Sud Tyrol Roll Day 5 (13)

Day 5 Bolzano to Trento 

Jeri and I got out this morning early to test her shoulder. We did a short ride in town and it seemed to be okay. She was game to give it a try.  The ride today was the longest, taking us from Bolzano south to Trento.  We were leaving the primarily German speaking region and heading to real Italy.

The ride was the flattest 42 miles we have ever ridden with about 200 feet of elevation gain.  Even so, riding in 90+ degree heat was pretty tiring.  Our hotel in Trento had hot tubs on the balconies.  A little hydrotherapy for Jeri's shoulder was a nice treat.

Before dinner we had a walking tour of Trento. I hadn't realized how much German we had learned until now being in Italian speaking Tyrol. I felt like a fish out of water.

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Trento was ruled for centuries by prince-bishops — church leaders who also held political power. Their most visible symbol is Castello del Buonconsiglio, a fortress-palace that developed from the 13th century and served as the seat of Trento’s prince-bishops until the bishopric was suppressed in 1803. 

Sud Tyrol Roll Day 5 (12)

Day 12: Hiking in Überbösen

Today is a non-riding day. We all piled into a cable car taht whisked us up to Überbosen (Bosen is the Germanic name for Bolzano, so translated, Überbosen means "over Bosen").  

Molly and Suzanne seemed to be getting used to cable cars.

The views from the car were amazing.

Maybe not completely relaxed

The trail system here is very well marked and maintained by volunteers.Blazes are on trail signs, trees, rocks, cairns, and even on the sides of barns.

Several years ago, someone brought a pair of llamas to the area, and now there seem to be more llamas than any other livestock up here.

On our descent, we had great views of the vineyards covering the hillsides.

After ther hike, we were pretty hungry.  Our guide, Frank, had recommended a place for pretzels and "great hot dogs".  Jeri and I stuck with the pretzel, Dave and Molly had a donner kebab
 

and Suzanne and Rich couldn't resist the dog!

We're keeping our fingers crossed that Jeri will be able to ride tomorrow.

Sud Tyrol Roll Day 4 (11)

Day 4: Cycling (or driving) to Bolzano

This morning started out great.

The weather was beautiful and the scenery gorgeous.  Unfortunately, that didn't last.  About 3 miles into the ride, we had a minor crash, but Jeri wrenched her right shoulder and it looks like she may have a rottor cuff injury. Crash detection on the phone called Brendan and Sawyer, as well as emergency services.  2 ambulances showed up and the EMT (or Italian equivalent) wasn't happy about Jeri's refusal to get transported to the ER.  We elected, though, to ride out the remainder of the day in the van.  Very disappointing.

We thought we'd be able to visit this church, but it was closed on Tuesdays.

We did get to see thousands and thousands of apple trees.  This region supplies apples to most of Europe.   The trees are grown only a couple of feet apart and aggressively pruned so they never get too tall oe bushy.

We had the opportunity to photograph our friends from the chase van.

Rich

Suzanne

Molly and Dave

Ron and Geri

Our destination was the Firmian Messer Museum. It is one of six mountain museums founded by Reinhold Messner to "explore the relationship between humans and mountains through art, religion, geology, tourism, and alpinism". He salvaged old decaying castles for these museums.

Reinhold Messner is a South Tyrolean mountaineer, explorer, author, and museum founder, and honestly one of the biggest names in the history of climbing.

Messner was born in 1944 in Val di Funes / Villnöss, a valley in South Tyrol, and grew up in the Dolomites. Local sources say he climbed his first 3,000-meter mountain as a child with his father, which is very on-brand for South Tyrol: “kindergarten, cowbells, casual alpine exposure.”

His fame comes from a string of huge mountaineering breakthroughs. In 1978, he and Austrian climber Peter Habeler became the first people to summit Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Then in 1980, Messner made the first solo ascent of Everest, again without supplemental oxygen. He was also the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, completing that list by 1986.

Firmian Castle

View from the tower

Rich and Suzanne with Messer's statue

Ron and Geri

Patti and Rick

Leaving Firmian Museum

The museum was only a couple of miles as the crow flies from our hotel in Bolzano, but it took about 30 or 40 minutes to get there. We arrived back at the Hotel Greif  which will be our base of operations for the next two days.

Waltherplaz

The hotel overlooks the main square, Waltherplaz, named for the medeival poet and troubador, Walther von der Vogelweide.  It contains the Bolzano Cathedral  and a statue of Walther as well as a multitude of restaurants (not medeival).

We had a walking tour that evening of the city.

Following the tour, we had a cooking class followed by dinner.  The food was excellent, but another very late dining experience.  This is really throwing off my circadian rythm.

 Tomorrow we hike, so Jeri can rest her shoulder another day.