Was woken at 7 by about 5 different sets of church bells clanging one after the other. Of course today was the one day that the camp café was closed so I went to a local bakery and got a couple of pastries and an apple tea. Lots of apples round here. I slowly packed up and around 9:30/10 I was off, freewheeling downhill towards clouds and sunrise, past orchards on either side.
I stopped at a small honesty stand selling fruit and apple juice. I bought some juice and an apple. It started to rain. As I finished the apple a woman arrived in a van to restock the stand along with her small son who kept crawling over it. That is the life. I carried on as the rain grew heavier. Eventually I stopped in a small café, got a coke and a toastie, and wrote this. The waitress kindly put my phone on charge. That’ll help a bit.
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As I left, once the rain had slackened, I had a mishap. I tried to strap my gloves to the paniers to dry them out, but in so doing I pulled too tight and snapped the strap off the panier. Undeterred I used my multitool, knife and cord to fix it. I hope it holds.
After that I continued on down the path past endless orchards, letting myself dry out in the air. I at last arrived at a giant pair of seats overlooking Merano. I was very early for my schedule with Stefano [The Warmshowers host I would be staying with that night] so I took a detour and spent 3 hours looking around the spectacular botanical gardens of Trauttmansdorff. They had plants from all over the globe, as well as a terrarium and several viewing platforms of the castle and valley. I was having a great time and feeling very positive until I reached the “lovers garden” section. After that I felt a little morose. It was beautiful, sunny weather most of the time, but at one point an intense thunderstorm rolled in again and I had to flee up a bank to shelter.
I finished looking at the gardens around 5 (well worth a visit, the castle itself less so) and got on my sodden bike, having to remove the gel seat to dry it. The loss of an inch of height made the rest of my cycle somewhat difficult. At around 6 I rolled into Bolzano. The old town is amazing, just what you’d expect from Germanic Italy; cobbles, colourful decorative buildings, and street food. I reluctantly bought a new charging converter for 23 euros, then went over to Stefano’s.
He lives right in the middle of old town in an apartment above a shop. He was very welcoming, helped me get my bike in the lift, then introduced me to his other visitor for that night. His name was Max. Had I been there a day earlier I would have met someone else, also called Max. I’m maxed out!
After taking a lovely shower and putting my clothes in the wash I helped Stefano prepare dinner. He didn’t provide much… only; bread, cheese, prosciutto (with melon), sauerkraut bread, pasta (with tomato and garlic), a huge salad, beers (x4), doughnuts and another dessert. I ate all that was put in front of me as we chatted. I was quite full! So was my heart… (aww).
After dinner his colleague, who would be taking his room, came round and he went to sleep at his mother’s. I also helped him lower his bike seat for his colleague.
Me and Max 2 went to bed, shot off some Warmshowers messages, and had a long chat about life and other stuff before drifting off to sleep. That was a very good, and well needed, night.
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