August 25, 2006
Fuldera - Mustair. Rest Day
Although we'd decided on a rest day, we had to leave the Hotel Staila. They were booked up for the night. A Bike-athon, they said. The lady on the desk who also had very short grey hair, who may have been the sister of the dirndl-clad server in the restaurant, or otherwise [ . let's not go there], booked us a room in a hotel in Müstair. We were slightly disappointed to have to travel at all, on our rest day, but 12km downhill doesn't count for much. The weather was once more transformed. The valley was bathed in crisp alpine sunlight. Before we set off, I took pictures of the village. Barbara expressed her annoyance at having to overshoot our turning in Santa Maria and ride back the next day.
We arrived at our new hotel in Müstair before midday. I, now more concerned about my loose headset, enquired about a bike shop. I was given a village plan and directions and took off back up the hill, then turned left down again, closer to the valley floor. The bike shop wasn't exactly a bike shop, fifty years ago it would have been a blacksmiths. Flares from electric arc torches were visible from the outside. The noise of welds being ground smooth, accompanied showers of sparks. The bicycle mechanic took a look at the bike. It wasn't too hard to explain what I wanted, even without knowing the German for headset.* He went to fetch appropriate spanners and made an effort to correctly adjust the bearing cups. He could not get rid of the shake without tightening them down. 'Sie können fahren,' he said. [You can ride] 'How much,' I asked. 'Four francs.' I paid him and rode off. He was right, I could ride, but with a tight headset you can only steer in segments. F*ck it, I can handle this, I thought.
Back at the hotel, we got ready to go out for a walk around the village, with the intention of buying bread cheese etc. and eating somewhere pretty. There was a supermarket over the road, so I picked up the makings and we set off down the hill towards the monastery. We could find no suitable picnic site anywhere near the monastery, so we walked away from the main road, further downhill, through a field, past the school and found an accessible piece of river bank, where we enjoyed a leisurely, rest day lunch.
After eating we walked back up to the main road and had a look at the monastery. We took pictures without taking much interest in devotional or historical detail. I did enough last summer, I thought.
We ate quite late that evening and then went out to find a bar. In Müstair there aren't any: an early night then, perhaps no bad thing, with the Umbrail pass and possibly Il Passo dello Stelvio awaiting.
*I have since bought a big, fat German-English dictionary, whose definition of headset is Kopfhörer. I know enough German to realise that ein Kopfhörer doesn't belong on a bike.
Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 364 km (226 miles)
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