Day 27: Rorshach to Munich

Our goal today was to make it somewhere inside Germany to have access to the Bavarian ticket so we could have a cheap ride to Munich. We settled on riding to Wangen im Allgau as a destination with a train to Munich without having too many transfers. The day started out sunny, without a cloud in the sky, which made me question our decision to go to Munich. Nevertheless, the weather forecast has been more right than wrong recently, so we stuck with our plan, riding towards Bregenz along the bike path, backtracking what we did yesterday. There was a brand new bike bridge across the mighty Rhine, but once in Bregenz we immediately headed up the hill so we could get some climbing in.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

When you're near a lake, it doesn't take a lot of climbing before you start getting nice bviews of the Bodensee, and at that point it really started getting overcast.

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I always had the impression that once we left Bregenz we'd be immediately in Germany, but that's not true. It took quite a bit of riding through the small villages before we entered the Bavarian border at Neuhaus. While the climbing wasn't steep, there was a lot of rolling hills, and coupled with our not quite recovered state, we were making less good time than expected, putting into question our ability to catch the train.

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Once we got into Lindenberg, however, things started flowing more smoothly as we descended towards Wangen. The last 15km went by in a hurry and we found ourselves arriving at the Wangen train station at 12:30pm, well ahead of schedule. We caught the 1:00pm train and ended up in Munich around 4pm.

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At the Munich train station I dropped by counter #1 at the Deutsche Bahn station and met up with Alan Wissenberg of Euraide. He was busy that evening but thought he could get permission from his wife to stay out late the next day, so we arranged to do dinner tomorrow. We then rode into the Google Munich office, said hi to everyone, picked up keys, and rode off to Chris' apartment. We took showers and then rode our bikes back to the Google Munich office because Chris' apartment complex had no indoor bike parking and the Google office looked more secure.

Together with Daniel, we went over to Haxnbauer in Munich for giant pork and beef Knuckles for dinner. Despite my having lived in Munich this was my first time there, so it was an experience, with giant hunks of meat and some potatoes to down it all in.

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Phil bought some Weisswurst for the morning's breakfast, and we hung out at the Google office with the brand new 4th floor until it started raining hard, making us glad that we were not riding the next day. It poured like crazy, and we went to bed glad to be in a big town with stuff to do.

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Day 26: Bludenz to Rorshach

We woke up to overcast skies but dry roads. Leaving Bludenz, we quickly found a bike path towards Bregenz on the Bodensee.

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The ride was a little boring but did take us through cute little Austrian towns and forests until we arrived in St. Margerethen with its huge supermarket where we could buy lunch. It was cool but not cold, and occasionally we'd get a sunbeam here and there, but by the time we got to the Bodensee Phil was saying, "God this ride is so boring!"

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As we approached the Bodensee cyclists became more common, and you could see that this was what most people would consider touring: riding with a light or almost no load, helmetless on bike paths along rivers and lakes, with possibly a company providing lunch support. People wore casual clothes, not lycra, and the luggage trucks looked like they were carrying enough luggage that laundry wasn't a daily occurrence.

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We soon stopped for our first view of the Bodensee. The weather wasn't getting any better but it wasn't raining either. Nevertheless, by the time we got to Rorschach the first raindrops had started coming down. I looked at the hotel listings at the tourist information center but all the available ones seemed expensive. We eventually ended up at the Hotel Rossli which was where I had stayed last year, and the manager gave us a substantial discount that still triggered sticker shock since we had just come from Austria. Phil and I debated a bit and I suggested that since Wednesday was terrible and he didn't seemed entranced by the Bodensee we could ride over to Germany and hop over to Munich. I used Skype to make phone calls to Chris Brown and Frank Spychalksi, old friends from when I lived in Munich and soon enough, we managed to make arrangements to stay over at Chris's place. Chris was going to be out of town while we were visiting, but Frank would pick up the keys and we would meet him at the Google Munich office. I then made several other phone calls and discovered to my dismay that calling cell phones in Europe was expensive even on Skype: my $11 balance was down to $3 by the time I was finished making all these arrangements.

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Dinner that night was at a local Kebab place after we bypassed a Mexican restaurant that sold 30 USD burritos. At dusk, I walked outside the hotel and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen in Europe. With any other compact camera I would have been dismayed but with the Canon S90 I made several captures that were more than satisfactory.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We went to bed knowing that no matter what the weather was, we'd be able to make Munich with very little rain riding.

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Day 25: Mils to Bludenz

The started off beautifully, but the forecast this afternoon was for rain. We hopped back onto the bike path towards Landeck, well aware that we would have to choose between Silvretta and Arlberg pass once we got to Landeck. We were now short of cash, with no more than 18 Euros between the two of us after paying for the hotel, and so had to look for a bank as well.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Austrian bike paths are second to none as far as facilities are concerned: drinking fountains dot the bike paths as do ads for lodging that are tastefully and discretely placed, since cyclists traveling at 10mph do not need loud and garish ads, unlike car drivers at 75mph. We rolled along the beautiful path, set a good distance away from the main highway, going in and out of forests into farmland.

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Sooner I was expected we were in Landeck, but on a Sunday could not find anything open, not even a bank. I noted that the bike path sign had switched to Pfunds. Looking around we decided that Arlberg would be a safer path, since avoiding Silvretta would buy us some time in case of poor weather. We rode along the bike path to Pfunds but after half an hour looked at the map and realized that Pfunds was in the direction of Ofenpass, not what we wanted at all!

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We turned around and rode back to Landeck and this time, found our way to Pian and then rode our towards the Panoramic highway to Arlberg. The road was mostly flat and not too exciting, but had relatively little traffic. Clouds started gathering overhead, which justified our earlier decision to avoid Silvretta.

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We stopped for lunch at a small town, using up all of our available cash, and then rode into the town where the pass started. To our dismay, the freeway had an exit in this town, and a steady stream of car traffic went up the Arlberg highway! It started drizzling as we started the climb, but even for Californians this wasn't considered rain yet. The grade steepened to 10%, and the constant traffic was annoying. Silvretta would have been better as the top part of Silvretta was a toll road, eliminating all but the most enthusiastic of tourists. The fog, however, thickened, and anything that looked bad on the Arlberg would be worse on the Silvretta. Fortunately, the final tunnel leading to the pass summit had a bike bypass, which turned out to be a gravel maintenance road leading alongside the tunnel. We could hear the sound of traffic coming from tunnel vents and were pleased that we had views truncated by fog instead.

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We arrived at the Arlberg pass in fog that did not let us see more than 10 meters ahead. We quickly put on everything we owned and started the descent.

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The steep part of the descent went by quickly, once again with several bike path bypasses for the big tunnels, which made it a lot less scary than expected. Visibility got a bit better after we descended to 1500m, but once we got down to 1000m the rain came down in earnest! At first it wasn't too bad, but the lower we got the harder the rain came. The rain pants and the jacket only kept me from being soaked through --- my shoes started making the squishy noise on every pedal stroke, and all parts of my body was damp.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Once the route flattened out the bike paths became useless. We found ourselves riding in muddy gravel paths in the forests and the paved roads seemed like a much better bet. Having passed the intersection with the freeway, the main road also had a lot less traffic. We made it into Bludenz. Not wanting to waste time with looking for the tourist information center, we ended up at Hotel Rossli, where we had stayed last year, also in the rain. "Every impression I have in Austria is rain." said Phil. I assured him that I had had good weather in Austria, but maybe Austria was to Phil what Italy was to Mike Samuel.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The hotel was manned by an old woman who didn't know how to give us an internet password, or even where the bike storage was, forcing us to leave our bikes outside in the rain. We took a shower, dried out our shoes using hairdryers, and went out looking for food. This time, we found a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffett which for a relatively low price gave each of us three dinners and three desserts. By the time we came back to the hotel, it was manned by someone who knew what he was doing and had our bikes stowed away and gave us an internet password.

I used the internet to call Doktor Stefan Burkhardt, an outdoors person who was living in Zurich. Stefan had done me the favor of scouting out Tannalp back in 2007. We made plans to have lunch some time when Phil and I were back in Zurich, but in the mean time he looked into the weather radar for us and reported back bad news. It looked like the mountains would be cold and rainy or fogged in, with Wednesday being the worst. "Your best bet is to head to the Bodensee and do some riding there. If the weather sucks, the Bodensee will probably suck the least and might even have good sun." That put paid to any plans to ride the high mountains. I thanked him and we turned in for the night.
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Day 24: Moos to Mils

So far, every day had brought us a forecast for rain, but instead we've gotten clear weather instead, and today was no exception. We woke up to a glorious day, with not a cloud in the sky. From the early climbing, the view down into Moos was nothing short of breath-taking.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

In 2007, Robert complained that he climbed most of Timmelsjoch from St. Leonhardt without a single drop of water en-route. Since today was likely to be just as hot, I warned Phil to be on an extra careful lookout for water, and to fill up the water bottles at every opportunity.

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Starting from Moos turned out to be a great idea, as the climb started in the shade and the temperature stayed cool even when we emerged into the sun at 1600m, where we refilled at a water fountain near a hotel. Soon after that, however, I spotted two more water fountains on the right side, set into crevices in the wall next to the road, so I have no idea how Roberto managed to pass all those water fountains and not recognize them for what they were.

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As I approached the top, I saw megaphone type tubes set in the mountain side. After a while I realized what they were: since the area had high winds, they were a shelter for car drivers to pull over, walk into the tube and gaze at the valley below without being blown about. Of course, cyclists are used to being blown about, so it was not a problem. Near one of the megaphones, I met a couple from the Netherlands who were on a driving tour. I seemed to be meeting a lot of Dutch people on this trip!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

It took a little bit of riding, but I got to the 16th tunnel, which for the purposes of riding a bike was the summit tunnel for Timmelsjoch and just a hop skip and a jump into Austria. I turned off the data plan on my phone (it wasn't getting any data anyway), and after a bit of rest, rode through the tunnel with absolutely no symptoms of altitude sickness whatsoever.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The section of road between what I consider the summit tunnel to the Austrian border is just a couple of kilometers, but it's very pretty, wild and desolate with sheer drop offs and high mountains all around. In all the alps there's nothing quite like it. At the pass proper it got really windy and I walked into a viewing gallery so I could admire the scenery. I could see my bike from the viewing gallery, and saw also the myriad cyclists stopping to put on clothing as the temperatures had dropped quite a bit.

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After taking the obligatory pass photo, I rode over to the restaurant to wait for Phil. I had harbored thoughts of getting a hot lunch, but walking through the restaurant made me realize that they were so busy that I was unlikely to get service for at least an hour. Phil showed up and when I told him about it, agreed to descend to Solden for lunch.

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The descent on the Austrian side was wild and pretty, with lots of well banked turns and two retro grades. I remember being surprised by them during my last visit (and Roberto apparently cursed my name quite a bit), but this time we were prepared for them and while the headwind was annoying, they were over soon enough. We stopped for photos once or twice, but were soon in Solden and getting lunch at the supermarket. I tried to get a Sim card but had no luck. We would be back in Switzerland soon enough anyway.

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The descent from Solden down towards Imst was pretty in places, but flat enough that the afternoon headwind really annoyed me and slowed me down quite a bit. Once out of the Otztal Valley the weather warmed up and we found ourselves climbing towards the Inn river valley during the hottest time of the day under the hot sun. Fortunately, the climb wasn't terribly long and soon I found myself following the instructions I remembered clearly from Jobst Brandt to find the bike path: down towards the train station (Bahnof), past the water rafting put in. To my surprise I ended up at the train station instead, having ridden past the put in. Phil wanted to use the rest room anyway, so I was left scratching my head. Eventually, as we rode back out to look for the bike path to Landeck, I realized what had changed: the water rafting put in was closed and the office for it had been removed, leading me to ride right past it.

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Well, we found the bike path to Landeck, and for the third time in my life started riding on it. The weather had turned by this time and the sky was overcast. Off in the distance towards Landeck we saw rain in the mountains.

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It didn't take a long time before the rain hit us, but it turned out to be a light drizzle, just enough to make us prioritize looking for lodging. I'm normally a worry-wort on weekends, but I figured that the Inn River Valley had plenty of lodging. Indeed at the very next small town of Mils we found a clean hotel at a somewhat reasonable price, and took a double room. After cleaning up, we walked down to dinner and was treated to a gorgeous rainbow seen right from the hotel. It was a nice reward for riding what would turn out to be the Queen stage of the tour.

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Day 23: Fondo to Moos

After the previous day's unpredictable weather, we woke up to some fairly good weather and a quiet climb up to Passo Palade, which did not boast very steep grades but did grant us great views of the valley below us.

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From Passo Palade, we descended towards Merano, which was one of the smoothest descents you could imagine. While not very fast in terms of absolute speed, the curves were well controlled and the road mostly straight, so you could go at terminal velocity almost all the way down to Merano. We stopped a few times because the view of Merano Valley was so clear that it would have been a shame not to take a picture.

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By the time we got to Lana, our quiet road had turned into an incredibly busy road. While navigating the streets I spotted a bike path signed for Merano. The bike path started in a narrow alley that I would not have spotted if it had not been prominently marked.

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Fortunately, the bike path quickly turned into a proper path (though with a few under-signed sections that caused us to scratch our heads a little bit). Soon we were rolling into Merano and then saw one of the largest supermarkets we seen. Phil went in and bought lunch, which was an entire chicken which we devoured in half an hour.

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After lunch, we left town heading towards Timmelsjoch. The traffic leading out of town was busy and on a two lane highway. The sun beat down on us and there was no shade, but after a few rollers I saw a bike path sign and immediately went for it. The bike path was shaded and right along the river which took the sting out of most of the ride as we headed towards St. Leonhard.

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High above St. Leonhardt we could see the descent from Jaufenpass come into town. We could also see high clouds and fog rolling in over the mountain. Europeans don't always wear helmets, and Italy is no exception. In many places, bicycles were also used as multi-person vehicles, even if they only had one seat. I was very amused to see a couple treat cycling as a cooperative process, with the man pedaling and the woman steering the bars, sans helmets!

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The town of Leonhardt was at 700m, and it was smoking hot when we arrived. Phil looked a little cooked and asked if we shouldn't check out the tourist information center. At the tourist information, we found that there was another town 300m higher and just 7km away. We made reservations at Maria's Cafe, and decided that this would be our destination for the day.

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Climbing 300m on a hot day in the open with no shade is definitely only for the masochistic. The only reason I did so was I wanted a shorter climb the next day and cooler evenings so we could sleep. It turned out that I had mis-timed everything, since once we arrived and checked into Maria's Cafe, it started pouring! On second thought, maybe that was fine, since it meant we'd maximized the amount of time riding. Maria's Cafe was very adequate for cyclists, and included a bike shop. The owner said, "There's no bike shop in town, so I decided to make my workshop a bike shop as well."

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Moos was a town that made the most of its name. The supermarket was called "Konsumoos", and the bunker museum in town called itself the "Mooseum". We had arrived a little to explore the "Mooseum", but the supermarket had ice cream and that was much needed after the ride.
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Day 22: St. Caterina to Fondo

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We woke up to clear blue skies which made me feel like the decision to wait for better was justified. The climb out of St. Caterina proved to be no problems, and for the rest of our trip we wouldn't get any more flats or other mechanicals. A group of mountain bikers had headed up Gavia just before we left, but I passed them easily as they were a large group and had to stop often to let the slower members catch up.

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As we approached 2400m, however, clouds started rolling in and it became misty, nearly foggy. By the time I got to the summit it was cold, around 46F, and visibility was poor. Gavia was famous for poor weather, and it looked like I wasn't going to get any luck this time around, either. It was so cold that I put on everything I brought, including my long fingered gloves. I used the bathroom at the summit and got out just in time to see Phil come by for a summit shot.

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The descent of the Gavia was scary at the top, with misty clouds coming up the mountain as well as extremely low visibility. The tunnel was scary as well, since it was unlit.

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Once past the tunnel, however, the views cleared up a bit. It looked like the clouds were high above us, but we also had plenty of misty fog blowing up the valley, which lent the place a surreal feel, as though we were in a remote place far away from civilization, as opposed to just being 10 miles away from reasonably sized villages. I made a video, just in case the photos weren't sufficient. The sound of cowbells filled the air and I enjoyed the scenery.

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Gavia is a steep and dangerous descent by anybody's standards, but this time we weren't riding it on a weekend so I could make reasonable time, and soon I was warm and having to stop to take off everything I had put on at the summit. Phil rolled up right after that and we discussed our options. We were too early to stop in Ponte di Legno, and I had gotten a bad case of bed bugs the last time I was there anyway, so we agreed to bypass the town. I had originally thought to stay high on the other side of Passo Tonale, so we decided to ride in that direction and see how things went.

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Tonale is one of the least interesting passes you can ride in the Alps. The top of it is a ski resort and crammed full of tourist traps, shops. I got there in pretty good time as the climb wasn't steep, and then had to wait for a bit as Phil had to help someone else fix a flat tire and hence was delayed on the climb.

It was way too early to stop, so we pressed on with the descent and decided to switch our destination to somewhere near Fondo. The last time I had done this ride, I had stuck with the main road for fear that the bike path would dead end or lead us somewhere we didn't want to go. This time, however, I knew that the bike path would lead us in the correct direction, and I even knew how to spot the bike path sign and so we got onto the beautiful Italian bike path along the valley.

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Most bike paths along rivers do a pretty good job of sticking to them, so we rolled down the river at a good clip, stopping only to take the obligatory picture pun indicating Phil's gender correctly.

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As we approached Cles, the bike path started doing strange things and we opted to rejoin the main road just in time for beautiful views of the lake.

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Despite the overcast skies it was hot and humid, but when we finally stopped for water about 10km away from Fondo, it started drizzling. We met a German tourist and he told us he was planning to stop in Fondo. Since I was feeling fine, we decided we could follow suit. Once past the lake, the road climbs towards Fondo in a series of stair step grades, the flat part of which hosts little villages or towns. Phil asked me if I was worried about the tourist information office closing, but I pointed out that many hotels and restaurants weren't even open till 5pm, which meant we had plenty of time.

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Thus it was we pulled into Fondo on damp roads that were not wet, and indeed discovered that the tourist information office was open till 6:00pm. The local hotel looked expensive, but the tourist information office pointed me at a farm B&B that was nearby. Riding there, I expected to have to sleep in a barn but found myself in a brand new B&B! It even featured air conditioning, which considering the humidity and the heat, we were very pleased with. At 28EUR per person, we were very pleased and took it. After the shower and laundry, the talk to town for dinner granted us a beautiful peaceful evening scene.

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This stay in Italy was turning out to be far better than my previous stays. Between getting cheap internet, good lodging, great food, and a bike path which bypassed the nasty traffic, I started feeling rather optimistic for the coming days.
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Day 21: Bormio to St. Caterina

We woke up to cloudy, foreboding skies, but by the time we left the clouds hadn't gotten any worse so we thought we could make it up Gavia.

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I got a headstart on Phil, since I didn't know if I was going to have another bad day. There were plenty of cyclists riding up the Gavia that day, but none of them were carrying a load. Every one looked like they were up for just a day ride.

Past St. Caterina, I negotiated a few corners with some sharp glass on the road, picking my way carefully to avoid puncture. 200 vertical meters later, a bunch of day riders passed me and said that my buddy had gotten a flat. I pressed on but it started raining quite hard, so I called Phil to see how he was doing. He said it would take at least 15 minutes to fix his flat. Gavia didn't have the best of weather at the best of times, and in the rain would have no visibility at all, so I offered to ride back down to St. Caterina, get some lodging, and try again tomorrow. Since it started raining where Phil was, he agreed.

I rode down to the tourist information center, and found Hotel Park, a well appointed hotel which offered a half pension for around 40EUR/person. Phil showed up half an hour later, and we ate lunch in our room, reading and finishing at least a book each. Unfortunately, my Kindle slipped out of my hands and broke, so I would be stuck without reading material for the rest of the trip.

It poured heavily that day, making us glad about our decision to stop early. The forecast didn't look any better for the next day, however, so we started worrying about whether we would be stuck for a few days here. We looked over the map, and I asked Phil whether he wanted to do more time in Italy and then ride over to Austria for the Grossglockner, or whether he'd like to bail early and do Timmelsjoch. His preference was to ride more in Switzerland, so we agreed to go over to Timmelsjoch via Passo Palade, a pass I had never done before.

We went to bed with the sound of rain and thunder coming from outside the room.

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