Uncharacteristically, I'd missed an announcement that breakfast was at 7:30am, and we came a bit late to breakfast after a party of motorcyclists had come. Nevertheless, Boen got his soft-boiled egg and enjoyed his breakfast. We got the bikes out and started riding up the Umbrail pass into glorious sunshine. The climb is a stiff 10-12% grade switchbacking up the mountain with a smooth surface that only the Swiss can perform.
It was not too hot in the lower area as the mountain itself shielded us from the sun. Past the hotel Alpenrose, the grade eases up a bit as the vistas began to appear, corner after corner, with the road winding along the contours bridging over streams. We would soon get a view of the Stelvio summit. The scenery in all directions were nothing short of superlative on a perfect day with just a small hint of clouds in the air.
At the Umbrail pass sign, there was a snowbank where Boen happily threw snowballs at the rest of us. There was a huge amount of traffic and we were to later find out that this was the first day the Stelvio was open. Nobody felt like climbing up to the Stelvio summit, and we started quickly down the descent towards Bormio.
The descent to Bormio always feels like a video game, with twists, turns, and sudden drops, along with tunnels with waterfalls in them. It being early and us having no more mountains to climb that day we took our descent in stages, stopping at every view point for photos and to just enjoy the beautiful day. The traffic was incessant, and other cyclists whom we spoke to told us that they had adjusted their schedule to do the ride today because the forecast for tomorrow was awful.
We dropped into Bormio where I almost missed a turn with Arturo yelling at me to stop. We found our apartment, which was run by a lady who lived upstairs so we got the basement. It being a Sunday we were worried that the supermarket would be closed but Bormio was a big enough town that there was one that was open. We walked there, passing the bike shop Stelvio Experience along the way, and bought enough breakfast for 3 days and a bunch of pasta, caffeine free coca-cola, and other snacks, anticipating a lot of rain the next day. We also stopped at a SIM card shop to get Boen a new sim card, his old one having been worn out by too many photo uploads.
Our plan was to take a zero day and visit the Bormio Therme Swimming Pool/Spa, which advertised having a waterslide!
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