Sud Tyrol Roll Day 3 (10)

Day 3: Start of tour

Last night I went to take out our bike clothes and equipment for today, and found out that I forgot our pedals! I contacted the Ciclismo guides and they had only one pair of extra pedals.  It was Saturday night and today is Sunday and a holiday. I had a very fretful night sleep.  This morning, Jeri and I walked over to a bike rental shop to see if they had any pedals we could buy.  The guy in the shop was nice, but explained that they had nothing unless we had ordered a bike. Rick and Patti had suggested a box sports store in the mall about 1 1/2 mi. away. The hotel clerk told us that they opened at 10 and they definitely had pedals and it was a 1/2 hr. walk.  We were suppose to meet our guides at 11 at the train station, so we figured we would Uber back.  We started walking, and our route took us past the bike rental shop we had stopped in earlier. The proprietor came running out and told us he might have a solution.  Turns out he had a pair of new SPD pedals that were only 49.50 Euros. I asked if he had a 2nd pair, and his mechanic came out of the back with a slightly used additional set of the same pedals! On top of that, He only charged us 50 Euros for the 2 sets because one set was used. And we didn't have to walk a mile and a half!

We met up with our guides, Frank, Dana, and Sylvia at the train station, and piled into a very comfortable small coach (you might know I hate busses) for the ride to Rabla.  On the way, we stopped for lunch at the Forst Bier Garten.

 

There was a huge family style meal waiting for us.  Way more than we needed especially for lunch

Rich and Suzanne sampled the brontosaurus leg

and even Jeri sampled some beer.

We continued on to the Hotel Rössl in Rablan.  

The area here has its own microclimate due to warm air from southern Italy flowing up the narrow gorge all the way up to the Alps.  This creates pretty extreme winds, but also an environment conducive to growing palm trees (and also for skiing)!.

After checking in, we got on our bike clothes and went to pick up our bikes. I put on our pedals and seats, and then went to put Jeri's bars on, and found out my 2nd big mistake of this trip.  I brought the wrong size bars.  We then had to modify the position of the drop bars that they had.  Not ideal for Jeri :(.

We took a short checkout ride to a gelato stand. 

Our guide Frank

After returning to the hotel and showers, we joined our group for drinks followed by possibly our slowest ever dinner.  I felt like we were at an evening Jewish wedding.  The first course arrived  about the time I generally am going to bed.  Dinner was excellent, but very slow.  In addition, I kept getting special courses because the restaurant couldn't understand that I was allergic to hazelnuts but not other nuts, and that my dislike for cheese did not mean that I was allergic to dairy.

One advantage of the late dinner was that we were able to see the lighting of the mountains for Herz-Jesu-Sonntag — Sacred Heart Sunday — and the fires are called Herz-Jesu-Feuer, or Sacred Heart Fires. The tradition is very much a local South Tyrolean thing: mountain fires are lit on the slopes and ridges as a sign of faith, protection, and attachment to the Tyrolean homeland.

The history goes back to 1796, during the Napoleonic Wars. As French troops threatened Tyrol, Tyrolean leaders met in Bolzano, and the Abbot of Stams, Sebastian Stöckl, urged them to entrust the land to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and ask for divine protection. The vow was then renewed annually, and the fires became a visible mountain ritual tied to that vow

Tomorrow, our first real ride.