On to the Gateway Into the Dolomites

 Rovereto to Bolzano

Today was the second of six consecutive days of riding, and another hot one. We didn’t check the temperature when we left but I estimate it was about 27 degrees, based on what the forecast said it would be. We weren’t able to get away as early as yesterday morning but were on the road at 7:20.

I felt like a change of kit and, as Saturday is Southern Pedals Kit Day wherever you are in the world that gave me a good reason to show the flag for the Ranelagh team.

You can see in the photo that I’m on a bike path - albeit not divided - completely separate from the road to the right of me. The ride was 86 kilometres long and we were probably on bike paths for 75 of those kilometres. Very stress free riding and easy to get used to.

I’ll skip back a bit and show our exit from Rovereto, which was quite nice …

You can probably tell from the map below that there are peaks rearing up quite close to us to the west …

…those peaks were quite impressive, with some awesome cliff bands …’

I have to apologise for the quality of some of the photos, especially scenery shots. It was very humid and consequently there was a lot of heat haze in the air so things are not so clear.

This one was taken quite early before the humidity really built up …

We thought the clouds looked promising but no such luck

We crossed the Adige River back and forth several times throughout the ride  and it was great to stop and enjoy both the view and the bit of cool air the river dragged along with it …

What I liked especially about this view was the sight of the terraces and farm buildings high above

I thought the prettiest view that I was able to stop and appreciate for any length of time was those one …

… but unfortunately the heat haze blurred the features of the mountain in the background.

In planning our passage from Bolzano I found two places for us to stop, have a cool drink and perhaps something to eat. I think Di and I shared a sandwich at the first place and she had some mineral water while I choose a non-alcoholic beer, which was quite good in quenching my thirst …

The two little spikes in the elevation profile below are quite misleading, as elevation profiles often are, just by virtue of them having to be squashed up so much. The thing that looks like a little pyramid about 40% of the way through the ride was only about ten metres high spread out over maybe about 3 kilometres either side of the top, and the  church-tower-looking thing is some random spike because a flyover of some sort caused the measuring device to think that there’s been an earthquake or something. 

The total amount of elevation according to my GPS tracking device was only was just over 200 metres, and the real elevation gain was only about 60 metres (which means we’ve got a lot of height to gain over the next couple of days!).

In the latter half of the ride there were quite a few sections of the path that were either very straight or did not have any roads crossing or … both. Here is one of those stretches, with a planting of juvenile apple trees growing alongside another patch of babies just getting started …

There were a number of different varieties but what I think I saw the most of were green apples and they looked quite well advanced for June …

We were getting pretty hot as we steamed along the last ten kilometres or so, and I asked Di a couple of times if she’d like to stop and have a cool off in some shaded spot but she all she wanted to do at this stage was finish the ride and get off the bike. Eventually, just three kilometres from the finish I insisted we stop under the bridge before doing the final push. It was quite a good spot to just catch our breath, cool off and allow the last bit into Bolzano not to get the better of us …

It was 35 degrees by the time we got to our hotel, and after we’d settled into our accommodation and were on our way to find a cool drink at 4:00 pm it had climbed another degree …

 We went out in the direction of the city centre but only a few hundred metres from where we were staying we came to the Parkhotel Laurin, a storied and beautiful hotel that has been there since 1910. It’s quite the place and they have a very impressive bar, but even more impressive on a day like this was, they have an extensive bar/garden that had a fair bit of shade. We went past this sculpture on the way to the bar …

.. and there were some sculptures of elephants in both wood and stone scattered around the garden. There was plenty of shade and extensive greenery with quite comfortable chairs …

We liked to so much there that we booked a table for dinner. An excellent meal was had, Di was cheerful and that pretty much wrapped up our Di - except of course me assembling some of the bits of it into what I hope is a reasonably comprehensible account.

Di awaiting dinner in the outdoor dining area of the Parkhotel Lauring