August 23, 2015
Day 33: Merano to Bolzano (Italy)
The exhilarating descent part of the ride from Reschen was over at Merano, but the great cycle path and gorgeous scenery continued. We still could look at the mountain walls, with their scattered farms, and there was still one village after the next, though you could not see them coming up from below. The intensive apple farming continued, and once again we could ride sort of like royalty, through well trained orchards of green or red apples, often on either side. The Etsch too, remained with us, and was normally in view of the trail.
Since it was Sunday, we did not expect to have much, if anything, open, and it was too bad since we did not have really a lot of food supplies on board. About halfway though the ride today we decided to actually have a look at one of the little villages, rather than just sail by, as we have been doing.
We chose Terlano mostly at random, though we did focus on their trailside write up of their frescoed church. A strong second objective (other than seeing the church) was to see if there was any food in the town. There was a bakery opposite the church, but it was closed, of course. Th echurchhad an impressive tower, and a multi-coloured roof, of a style that has popped up just recently as we progress south. Inside the church were frescoes, much faded with time. I could not really make out what their subjects were, but it was interesting nonetheless.
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we have been very good about not pilfering any apples, but our willpower faltered a little today. We snatched one that was not a green variety and not a red delicious, but sort of in between. It was maybe 10 percent under ripe, but still very good, especially since it was fresh from the tree and a forbidden (stolen) fruit.
At home we had the Bikeline book for the Claudia Augusta, and I had also bought the Etsch trail one. At first we though this was an error, because the Etsch is part of the Claudia Augusta. Today we saw that the two are not quite identical, as the Claudia seem to wander in the hills on the right side of the river, while the Etsch trail sticks by the river, on the flat, mostly on the left bank.
In any event, it is under 40 km to Bolzano. Bolzano was our destination, even though it is a bit of a detour off our mainline route to Trento (about 60 km from Bolzano) and Verona (about 100 km from Trento). Dodie particularly wanted to visit Bolzano because of the museum display on Oetzi, the Iceman. Oetzi is named for the Oetztal Alps (maybe 200 km from here), where he was discovered as a natural mummy, about 5300 years old.
It took a really inordinate time to get from the countryside into the old city at Bolzano. It seemed we crossed the river, crossed back, went up the hill, down the hill, cross another river, and still we were in outer areas filled with nondescript apartment buildings. Things were so nondescript that I could not decide on a representative photo to take. It all seemed so ... nothing. Finally, after 5-10 km of just back and forthing, we burst onto Walter Square, which is the centre of the old town. Here at last were the recognizable and familiar Dom, fountain, and outdoor restaurants.
We could see the tourist information marked on our map, somewhere in the square, but went around twice without spotting it. Finally we asked a waitress at one of the restaurants. It was right there, but the sign (none too large) is yellow, not the expected green. Our plan had been to ask them to find us some reasonable indoor accommodation, but we arrived at 4:10 p.m. Of course, 4 p.m. is just when tourists would be needing this kind of help, so naturally that is their closing time, having busted their guts to open at 2 p.m.
We stood there facing our usual conundrum - wander around spotting stuff and go in to ask price and availability, or use thready 3G and Trivago to peruse their usually weak list of possibilities. We hesitated just long enough for the information girl to exit the building, heading home for a well deserved rest. She took pity on us, ducked back in and came out with a catalog of available accommodation. We phoned the youth hostel - full - and began to look at the entries in an expanding radius about where we stood. Generally they were well over 100 euros - a level at which we would rather sleep under our bikes! However we somehow found the Hotel Adria, right off Walther Square, and a "bargain" at 90 euros. (For 90 euros you do not get breakfast, however. For that unknown treat the price becomes 114 euros!).
Though Bolzano styles itself a bicycle friendly city, the matter of where to put the bikes at the Adria was not easy. They came up with storage locker deep (like three stories deep) in the basement. So we unloaded absolutely all our luggage and I carried the bikes down the winding dark staircase. Then we dragged the stuff in several trips of the tiny elevator up to our fourth floor room.
The room itself was good, with adequate space, a desk, lots of plugs, and good washroom. The washroom featured a bidet. Like Crocodile Dundee I had never seen one, and have yet to try figuring it out!
With our bikes and gear safely stowed, we went out for a look at the town. We had been turned off by the km of nothingness coming in, but now we discovered a fair extent of lively pedestrian streets and interesting buildings. We went to the Oetzi museum, which would close too soon to go in just then, but we found that if we lined up around 9:30 we should easily enter when it will open tomorrow at 10.
Our next needed thing was food, for we had found none since our oatmeal early in the morning, and our stolen apple. We both must have had low blood sugar, for we quarreled about where to eat, what to eat, and where to sit in the place we finally stopped at. Unable to resolve all these weighty matters, we got up and just staggered off down the street. A streetside pizza followed by streetside gelato, all eaten sitting under a fountain, finally restored us. Both the pizza and gelato were really good, too.
We now had enough power to visit the Dom. The customary book on offer at the back detailed all the wonders within, but I found the whole fairly normal. There was some sort of a service being played over loudspeakers, and it was unclear if this were a recording or something happening in a side chapel or basement. The large space had only about four faithful and four tourists, making the question somehow less relevant.
Listening to the service, whether live or recorded, triggered my customary puzzled rant. My usual example goes "If you want to build a car, to go from A to B, you can try square wheels, but you will quickly find that round ones are needed. But with religion, built on faith, how can you know if mumbo jumbo or maybe jumbo mumbo is more effective? ". With her blood sugar now restored, Dodie once again tried to explain to me what religion is all about and how it works. It will keep me quiet, until the next time...
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Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,648 km (1,023 miles)
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