big Landeck to Nauders hill was all about, and where the bike route might be in relation to the bus route. At first the whole thing seemed fairly flat enough, and we got glimpses of the bike route nearby. Then we entered an area where it was not quite so flat, and significantly, where the bike route shared the narrow road woth the bus route! It was after Pfunds that things really got hairy! We have no idea where the bikes went, but the bus climbed through snow sheds/tunnels and around hairpin switchbacks. There was no way on earth a bike could go there. Our Bikeline map showed another way for the bikes, but that seemed to have even more switchbacks than our bus was doing!

The bus arrived in Nauders, pulling through the very cute, touristy, mountain town, and coming to a stop at a curb just out of town. Here our gear got dumped beside the road, and I set about getting the bikes off the trailer. Unaided I got Dodie's down, and was pretty much finished lifting mine off at the back, when the driver made to leave. Dodie had gone to the front of the bus and asked him to wait, then she came to the back to help me with the lift down. But in that time, the guy released his brake and was ready to go. The released brake caused the bus to roll backwards. Behind the bus was where I was, lifting the bike down!

So, with something like a breach birth, here we were!

We repacked our bikes by the roadside, and set off back into town for a quick peek and to find the route. We found that Nauders is a true mountain town, in that it is nestled in the mountains, has huddled chalet style buildings, and caters to mountain oriented tourists. Maybe, of course, it had no other industry but tourism or traveller through traffic, but still we liked it.

Now we confronted the fact that Nauders is not at the top of the "Reschen Pass". Understandably, Reschen is at the top of the Reschen Pass (actually, the true top is about a km before). Now maybe Nauders to Reschen is the bit that Tricia was talking about as being not bad, because it was not bad. (If, on the other hand, Tricia also cycled Landeck to Nauders, then much respect is due!).

Reschen (also called Resia) is actually in Italy, so before arriving there you pass the former border station. At that point I said, "OK, so where's the pizza?" and in fact there is a pizzeria right there! There are also two more in the next km. It reminds me of when we entered Switzerland last year, when I declared "Where's the chocolate and cheese" at Basel. It took a day or two before we really found it.

Tricia had also written glowingly about the 80 km Etsch (Adige) bikeway, all the way down to Merano. Now there could be no way to overstate how glorious this is. We are less than half way, but even that would be more than enough to write home about. It begins with Lago di Resia (the Reschensee) which is a high lake with turquoise water. It lies at the head of the Venosta Valley, which is very open and ringed by high mountains.

The lake has a unique story. It was formed from two smaller lakes which were expanded by a dam in 1946 or so, as a hydro project. The new lake drowned a number of 1000 year old villages, from which the residents were forced without compensation. All that remains is a single tower, which juts from the lake. Ironically, this tower is now the icon and symbol of the lake and the region.

Once beyond the lake, the real fun and amazing bit begins. It truly is all downhill! Down, down, down you go. Really you are descending the Reschen Pass, but it must be lots farther up on this side than it was on the other. That's the fun bit. The amazing bit is the way every turn reveals a complete town, lower than the one you are leaving. Down, down, level after level, there is town after town.

The towns have a different character from the Austrian or German ones, too. Now you can see some rusted tin roofs, and crumbly stone walls. The streets are more tangled, and of course, even in town, its down, down. (Or up up, if you have done something to offend the deities).

After the town of Mals, we decided it was time to look for camping, or a place to stay. We knew the Alstons had stopped nearby at Laatsch, but it seemed there were no vacancies there. (Actually, we asked at one place, but then got swept down, down, put of town!). No problem, there is always a lower village, and it does not take long to get there when zooming down.

The next lower village was Glurns (Glorenza). Already we had found that even though this is Italy, the language is German. Not only is it German, but no one speaks the slightest bit of English. It's ok, sort of, because though our German is little, or Italian is zero. So in German we learned, after checking four places in Glurns, that there was no vacancy in town. It's too bad, because Glurns is unique among these towns, being still completely walled. Inside the walls, the tourists were swarming, but they had not gobbled up more space then elsewhere, its only that all space everywhere has been gobbled up.

This is where it pays off to either reserve ahead, if you are organized, or have a tent - like us. In fact, what in heaven's name were we doing on a not raining day asking at guest houses? so we made our way to Glurns camping. Oh, oh, they felt they were full too. Dodie, though, talked them out of an 8x10 piece of turf. So honey, we're home!

We thought about pedalling into town for our first pizza in Italy, but thought better of it since it would use up blogging time. That turned out to be fortuitous, because as we sat on a bench by the ladies washroom blogging and washing up from our instant spaetzle noodles, a man walked up and said "Hi Dodie" !. It was Fredy Artho and his wife. Fredy cycled the Southern Tier last year, and has been following our blogs. He has posted a lot on the guestbook of WilJen. Fredy lives in Winterthur, Switzerland, and just happened to be in the area. Naturally a lively conversation ensued. This is one of the great things about the Crazyguy community - you get to really know people you have never met, and may never meet. But sometimes you actually do meet, and then, you realize that you are already old friends.

While we were talking to Fredy, another man walked up, attracted just because he heard English being spoken. He turned out to be from Florida. Dodie spoke to him for a while while I carried on with Fredy and wife. The man seemed to have a lot of good tips, in part about Glurns, which he said was the only intact walled medieval town in northern Italy. We promised to go back in tomorrow for a close look. Before then, though, I need to go through the 251 photos I shot today, and choose some to put in here!

(Well, I got the photos uploaded, but it is bedtime - so it will be tomorrow before I can put in captions that explain what man of the puzzling ones are all about!)

Back in Landeck for another look, still does not look great.

Except for these great apple strudel (and linzer torte - off screen)

Landeck also did have an Intersport with some real stuff. Dodie got a waterproof helmet cover! She also thought these shoes would be nicely grippy on flat pedals (but did not get them!).

The bus stop at the train station for the lift to Nauders

These guys fit my image of modern Tirol hikers

The lady is pointing toward the mountain they climbed

If you look closely you can see that the derailleur is safe (we hoped!)

Dodie displays her "Get out of town free" card - the "Tirol West Card" given to us by the guesthouse covered any regional buses ad a pile of other attractions.

These kids (and Mom) got on part way, and scored some of Dodie's Canada stickers, which were a big hit.

The bus went through a number of scary (for a bike - actually, impossible) snow shed/tunnels.

See the switchback road leading up to Nauders

Transitional food - between Germany and Italy, with some Turkish thrown in.

Nauders is a tourist town with a mountain theme - but the Yeti Bar?

For Ken Graham, the Traktor bar in Nauders

There are some tall and pointy mountains here, but no snow.

People with tandems wanting a lidt fron Landeck to Nauders might want to call these guys.

Look Avi and Violet - a cable car like the one we went on.

We made it to Italy (first time for Grampies)

Fast moving, double riding cyclist missed Dodie by one inch. She called "idiot!" after him, but we figured she really needed to paractie her Italian sign language.

The alm - I like to photograph this because it is such a major part of the landscape here

From piste cycable in Quebec and France to Radweg in Germany, now we are looking for "Percorso ciclabile"

Lake Resia, with proper snowy mountains in the distance

Does this photo make you want to go cycling!

Houses along the lakeshore, the Reschensee ( or Lago di Resia, or how about Lake Resia)

The very young Adige River - second longest in Italy

A wrong turn somewhere uphill, and our path ened abruptly at this dangerous road.

We turned 90 degrees and headed off through this hay field, eventually intersecting a safe road below.

A most typical view of our route after Reschen

There was always another town below. This, I think, was Mals Im Vischgau

This is an area of apple growing - using heavily trellised dwarf trees. The apples looked great!

Entering one gate of the walled town of Glorenza

Inside the old town of Glorenza (Glurns) We will come back tomorrow for another look

At the Glurns camping - not much space left.

Fredy (from Switzerland) just walked up and said "Hi Dodie" !

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,544 km (959 miles)

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