Once again I'm a full time athlete !: July 2019

Tuesday, 30 July 2019

from Bressanone/Brixen to Colfosco/Calfosch/Kolfuschg via Brunico/Bruneck

We had a very short journey from Bressanone to Colfosco so stopped for a while at Brunico to shop at the supermarket and to climb up to the castle there. I baulked at an 11 euro each entrance fee and so we didn't go inside.

Brunico from the castle hill

We've had a few thunderstorms for the past few weeks but have only lost 1 day's ride due to weather and that was yesterday..it stopped late in the day so in order to at least get some exercise, I walked the 2km downhill (++) to Corvara to spend some money on clothes....the post shopping spree 2km uphill heave caused me to have very sore calf muscles. I bought 2 shirts, 3 prs of socks and 1 pr of cycling gloves. We've been trying to find an espresso cup representative of the area to add to Alex's collection with no luck at all despite the incredible amount of souvenir shops here.

Our apartment here in Colfosco is really weird...it's on 2 levels..on entering you have a small kitchen on your left.. complete with a table, the stairs are straight in front of you, with enough room to park 2 bikes in the space underneath. Then upstairs there are 2 bedrooms, bathroom and a large lounge with table, settees, TV and a balcony. We cook and eat our evening meal in the kitchen but have brekky upstairs perilously carrying coffee and cereal up the stairs...as that's where our computer is(!). Only downside is that the shower is in the bath...but at least we're not on the third floor/41 steps (Castello Cabiaglio) this time or with an impossible bike climb to get to it (Bressanone) 😉

Proof I rode the passo campolongo

Yup..it's Corvara

Alex and Liz??

seen at Brunico/Bruneck

really...?? a bacon museum!!

Now this is a tree that was determined to thrive

Brunico again!

Saturday, 27 July 2019

Bressanone

Our apartment in Elvas..waaay above Bressanone..it's a bit quirky! but it has a pool. Bit of a drama on our last day here:...this from my FB page:

drama # ? I finished my ride and got back to our apartment at about 2pm to discover water pouring from the fan in the ceiling of the bathroom! Naturally I called the owner who discovered the problem was that the elderly (she said ancient!) lady in the apartment above ours had left the taps on in her basin, comprehensively flooding the place. The owner told me her main worry was that when she went into the upstairs apartment she might find the elderly/ancient lady dead in the shower....!

Moving stuff around in order to keep things dry sort of reminded me of those "good old days".... camping in the rain😁
what a holiday this is turning out to be!! 🚴‍♀️🇦🇺🇮🇹👏😂

our apartment door...we are NOT the bunch of grapes!

the entrance gives the general idea

Bressanone has many interesting and somewhat different statues

On the road to the Brenner pass

closer detail

On the bike path from Bressanone to Bolzano

this part of the bike path was an old railway line complete with groovy old style railway tunnels...8 of them

the old and the new

Sunday, 21 July 2019

Cortina sulla strada del vino..pixI

not only vineyards but also apple orchards..in fact they say that 1 out of every 12 apples eaten in Europe comes from this area.

The area was fantastic for training..a mix of dead flat roads with a tail or head wind on the valley floor, undulating roads further up the side of the valley and a pass or two for really long climbs. Gunna hafta return. Our hotel was great, not too expensive with only 1 issue...there was only 1 mains socket which was occupied by the TV and we were a bit hampered by the lack of adaptors. The one in the bathroom only worked when the light was on....??