Day 9

August 27, 2021

Bozen to Meran and the Passiertal

After 5 nights in Bozen, today was finally departure day and boy was I ready to leave. My day started at 5am when the neighbor lady lit up another cigarette on the porch. I’ve never encountered someone so addicted to smoking. She was out there in the evening roughly ever hour and apparently does not sleep much if she’s back out there around 6 hours later. I yelled at her in German, but she didn’t respond so she probably doesn’t speak German. After that I had a tough time getting back to sleep so today I was running on nowhere near enough sleep. Thank you, chain smoking neighbor.

Checkout was at 9am and I was out the door shortly before that, but not before I shared my thoughts with the lady manning the reception desk. I let her know that allowing smoking on the balconies defeated the no smoking policy. I also expressed to her how distasteful it is to be woken up at 5am by the stench of smoking. She apologized, but it’s not against house rules. Personally I think it should be. I also shared my thoughts on the young guy with either a Scottish or Australian accent who never wore a mask, including at the breakfast buffet. I got after her on my way out. His response was to tell me to take my mask off. I was too tired for a good comeback so I just told him to put one on. Then I reported him to the manager. And then I left.

I acquired breakfast at a bakery down the street where I got a very nice tomato, mozzarella, lettuce, and avocado sandwich and some sort of brioche pastry with apples in it. I enjoyed both of them on a random street corner. Then I cycled out of Bozen. I’ll have to pass through the edge briefly when I ride back to Brixen and then on to Bruneck sometime next week, but other than that I won’t be back to Bozen, and certainly not to the Youth Hostel.

The ride to Meran runs along the Etsch river. The river looks a lot like the Eisack river, but the mountains in this area have a softer character to them. They remind me a bit of the Tauern range of mountains in Austria, the only ride I’ve done twice (and I’d do it a third time in a heartbeat.) The Radweg runs directly next to the river basically the entire way. That means a very flat path with minimal tree cover and really never any road crossings. This would be an ideal place to ride velomobile, minus that the path is quite busy. As a cycle touring destination, it’s not especially exciting. It’s a lot like riding someplace like the Main river, except without the Fachwerk towns to check out along the way. In fact, there really aren’t any towns to check out, and when there are, they’re a bit off the Radweg. Given that the water levels aren’t particularly high in any of the rivers in the area, there wouldn’t have been any reason to locate a town directly on the river, especially since it probably floods in the spring. There are a few castles up on hills here and there, but they’re far enough off to not be very exciting.

Church in Terlan. Not exactly on the path, but the train station had a bathroom so I detoured.

Also the Etsch. I only took two pictures because it all looks like this.

After my expert in Bozen I was not expecting anything out of Meran. The route I came in on took me past apartment buildings along back alleys and was a pretty poor way to be introduced to a city. I also had a very near accident when two kids in front of me stopped without warning In the middle of the trail. I was very lucky to get my feet Unclipped in time to avoid a crash.

My gps led me to the Youth Hostel, except that I did not recognize the building and missed the sign. I ended up across the street at a different building wandering around outside looking for a sign denoting it as a youth hostel. I’ve no idea what is in that building, but certainly not a hostel. I had to pull out Google maps to find that the hostel was directly across the street. I think they may have done some photoshopping in their promo photo because it sure looks different in person.

At checkin I immediately inquired if the room had a balcony and explained my experience in Bozen. I was assured that not only did the fourth floor room not have a balcony, but that smoking was expressly forbidden in the building and I was assured that I should not have to smell smoke here. It also appears that this hostel has much stricter management so I’m hopeful things will go better at the breakfast buffet than the last hostel. The building also has a lot of character inside with long twisty hallways and a decidedly more German style of building. While it’s clearly an older building than the one in Bozen, I like it much better.

Since I arrived before 1pm, I left most of my stuff here and grabbed a jacket and camera and headed off to the Passiertal Radweg, really my only reason for even staying overnight here. The Passer river runs from the north of Meran down to join with the Etsch near downtown Meran. The hostel actually is a pretty short straight shot from the city center and, since the Passer passes through the center of town, I got to see the heart of Meran. I like Meran!

My first inkling of what Meran would be like was passing several Villas down the street from the hostel. Big, grand, very Italian. From there the route took me down the area along the Passer which is all park area full of flowers and stuff. I think it’s some famous area in Meran. Something about the Sissiweg? It’s a nice area. There’s also a castle up on the hill of some sort. Meran is a spa town as well and I passed some spa related buildings too. There was one bit of trail that was closed in Meran with a very poorly thought out bypass involving steps. I came up with my own route, though pushing up a steep hill wasn’t much better than carrying the bike up stairs.

Looking north towards a castle from the bridge pictured above

The ride along the Passer to St Leonhard is a nice ride. I would rank it below the Kalterer See and the Ritten, but still worth riding. The path is almost entirely gravel. Some parts are very well packed. Others can get a bit too much loose stone. It’s an uphill grade the whole way ranging from 1-3%. Very rideable, but since recumbents tend to be slower on climbs, it did take nearly two hours to do the 12 mile ride. Nothing very notable happened along the way. No snakes, no bike tires slipping out from under me. No one ran me over. Just a nice slow 6-8mph slog uphill in really great scenery.

Riding through the Apple orchards along the Passer

The Passer river. Surprisingly deep enough for some white water rafting.

The park outside St Leonhart where I turned around to coast back

Once I reached the outskirts of St Leonhart I turned around and coasted back at 12-18mph depending on how loose the gravel got. This ride would have been better with that marathon GT375 tire, but then I’d have a rubbing derailleur again and I don’t need more of that. Speaking of the derailleur, it looks like it’s clearing now finally so that bike issue should be okay now. It also called off considerably once the sun started to recede behind the mountains. I ended up having to pull out my coat, and even then I was a little chilled until I reached the outskirts of Meran and left the Passiertal.

The ride back took less than half the time of the ride out so I took the opportunity to check out the actual Altstadt of Meran. It has a couple city gates, an old church with frescoes on the outside, and lots of buildings with character. Much better than Bozen which felt random and unorganized. Meran is laid out in a way that makes it feel smaller and more friendly than Bozen as well.

A fancy bridge in Meran across the Passed

Another city gate. I think this was the Bozen gate?

Villas along the same street as the hostel

I’m only here one night. Tomorrow I have a tough 40 miles uphill to Mals. My Garmin app says Meran is at 981 ft whereas Mals is at 3,429ft. So that’s a bit of uphill riding. I expect it to be a lot of slow riding at 5mph. Checkout is 9:30am so I’ll have plenty of time to make the slog. I anticipate the path to have similar scenery to today although the mountains should get more imposing as I get closer to Mals. I think someone said the highest mountain in South Tyrol is in this area. This is also the area where Ötzi the ice man was found.

Given the night I had last night, it will be easy to bed tonight. Minus some traffic noise, the hostel has been very quiet. I’m not sure if anyone else is even staying on my floor.

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Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 241 miles (388 km)

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