Day 4/5 Apple harvest time in Tyrolea

We started our bike tour today.  Actually, only the four of us on this adventure.  Off-season is nice.  Good bikes, nice seats (!), and great traveling companions.

Scot is our leader with map and GPS as needed,  EuroBike provides good map support for our travels.  They pick up our luggage in the AM from our hotel and the suitcases are waiting for us at our day's destination when we finish our ride.

Day 4's highlight was the apple harvesting season here in Tyrolea.  Think Napa Valley but apples, not grapes.  Miles and miles of apple orchards.  First, all orchards have skinny trees planted only 2 feet apart in long, narrow, tight rows.  But, each tree is loaded with fruit.  Say, 50-plus per tree.  And with them packed in so tight, the yield is through the roof.  See the pictures below.

Janet and Gloria in one of the many small-town squares.

Nothing in English,  Scot keeps an eagle-eye for directions.

We are on bike trails most all the time, but as these trails wind through the orchards we share them with the harvesters and innumerable narrow tractors that are picking up and delivering this year's crop.  We got to see the 'system' up close.  We are impressed.  We rode 53km today, (33 miles).

One of the tractor drivers. I learned immediately after I took this picture, don't take
pictures while riding your bike.  He helped me get up after I did a faceplant.

The only hiccup on our journey.  Gloria with a map, Janet with a phone and
Scot on his laptop.  Success, we got to our hotel.

Day 5 was more of the same.  Incredible views of the valley and the agriculture.  Again, great riding.  A few detours that either Scot recommends or Eurobike suggests as alternative routes.  43km today.  (27 miles).  A highlight today, (but not really) is the castle of Reinhold Messner an extraordinarily famous man that I have never heard of.

Typical apple trees.  Basically three varieties.  We have samples of all
and will so a taste test tomorrow.

Janet clued us in as to his importance.  In 1978, he was the first human to summit Mr. Everest without oxygen.  He continued and continues to do amazing things in the world to this day.  He is 74 and above us is his summer home/castle and one of five museums that he has conceived and maintains.  'Not really a highlight' only because his home/museum is at the top of a mountain, inaccessible to us on bikes and it is a 5-hour block of time to see and do everything.  A good excuse to return!!

Incredible views as we continue our adventure.  It makes us feel very small........

  

Days 2/3--zip-code may be Italy but people are Austrian

Confirmed, this part of Italy doesn’t look or feel like Italy.  No “Romans” every lived here, history is rather short, no huge medieval castles to speak of.  After both WWI and WWII, the people in this part of Europe wanted to be part of, or return to Austria, but just couldn’t pull it off.  Italy it is but the food, culture, and language is definitely German/Austrian.

Walking among the endless vineyards, this guy was selling fresh grape juice, pulp and all.  Amazing. 2 Euros.

Day two we spent our time walking the town of Merano, pictures below.  Janet’s birthday today, that gave us a good excuse to eat more!  Happy Birthday, Janet! 

Janet's birthday sundae, (we had our own as well).

This 'one-man ski lift' takes you up to the top of the mountain above Merano.

Passing above the Cabernet grapes ready to harvest

Day three took us to Reschen.  We are REAL close to Austria now, high in the Dolomites, skiing in the winter and biking in the summer. A two hour train and bus ride to get here.  Today, is a warm-up hike to a restaurant high above the town, again pictures below.  Great view, great food.

Reschan's know how to do window boxes

The amazing view during dinner.  Long walk up, we started from our hotel in town!

Day 1--Planes and Trains

We left home at 2am to drive to Sacramento for a 6am flight to Dallas.  Then we flew to New York to catch our transatlantic flight to Milan. Now we shift from planes to trains.  From the airport to the city center, then a transfer to another train to Verona, a third train to Bolzano then the fourth train to our destination.  23 hours of plane time and 8 hours of train time, arriving in Morano at 5pm plus 9 time zones.

Two of the four trains were high-speed.  140 mph.

A view on our last leg.  Beautiful here.  A huge ski destination in the winter

We’re tired but a great dinner with our friends and travel companions, Scot and Janet, who have already been in Italy for over a week.  Great pizza and ravioli, but what do you expect in Italy, right?  Well, not so fast.  This is northern Italy.  And, as we are learning, more Austrian than Italian.  Weiner Schnitzel anyone??  More on that topic to follow.

Preparing to Prepare

With so much going on in life including our first grandson--Sebastian, (thanks Alex and Hannah), preparing for our second grandson--to be named, (thanks Greg and Lacey) and redoing our landscaping at the house, we now turn our attention to a bike tour in northern Italy.

We are packed, but are we ready?  We'll find out.  If interested, stay tuned!