August 25, 2021
Day 7
Around Bolzano
Today was a sort of rest day, similar to my ride from Klausen to Bozen a few days ago. Since I needed to sort things out with the tires and rear derailleur I figured it would be a good day to take a shorter ride. Originally the plan had been to ride on the Jenesian, but after my exciting ride on the Ritten and Seiser Alm I decided staying in the valley wasn’t a bad idea.
Bozen advertises itself as a great city for cycling. I’ve not been overly impressed so far, although I do give them points for having a basically traffic free Altstadt. I decided to plot out a route on small back streets using my Garmin app and the Pocketearth app. I found a back street leading along the northeast side of Bozen. It turns out that little street is a signed bike route and actually more of an alley than a street. That took me up to Schlössl Mühle and Schloss Klobenstein with a short climb uphill from there.
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From there I rode along the Talferbach to Schloss Runkelstein. It was actually a fairly nice area, especially the bit along the northeast side of Bozen through that alley. It gave me a very different impression of Bozen from that of the crowded touristy Altstadt and the more seedy area around the train station and assorted back alleys here.
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From Runkelstein I headed back south along the Talferbach back south to the Eisack river. I rode along there for awhile until the Etsch and Eisack combine. They actually run south parallel to each other for a mile or two with just a thin spot of land between them. The Radweg runs down this thin spit of land. Despite not being all that far from the city it feels very remote. No services of any sort. Just mountains, two rivers, and some occasional picnic benches. If you’re looking for a restaurant for lunch, there are none in this area.
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I finally decided I’d ridden far enough south and headed back on the other side of the river past industrial areas. Not as scenic, but dead flat. Once back on the outskirts of Bozen I rode again along the river path on the south side of Bozen and then took the back way to the Youth Hostel. I found another bit of hidden bike path. It was so hidden that I ended up in a dead end alley before I finally realized that the bike path was right above me. It was quite narrow and mediocre path quality, but it was at least something to explore.
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I recognize I have failed to include any drama in this entry. I did find that despite the shifting working down to the lowest gear when I adjusted it this morning, it kept jumping back to the next to lowest gear while riding so I had to tweak that when I got back. At the moment it seems to be working fine again and the derailleur is not touching. Yet. I will find out tomorrow when I do the 500’ or so climb on the way to the Kalterer See tomorrow. Maps claim it’s on an actual Radweg over the course of maybe 6 miles. Rideable, probably. Definitely will require the lowest gear, at least at some point. I’ll be keeping a close eye on things. It certainly explains why it felt so hard to ride uphill the beginning of the trip. I basically was riding uphill with the brakes on. While wearing out the tire sidewalls.
After striking out on supper the first three nights here I’ve found an Indian/Pakistani restaurant to try tonight. I’m killing time until they open and will wander that way shortly while trying to find an Eis shop. If you hear nothing more from me in this entry, it means nothing notable happened and I’m probably fast asleep. Tomorrow is my last day in Bozen and then it’s on to Meran.
Today's ride: 18 miles (29 km)
Total: 158 miles (254 km)
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