July 18th: Bludenz to Hotel Posthaus, Urigen

Early this morning, I gave Arturo a choice: we could take the train to Sargans, and do the Wallensee ride to Linthal and then Klausen pass, or we could ride through Lichtenstein to Sargans and take the train to skip the Wallensee ride. The former was prettier, but the latter was more attractive to Arturo, since he'd never visited Lichtenstein, and the idea of a country so small that you could bike across it in about 2 hours (assuming you went the long way) was intriguing.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We first reversed the route we took yesterday to get back to the bike path, and then we headed for Feldkirch, always taking the shorter route whenever we were given a choice. Once in Feldkirch, we stopped to look at the map for directions. Unfortunately, a helpful Austrian came by and told us that the scenic route was the long way. I say unfortunate, because in the intervening years, I'd forgotten that the Rhine river bike path is easily the most boring bike route in the world. It is only scenic if you think long flat expanses of river and the surrounding mountains are interesting. As a result, we ended up on a long and extremely boring stretch of the Rhine river bike path that literally went on for kilometers, seemingly without end.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

It was so boring, in fact, that we missed the border signs signally entry into Lichtenstein, not noticing that we were into a different country until we stopped at one point to check a bike path map and noticed that we were right in the middle of the country! All through yesterday, I'd joked that "You better not blink, or you might miss Lichtenstein", and the joke had indeed come to pass. Since we went all the way this way, we rode into the biggest town in the country and took pictures with various monuments.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

After those festivities, we got back onto the bike path, rode a few more kilometers, and ended up onto a bike bridge directing us out of Lichtenstein into Switzerland. This time, we did not miss the border crossing, though I was so bored I'd started searching for closer train stations on my GPS before realizing that Sargans was coming right up.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

On the Swiss side, things were a lot more military, with pill boxes every 100m, evidence that memories of World War 2 aren't likely to be forgotten soon. We followed signs towards the Sargans train station, and when those signs faded away, switched to the GPS. Once we got to the Sargans train station, we bought train tickets and lunch. The train to Ziegelbrucke was a fast train, but the train to Linthal was a local S-bahn type train, which meant a stop at every tiny town in the area. That gave us time for lunch. One interesting thing was that there were 2 train stations at Linthal, which I had not noticed before! We got off at the wrong one, which led to the Braunwald cablecar/funicular station, which meant that there was significant hiking high up in the mountains which might be worth exploring.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Arturo had lost his cycling cap during the train transit, and at 2:00pm the weather was so warm that we had no choice but to immediately try to replace it. Fortunately, a kiosk down the street from the main road had a selection of hats, one of which would do as a substitute for a cycling cap, albeit at Swiss prices. As part of the service, however, the store happily filled our water bottles with water as part of the price of the cap.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Klausen pass is split into two portions of climbing, both approximately the same length and difficulty, interrupted by the hanging valley of Urnerboden. At Linthal, at 600m, the heat and the sun was strongest, and we climbed with sweat dripping off our bodies, taking advantage of every shaded area for relief and quickly draining our recently filled bottles. The two tunnels on this part of the climb provided relief. All through the climb we looked for fountains but discovered that the road was sadly lacking in them, something I'd never previously noticed because I'd never climbed the road in 100F heat before.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Thus it was that at Urnerboden valley we simply had to make a stop for ice cream at the hotel restaurant we found as we approached town, and there we filled up our water bottles as well. The ice cream was expensive, even for Switzerland, but the waitress explained that the expensive options all had alcohol in them, and we could just order scoops of various ice cream at a much lower price. After a half hour rest, we made the rest of the climb in relative comfort, as it was 4pm, and it was cooler. There was also spectacular view after spectacular view as we rose up into the valley.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the summit, there was a hotel where I had begged for plastic bags to help keep my hands warm on the freezing descent in 2007. There was no such need this year as the weather was so warm that we would don wind jackets only to take them off again just a few hundred meters down.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The descent of Klausen pass is fast at the top, with a one lane road, a guard rail, and sheer steep granite walls on the other. Arturo would later say that it was one of the scariest descents he'd been on during the trip, but I enjoyed it thoroughly, because despite the apparent dangers, you had long sight lines that told you when traffic was coming, and hence the rest of the time you could take the road at full speed.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Because of our stay at Posthaus Urigen, we would only go 8km down the road today. We got to the hotel around 6:00pm, and had dinner around 7:30pm under the fading light. We could see cyclists still coming up the road for a last gasp attempt at an evening right at 8:30pm.

That night, I got e-mail from Shauna telling me that I couldn't expect to stay at their home on the return, as they'd be away and their roommates (understandably) objected to a stranger staying with them without the hosts. They'd made arrangements for me to pick up the bike box and also offered to put me up at a nearby hotel. Arturo said he'd call his friend David to see if an additional person would be possible where he was staying in Zurich. This added unnecessary stress to the trip, but knowing the price of Zurich hotels, it was worth asking.

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July 17th: Ramosch to Bludenz

We got on the road early in the morning in the shade, and while it was a little cool, I soon took off my jacket despite being in the shade. At the bottom off the road from Ramosch, we went 200m and saw a hotel right on the roadside, meaning that we didn't have to climb the steep climb to the hotel we stayed at last night in Ramosch. Arturo said, "The hotel on the road side looks pretty shitty anyway." It might have been sour grapes. After a few kilometers, the descent finally came, and the kilometers rolled by, soon putting us right into Austria somewhere along the road. I didn't stop for a photo of the border crossing but Arturo did. The early morning light set the canyon we were riding through perfectly.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the next intersection, we spotted the sign for the first kilometer off the Inn river bike path. I'd ridden many parts of it but never the first kilometer, so I couldn't pass it up! It is a little known secret that Austria makes the best bike path facilities in the world. I knew this, but hadn't told Arturo, so he was amazed as we rode farm road after farm road, each with spectacular views. These were nothing like the bike paths he'd ridden along the Rhine in Germany.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We rode along the bike path until we got near Landeck, where I turned off the bike path to avoid a few bike path climbs and discovered to my surprise that the road was close. On a bike, 9 times out of 10 the road closure's something you can just walk your bike around, but this road closure was guarded by a couple of laborers. We were told to turn around and re-enter the bike path, and thus we did. When we reached Landeck proper, Arturo noticed that they were building a new bridge behind the closure.

At Landeck, we visited the local supermarket and ate a sat down lunch. I didn't notice any water between the town and the start of the Silvretta climb on previous trips, so I bought a couple of liters of water, which we dumped into our water bottles. On a light traffic day, we rode to Pians where the Silvretta highway turns off from the Arlberg highway and tunnel. On a beautiful day, there's no reason to ride the Arlberg instead of Silvretta unless you're severely pressed for time. Of course, this time, I spotted a functioning water fountain just a kilometer away from the turnoff.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The Silvretta has a long approach, about 33km between Pians and Galtur follows a river, which means that the grade varies between 1% and 3%, making the long approach an easy climb at 13-18kph even on a loaded bicycle. The route is liberally sprinkled with tunnels, about half of which are for winter use only. Most days when we see tunnels we look for a bypass route, but the day was so warm that we welcomed the tunnels as respites from the heat. All through the next few days we would see farm vehicles and farmers working over time, literally making hay while the sun shines.

Past Galtur, the road becomes a toll road, which immediately eliminated most of the traffic on the road. The road becomes serious, going to 8% to 12% grades while the views become more dramatic.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the summit, there's a dam for power generation, as well as a hotel and a restaurant. The views were gorgeous, though the weather started to look like it would turn sour despite the forecasts.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

It had been 7 years since I rode the Silvretta, and on the descent, it looked as though the Austrian highway department was bent on dramatically re-engineering the road. There were several places where it looked like the old road had been re-routed, and much of the pavement had been re-done, making the smooth sections glorious to descend. I got a break in traffic right after over-taking a construction truck early in the descent, and thereafter just did not stop as any stoppage would mean traffic behind me would catch up, eliminating my nice smooth flow-inducing descent as I made my way down the 34 numbered hairpins on Silvretta.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Once I got past the Partenen toll station, I stopped at the next intersection to wait for Arturo, anticipating a long wait as the descent of Silvretta isn't easy even for experienced folks in dry conditions. In wet conditions, this was one of the few descents where I could beat Roberto and Mike Samuel down the mountain. I was not wrong, as it took Arturo a good 20 minutes before he joined me.

We headed down the main road in order to find the bike path that I had discovered years ago. I'd remembered it as being behind a supermarket in Partenen, but I misremembered. We rolled past a tunnel and several towns before I spotted the Spar at Montafon rolled into it and past the parking lot into the bike path which you wouldn't find unless someone told you was there.

A strong headwind had risen in the late afternoon, and I despair at getting to Bludenz prior to it being time to stop. Demoralized, our speed dropped despite the downhill bike path. But near Tschagguns I noticed that the headwind had stopped. Arturo looked at his bike computer and the distance marker on the bike path and said, "Wait a minute. We can make Bludenz in half an hour!" With that a fire was lit beneath our wheels and we rolled quickly towards our desintation: Gasthof Lowen in Bludenz.

The bike path takes you past the train station in Bludenz. The trick to not ride extra is to pull your bike into the train station as though you were going to take the train, and then hop into the elevator at the end of the subterranean walkway to get out into the city proper. From there, you go up a few blocks along the main road and the hotel would be right there. I'd showed up a few times with reservations before, but this time, at 7:00pm with no reservations, we got by far the lowest price I've ever managed for the hotel.

Eschewing the traditional dinner options, we ate at the Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant in the old town. The food is not the highest quality, but after another near century day, we needed quantity, and the restaurant provided a decent amount of variety with the quantity. We went to bed satisfied and ready for more descending the next day.

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Review: Super-Powereds: Year 2

After I got home, I checked out Super-Powereds: Year 2 from the Kindle lending library, since I enjoyed Year 1.

Like its predecessor, Year 2 started as a web novel, and shows. The chapters are short, and there are a lot of cliff-hangers, presumably to keep the web-reader coming back. However, it's a very good read, and it's great to see Drew Hayes improving as a novelist. What's even cooler is that Hayes is keeping the series up on his website, meaning you can start reading Year 3 today with no wait.

The characters are fleshed out, and of course, sophomore year in college as a super hero doesn't make things easy. Hayes does a good job keeping you engaged with each of the primary characters carried over from the first novel, which is no mean feat with an ensemble cast. Furthermore, he adds a few more characters that you come to care about, but without giving the novel Rumiko Takahashi syndrome (Takahasi's idea of character development is to add more characters).

At this point, we start to see more background for each of the characters, and reveals of the overall plot-arc which Hayes has in mind. While that plot arc moves slowly, there are lots of little subplots going on, TV-show style, so you're never stuck tapping your toes while nothing happens. (I'm looking at you, George R. R. Martin)

We do get to see more ramifications of a world full of super heroes, and where nearly every type of hero has existed and been classified. There's even a super-hero puzzler which is fair (one of the character hits the wall with his growth, and the answer to why that wall exists and how to overcome it was particularly satisfying).

All in all, a good read and worth your time.

July 16th: Pontresina to Ramonsch

The sport hotel turned out to be the only hotel we found on the trip offering lactose free milk for breakfast! In a continent full of lactose-processing people, this was unusual and worthy of praise. I guess I know where to say from now on when I'm in the area with family!

From Tour of the Alps 2014

After breakfast, we picked up our bikes from a bike storage area that had gone from empty to full overnight. It was quite clear that the hotel filled up with cyclists, mostly mountain bikes for the area. From Pontresina, we descended down to the main road intersection, followed the signs to St. Moritz, and then climbed up the main road, eschewing the bike path because we knew the ride would be short. St. Moritz in the morning light looked pretty, but we had business elsewhere, so after a short ride around the lake we headed off to Silvaplana.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Silvaplana was unexpectedly pretty, and I seemed to recall hiking in the area with Phil in 2011 from Corvatsch. From Silvaplana, the road climbs steeply and sharply and we soon found ourselves up high with nary a tree in sight.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Despite it being mid-week, however, there was a surprising amount of traffic. The climb was over very quickly, Silvaplana being at around 1800m and Julierpass being around 2300m. However, the descent was painful: it was long, so had lots of flat sections, and was not very steep, so you weren't moving at the speed of traffic. Along with the traffic, that made for a dreadful combination. There was a scenic lake down the middle, but the rest of the ride was very forgettable. I wouldn't want to ride Julier pass again.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the bottom, we headed for the Tiefencastel train station to buy train tickets for Davos. The timetable we looked at indicated that the next train was at 11:47, but it wouldn't take bikes, so I went in expecting to be told to take the bus. The woman behind the counter, however, said that the information was wrong, and the train did have a bike wagon. We bought train tickets to Davos Platz, and while waiting for the train picked up lunch to eat on the train as well. We later surmised that the train only became the glacier express after going through the tunnels above Bergun, where we had been so many days before. Before that, it was a regular train and hence took bikes.

Once in Davos, we rode across the street to the huge Coop and there I bought a huge bottle of electrolytes. The directions said to use 3 scoops per bottle, but in reality 1.5 scoops were sufficient. It was a lot more bulky than the Nuun tablets we'd been carrying, but I'd run out and Arturo was close to running out. Nevertheless, with the forecasted hot weather, I didn't anticipate that we'd have problems using up all the electrolytes that we could carry.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The climb up to Fluela pass was warm. We filled up all the water at the mountain bike just outside of Davos, and anticipated being able to get some en route, but did not actually spot any water until we reached the summit. I couldn't complain about the scenery, though. Fluela pass was pretty! At the summit there was a lake next to a hotel restaurant serving ice cream, so we did a quick ice cream stop and then a pass photo.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The Fluela pass descent is highly technical, with lots of hairpins interrupted by long steep stretches that allowed you to reach terminal velocity. It was so pretty, however, that I had to stop to take pictures, not having ridden this pass and not knowing when I'd ever get a chance to return.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the bottom of the pass in Susch, we stopped for water, and then proceeded to head towards the Austrian border. The OCD guide had written that from the top of Bernina pass, there's a descent all the way to Landeck over 90-odd miles. Well, in the afternoon that's not quite right. There are several places with climbs, but the biggest factor was the headwind. It blew the fun out of our journey, and by 5:30pm, we gave up any hope of reaching the Austrian border when we found ourselves at a downhill and having to pedal. The next town we encountered was Ramosch, which had its entrance had a ton of hotel and B&B signs all pointing up hill.

It was a sheer sign of our desperation that we'd rather climb than to face riding into the headwind for another town. After riding into town with no tourist information other than a notice board, we visited a hotel that Arturo spotted which offered us a half-pension for 80CHF, which was as good a deal as you were ever going to get in Switzerland. We shared the hotel with a bunch of hikers (the owner said she rarely saw cyclists in this area, probably because of the climb from the main road). The fare was simple and not nearly filling enough, but a rainstorm blew by over dinner and granted us a beautiful double rainbow as we ate.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Since we were close to the end of the tour and the weather was good, it made sense to plan the weekend and make reservations in advance so that we could ride longer. For Friday, we made reservations at the Hotel Posthaus in Urigen. A Jobst hotel I've unsuccessfully tried to stay at in the past, I figured I might as well rectify that on this trip. What to do after Sustens pass wasn't so easy. We eventually found a place at Reuti on booking.com, on the opposite side of the valley from Rosenlaui. I'd ridden through the area in 2007, but had never stayed there, so I was intrigued. The price was right so we booked it.

We went to bed knowing the next morning would bring some easy miles if this wind blew itself out.

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July 15th: Valdidentro to Pontresina

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Under clear skies and a warm sun we headed up the pass towards Passo Foscagno, which would lead us into the community of Livigno. Livigno was special because it had somehow gotten dispensation to do away with the need to pay VAT tax, essentially making the entire region a duty-free zone.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The place might be tax free, but the entrance pass was definitely unimpressive except for a customs office. There's at most a 200 meter dips, a bunch of galleries, and a tunnel and you end up at Passo Eira, which was a fairly trivial climb. The road between the two passes, however, had tons of duty free stores, so we stopped at a duty free supermarket to buy some lunch and duty free chocolate.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The drop into Livigno proper brought us a series of hairpin turns, and ended with a straight shot descent into the valley. There, we left to busy main road for a few kilometers and got onto a bike path with great views and plentiful picnic areas for a lunch stop.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

After being suitably refreshed, we got back onto the main road again and began the climb up to Forcola di Livigno, our last pass in Italy for this trip. That was a straightforward climb, though with 5 galleries we were thankful for the light traffic. Livigno in the summer was clearly a popular home base for day cyclists, and we saw teams of cyclists all dressed in the same outfits going up and down the pass. At the top, we took a pass photo for a couple of women who'd ridden from Silvaplana, the other side of the Bernina pass and on the way to Julier pass. They described a "run-swim" event, in which you'd do a trail run, jump into a river and swim, and rinse and repeat several times, so that you were always wearing running shoes and a wet suit.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Pass Forcola di Livigno, we crossed into Switzerland and immediately headed up the last stretch of the climb to Bernina pass. "Now the roads will be better but the food will be worse!" said Arturo. To punish him, the gods declared that there would be road construction! It was a little bumpy, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that you got this sticky adhesive on your tires, which would pick up little stones and rock debris, making this really annoying noise as you ride. I joked that as a result of this adhesive, my tires were getting thicker at the end of the tour rather than thinner.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

You can always know you're getting into Switzerland because of how pretty the scenery gets. The approach to Bernina is as good as it gets, but we found the pass itself disappointing. The OCD had played up how pretty the pass was, and Arturo had originally pushed for a stay at the pass proper, but one look at the place and he said, "Let's go some place else." We still had plenty of daylight left, so we decided to descend a bit before deciding on a place. I was willing to push ahead and ride over Julier pass today, so we could have a 5 pass day, but Arturo wanted an easier day.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The descent was very fast, with straight lines and very gentle curves, so I was very pleased to find myself catching and passing the Bernina Express train on the descent. That was, until I got to the railroad crossing and found that despite the train being stopped at a train station, the Swiss had decreed that no mere cyclist would be allowed to have that much of an advantage over a train with the name "Express" in it. I contemplated jumping the crossing, but this being Switzerland, there would be no doubt consequences. So after waiting, we descended to a place where we could have chocolate and contemplate our lodging choices.
I knew from past experience that the St. Moritz youth hostel was no bargain ("There are no youth hostels worth the price in Switzerland," declared Arturo), and St. Moritz was too expensive otherwise. That left Silvaplana and Pontresina. After calling around, we discovered that Pontresina had a sport hotel that was somewhat reasonable. We were experiencing the sticker shock that any cyclist riding into Switzerland from Austria or Italy did upon first encountering Swiss prices.

The sport hotel in Pontresina was on the main drag. I'd always hiked past the Pontresina train station before, and had never visited downtown and was surprised by how pretty it was. I'd lost a multi-tool the day before, so took this as an opportunity to pay exorbitant Swiss prices for a multi-tool. The hotel turned out to be rather luxurious, with a spa, sauna, Jacuzzi, and outdoor deck on the top floor where we were placed because despite booking an economy room they'd run out of those and had to give us a luxury room. We availed ourselves of the facilities. Dinner was not included, but a quick TripAdvisor search yielded us the best restaurant in town at Hotel Muller.

The hotel offered a 7 course dinner, an Arturo was dubious, given that we hadn't done quite that much riding today. But a glance at the menu told me that this was still going to be insufficient food, so I talked him into going for it. The food was good, but it took all night, going from 7:00pm till 10:00pm. Arturo proclaimed it the best meal of the trip so far, but for me, it was lacking a certain amount of quantity. Nevertheless, I slept well and did not wake up starving, so it wasn't too bad.

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July 14th: Schlanders to Valdidentro

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We'd spent some time the night before looking at things to do in Merano in case the weather turned sour, but woke up this morning to sunny skies! I figured that the worst case scenario was that we ended up getting stuck at Trafoi or Hotel Franzenshoehe for the night, so there was no way we wouldn't ride today. Rather than return to the bike path where we left it the evening before, we simply rode out of town following road signs until we once again saw the bike path signs, which took us into the Stelvio national park. The popularity of this tourist route became evident soon, as water fountains, park benches, and bike stands liberally dotted the route. The first fountain we stopped at, however, was infested by bees, and unfortunately Arturo threw away his water before discovering that. This was easily fixed at the next fountain.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I was concerned about leaving the bike path at the right place, since on the map the bike path did not appear to intersect with the Stelvio route. However, the bike path dumped us right onto the foot of the Stelvio climbs with no confusion, and after a stop to purchase lunch to carry up the mountain, we soon found ourselves climbing the 48 numbered hairpins on the Stelvio.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Despite having ridden the longest ride of his life the day before, Arturo was now in his element. Thanks to a genetic mutation which meant that he had fetal red blood cells as well as adult red blood cells, he had a hematocrit level that was just below the legal maximum in racing. That meant that at altitude, his performance barely suffered, while mine took a hit. Thus as the rode rose above 1500m, he steadily pulled away from me, until he was at least a minute ahead by the time we got to the 22nd hairpin and it was time for lunch.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We ordered coffee for me and a hot chocolate for Arturo, and then broke out the lunch we'd bought down below without guilt. The day look decent, and it looked like we would be able to summit, as opposed to having to stay at the hotel tonight. Some clouds looked threatening, but it was a far cry from the continuous rain the forecast had trained us to expect. After lunched we made our way up to the summit, all the way being passed by unloaded cyclists, many of whom would not have caught us if we'd been fully loaded.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the summit, we were greeted by the circus show that was the Stelvio summit, with multiple support vans waiting, a bank, several stores selling various paraphernalia, and unfortunately, dark clouds that signaled impending rain. We put on everything we owned, and then I started the descent, forgetting to take a summit photo for Arturo. It started raining heavily until I got down to the Umbrail pass intersection. It was still cold, so I kept everything on until I got all the way to the Bormio intersection, where I waited for Arturo. It was his second time coming down the mountain, so he didn't stop for photos nearly as often as before, so he made it down a mere matter of minutes after I did.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We looked at the map and decided that we'd try to make it up Val Di Dentro as far as we could before the rain came down the mountain and overtook us. Every meter we climbed today would be one meter we wouldn't need to climb the next. After about 6km, we started feeling raindrops, so we stopped at the visitor center. We ended up picking Hotel Miravalle, which was in the right direction towards the pass tomorrow. We arrived at the hotel just as the rain was coming down. Despite the lack of negotiating leverage, we checked for bed bugs before putting our bikes away in the very secure bike storage.
"You realized something?" said Arturo, "We completely rescued an entire day of the tour. We were expecting to have to spend the day exploring Merano by train, and instead we got a full day of riding today." Looking at the map, I was elated to discover that the ride to Livigno and past it back into Switzerland the next day would consist of passes entirely new to me. With a dinner with generous portions, we went to sleep knowing we'd done the Stelvio the hard way the day following a very long day in the saddle. Whatever else happened, we'd become acclimated to cycle touring.

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July 13th: Bruneck to Schlanders

At breakfast, we looked out and saw blue sky, mixed with some clouds. Arturo overhead the inn-keeper telling some guests that despite the weather forecast, it would be sunny all day. Given that he'd lived here all his life, he probably knew a lot more about the weather than the weather models, and so we elected to ride.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The Pusertal bike path rolled along nicely, and one of the first things we discovered was that the next town, San Lorenzo, looked almost as pretty as Bruneck did. No regrets though, since the Messner Mountain Museum was for both of us an interesting stop. Most bike paths meander around and add meaningless elevation to the ride, but the Puster bike path was so much fun and did a lot of descending in the direction we rolled in, so I didn't mind so much. As we approached Muhlbach, someone honked at us and Arturo stopped. I'd dropped my wind jacket from my pocket as I'd ridden, and a kind motorist had seen it, and then followed us to give it back to us! Taking the cue that clothing does not belong in pockets, I quickly stuffed it into one of my saddlebags' side pockets before continuing.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The Pusertal bike path ends in Muhlbach, where it connects with the bike path heading to Sterzing to the north, and Bolzano to the south. I was tempted to ride north to use Jaufenpass to get us over to Merano, but one look in that direction convinced me: it was definitely raining, and raining very hard in the mountains. Today, for better or worse, had to be a valley day. Looking south into Bolzano valley, we could see low clouds hanging on the hill sides and occasional rain, but nothing looked like it threatened the river-side, which is where we were headed.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Near Schabs, I noticed that the bike path noted 12km to Brixen, but the main road was only 6km. My intuition told me that when there's a huge discrepancy like that, the road's a much better bet, so we pulled off the bike path and followed the road. The road traffic was still very light on a Sunday morning, and we were almost immediately rewarded by a straight-shot terminal velocity descent into Brixen, where we had no problems picking up the bike path again. Bicycle touring really does require all of your faculties to be involved: you can't just blindly follow bike paths, GPS tracks, or road signs. You constantly have to be alert and observant to choose the best route. Your body has to ride the route your mind has chosen, and even your digestive system has to work to convert all that food into motive power. There's no other activity that combines all this into one package and I love it.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The ride along the bike path back into Bolzano took us past familiar territory, leaving us time to muse and ponder the imponderables. For instance, why was it that adventure cycling is dying out? We thought it ironic that it's 2 forty-somethings doing an adventure tour here, while the younger people we'd met or knew over the years weren't the adventurous types we'd met when we were younger. Then I realized that for Arturo and I, the younger people we'd met in recent years were all self-selected: these were the people who'd actively chosen a big established company as a safe, secure place to work. Doing that when you're in your 30s and have a family to support might be a responsible decision. Doing that when you're in your 20s, during the years when you're most able to take risks indicates that adventure and uncertainty frightens you. So if we wanted to meet young, adventurous people, we'd have to find different venues to meet them other than a big established company that's well-known as a "safe choice" to have on your resume. By contrast, Arturo and I were both first generation immigrants with experience in startups. Touring didn't bring any kind of uncertainty more severe than what we'd each chosen for ourselves years and years ago.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We rolled into Bolzano too early to stop for lunch, and elected to ride out of Bolzano. I found another short cut using a secondary road that was none too traffic'd and we cut another 6km off the bike route before finding the bike path towards Merano. At Terlan, we took a short break from the bike path to try to find lunch, but ended up only at an ice cream shop which served paninis that came out of a sealed bag and had to be heated. Back on the bike path, I finally realized that we had perfect conditions to teach Arturo the basics of pacelining, and I gave him instructions on how to draft, and how to behave when drafting, including some now little used etiquette bits, such as shouting "On your wheel" when you first latch onto another rider's wheel. With that little bit of minor instruction the miles flew by and we were soon in Merano. From Merano, the bike path wasn't very well marked, so we ended up using our GPSes set for Lagundo. That road finally joined up with the official bike path at the Dam near Toll:
We admired the dam for a while under what had turned into a hot sunny day with 80 degree temperatures. The contrast was pretty incredible, as we could clearly see rain on the mountain sides. After a bit of time on the bike path, we realized that this was part of a long-distance bike path from Landeck to Trento and beyond. Tourists of all types were coming the other way, in the downhill direction, and Arturo would later remarked that we saw more bike tourists on this one day than we saw on all the previous days of the tour. The Adige bike path was well marked, and attractions in each town were advertised on signs throughout the route. We also saw the train running in both directions, so clearly the strike did not affect this route. Not that we needed the train that day: the riding had been easy, and the weather was holding.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I had hoped to make it all the way to the foot of the Stelvio today, but at Schlanders, Arturo's foot started hurting. Cycling is a repetitive activity on the foot joints as well as the knees, so at the first sign of injury you have to stop. Otherwise, the injury will exacerbate quickly and you'll lose the rest of the tour. Schlanders was the first place TripAdvisor failed us, since it told us about a hotel that was more than 20 minutes away in the wrong direction, and we wasted time looking for it. Fortunately, a local told us about a local B&B that was more than acceptable in both price and quality of food. The B&B's staff ooh'd and aah'd appropriately when told that we'd come from Bruneck, and then when we said we were headed to the Stelvio the next day, they carefully explained to us that it was going to rain tomorrow, but the day after would be ok.
Come what may, we had gone nearly 100 miles that day (my GPS registered much less because of a problem with the wheel sensor magnet), and ate appropriately off the fixed menu.

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July 12th: Cortina d'Ampezzo to Bruneck

Hina texted us a message during breakfast that she'd been discharged and was on the bus to Cortina. We gave her directions from the bus station, but then realized that we had plenty of time to finish our breakfast, get our bikes ready, pay for the hotel, and then meet her at the bus stop. Indeed, we did all that, walked to the bus stop, and found her there buying the 11:00am bus tickets. We greeted her, and walked her back to the hotel where she found her bike with a front wheel that could still roll but couldn't really be ridden. We said farewell to her, forgetting to ask her for her remaining electrolyte tablets, an oversight that would haunt us later.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The day was gorgeous, and we rapidly gained altitude as we left Cortina and headed to Tre Croci. The signs by the road side advertised 12% grades, but looking at my altimeter, we never detected any grades above 9%, so it was just an example of Italy's cavalier attitude towards accuracy in signs. The climb was easy and filled with cyclists, many of whom were headed to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo climb, which we would decline to do as we were carrying loads and it was an out and back climb that didn't lead anywhere.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Past Tre Croci, the road descends 200m and then resumes a climb to Misurina, which had a gorgeous lake which combined with the weather we had this morning, was nothing short of stunning. Lots of tourists abound, and we managed to get someone to take a picture of us.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We stopped to use the public restrooms, buy lunch, and refill our water bottles and then eschewing the side-trip to Tre Cime di Laverado, descended to rejoin the main road which had lots of heavy traffic.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The main road had tons of traffic, it being a Saturday morning, but most of the traffic was heading into the mountains, not away from them. Nevertheless, having become used to traffic-free travel, my nerves started fraying and I switched to the dirt bike path along the road which hadn't seen any signs of improvements despite my 7 years between visits. After a while, Arturo joined me at a lake side where there was a park bench and we had our picnic lunch, our first in several days.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Past the picnic area, I remained on the bike path while Arturo took the road, but to my surprised I was quickly routed onto the bike path between Sterzing and Innichen! Realizing what had happened I called Arturo, figured out where he was, and waited until he got to where I was. It's rare that the bike path is faster than the road but this was one of those cases.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

This part of Italy has amazing bike paths, almost the equal of Austria's for the simple reason that culturally, it's still a part of Austria despite having been separated from it for almost a century. We noticed cyclists wearing tags and numbers going the other way, and soon found ourselves riding into a rad-marathon, which is the European term for a century or other organized events. Unlike club centuries in America, rad-marathons are huge events with sponsors, giveaway bags, stores, huge music stands. Unlike a Fondo, however, they're not timed bicycle events, so don't have some of the crazy baggage associated with those. We saw lots of folks on mountain bikes, and while some people were obviously going for speed, many were just casual riders who were just out to have a good time on a bike.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We walked through the rad-marathon start/finish area, and stayed on the road until Bruneck, which looked like a nice town that Arturo wanted to stay there. It was still early in the day, and I would have been ready to roll on, but at the information center while looking for lodging only 4 places turned up with availability. Arturo reminded me that the day before in Cortina, Hotel Montana had filled up by 4pm, and that convinced me to stop early. None of the hotels in Bruneck had availability, but across the bridge in Stegen was Hotel Zum Hirschen, which had excellent reviews on TripAdvisor for the food. It never takes me long to agree to a hotel if it had good food, so we went there and found that they did have just a few rooms left. They weren't willing to give us a half-pension for just a one night stay, but they were willing to lock up the bikes in their cellar.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We walked to the Messner Mountain Museum at the big Castle in Bruneck, and found that it was very well done, with not just exhibits of Messner's expeditions, but replicas of actual mountain huts and living conditions in various mountain ranges all over the world. There were even declarations of Messner's philosophy on the Alps:

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The view from the top of the castle was also outstanding, and I was glad that Arturo made me stop.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

On the way home, we stopped by the train station. The next day was supposed to be raining, and we wanted to check our options in case we needed to take the train somewhere. There were huge signs, however, declaring a train strike starting 6:00pm today, and going on through the rest of the weekend. That eliminated our excuse for laziness. It was nearly 100 miles to the foot of the Stelvio, so we would have to gird ourselves for a ride that long.
Dinner that evening was huge, as we ordered the sampler plate. Nevertheless, our light lunch and all that walking around made us hungry. Thinking that we'd have to ride 100 miles the next day, we demolished the huge plate, leaving but a half inch chunk of pork un-eaten.

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